Carleigh Cartmell and Kristen Csenkey are doctoral candidates in the Global Governance program at Balsillie School of International Affairs with an interest in Conflict and Security studies. Through this workshop, Carleigh and Kristen will share their experiences and challenges and how they have had to adapt to the ‘remote’ forms of research due to the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years.
Chair: Dr. Veronica Kitchen
Presentations
Kristen Csenkey is a PhD Candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI). She is an expert in cyber governance. Her PhD supervisors are Drs. Bessma Momani and Alistair Edgar. Kristen focuses on the management of emerging technology and innovation in Canada and the implications for future conflict in the world.
“A Note on Remote Methods: Situated Immersion and What Happened When I Brought My Fieldwork Home”
The pandemic and its associated restrictions have impacted how some researchers conduct fieldwork. The switch to ‘remote’ methods has contributed to a reconfiguration of the boundaries between ‘private’ and ‘public’ and ‘home’ and the ‘field’. Instead of seeing ‘remote’ methods as a barrier or associated with a spatially distant field via video-mediated digital technologies, Kraemer (2021) sees this ‘situated immersion’ as an opportunity to understand and expand relations and possibilities of knowing. Drawing on this concept, I reflect on my own experiences in navigating ‘remote’ social practices through digital contexts, negotiating the boundaries of space, place, and gender, and rethinking remoteness and fragmentation in fieldwork.
Carleigh Cartmell is a PhD candidate in the Global Governance program at Balsillie School of International Affairs. Carleigh completed a Master’s degree in International Studies from Durham University. Her thesis compared the intelligence sharing patterns between the EU and the Five Eyes. She then went on to work as a Scheduler and then Rotation Consultant with Alberta Health Services. After almost two years, she decided to go back to school to pursue her research passions
“Facing the Pandemic Blues: Struggles and Adaptations of a PhD Dissertation during a pandemic”
The field of intelligence has long been depicted with images of lone spies in crisp suits with a licence to kill, or of the brilliant man toiling away in solitude to solve an intelligence problem no one else can. These images monopolize the way intelligence is depicted, do they however, reflect the reality of the either the field or its scholarship? Carleigh’s dissertation is focused on creating a feminist theoretical lens for intelligence studies in theory, popular culture, and practice. For this talk, Carleigh will discuss some of her methods and methodological choices, as well as discuss having to adapt those in the wake of a global crisis.
