A day in the life lived in an authoritarian country

The motivation to write the book was rather tragic. In January 2016, 28-year old Giulio Regeni — an Italian PhD-student at Cambridge — was killed in Egypt. Although the Egyptian intelligence services have officially denied involvement in his death, many clues point their way. Regeni was possibly thought to be a spy or an extremist. His death prompted UvA professor Adele Del Sordi to write a freely accessible book about conducting research in authoritarian countries. The book includes both text and comics.

Paranoia

‘Every comic encapsulates a scenario from a chapter of the book,’ says junior researcher Meta de Lange, one of the book’s four writers. In the first comic, researcher Alice is over-prepared for her stay in a dictatorial country; so much so that she comes across as paranoid. Co-writer Marlies Glasius: ‘The message is to be on your guard but not to overdo it.’ A new comic will be released every three weeks. ‘We want to circulate them at the UvA,’ says Meta de Lange. ‘I think they will be interesting for all researchers doing field work in authoritarian countries.’

The book and comics are primarily intended to prepare researchers for the mental impact of field work in such countries. A secondary goal for the book is to stress the importance of qualitative research. Glasius: ‘It’s important to emphasise that we don’t just jump on a plane somewhere to have a look around. Research in the social sciences goes much deeper.’