Super-human researchers in feminist international relations narratives

Sandra Marshall from Gender Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, interacted with several feminist researchers to gather information about their views on international relations. Megan MacKenzie, Swati Parashar, and Elina Penttinen were such researchers who conducted IR research in many conflict-affected areas of the world. All of these research projects involved the researchers' engagement with dangerous incidents. These researchers talked of suffering from a disrupted sense of self where their whole individual identity was being challenged. They also talked of their disrupted 'sense of safety and security' in the field. One of the researchers saw a group of local men talking together and got scared, thinking that they were planning to kill her. Another researcher described how she got emotionally numb and disconnected from her everyday reality and felt that she was not alert or conscious of her safety as she needed to be when conducting research in such areas.