If you want to know about evil, ask the devil' : research in post-conflict countries

The stories I share in this chapter reflect upon my work as a research project manager studying the impact of conflict in places like Laos, Vietnam, Chad, DR Congo, Chad, Iraq and Lebanon. This work pushed me well outside my comfort zone in so many ways. The situations I encountered during this research were nothing like I had faced before, and I was lucky to navigate these without harm to either myself or my research collaborators and those I worked with. I learned a lot from these experiences-how to successfully navigate challenging, even dangerous contexts, how to protect myself, my colleagues and our protagonists, the people telling us their stories. Equally importantly, I learnt a lot about the dangers, risks and rewards of conducting research in the ‘Global South’.