This course is open to PhD Students, Early Career Researchers and Practitioners in civil society groups and will deal with the legal, ethical and moral issues around studying conflict, violence and peace in dangerous and sensitive locations.

Its concerns include the following:

• The management of risk and danger, both to researchers and respondents
• The special problems posed when undertaking sensitive research
• Issues around the management of gender and identity in the field in dangerous settings
• Recent developments in ethical and legal practice and the new regulatory codes of conduct
• Problems around the legal constraints operating on informed consent and promises of confidentiality
• The management of risk in data collection
• Dealing with the problem of what is called respondents’ ‘guilty knowledge’, and
• The legal and ethical issues involved in dissemination and publication.

This draws on the expertise of course teachers in the field of sensitive and dangerous research and in the legal conduct of research.

Advanced training in this area meets a growing need in the research community as research on conflict, violence and peace increases in line with the global growth in these issues in late modernity. The course is multi-disciplinary and comparative, thus enhancing the development of multi-disciplinary comparative research in British social science. The course will address ethical and legal regulatory frameworks, ensuring that the training in methodological rigour which participants gain from elsewhere is directly coupled with considerations of risk, ethics and law, thus further centralising and mainstreaming moral, ethical and legal standards in research training and practice. The course integrates the skills and experiences of senior staff with early career researchers and teachers, building capacity in British social science. The course integrates law and legal studies with other social sciences and enhances the collaboration between them.

Course delivery will be by traditional lectures by recognised experts, in-depth analyses of actual cases by the researchers engaged with them, participant-led discussion of hypothetical cases that highlight significant research dilemmas, and open-forum discussion.

Aims and Objectives

• The course is designed to raise awareness amongst postgraduate students, early career researchers, and civil society practitioner and professional groups of a number of key issues involved in researching conflict, violence and peace, and to enhance their skills when undertaking and evaluating this kind of research.
• The increased ethical and legal regulation of dangerous and sensitive research, with the associated need for the management of risk, which the themes of conflict, violence and peace epitomize, calls for focused and direct attention to the training needs of researchers working in this area.
• The course will give focused attention to a range of ethical, legal and moral problems that are not usually addressed in general postgraduate research training courses in such detail.
• The course is approached from the perspective of a number of disciplines and draws on the experience of fieldwork in a variety of societies and settings, enhancing the learning experience of course participants.

The University campus is one of the best-equipped in Europe and includes everything you need from nightclubs to sporting facilities, restaurants and our own art house cinema. Everything is within walking distance from student accommodation, with the city centre only 15 minutes walk to complete your experience at Queen’s.‌ We are at the of the city's culture, arts and social scene!

The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice is a newly established international centre of excellence at Queen's University Belfast. The Institute fosters collaborations across a range of subject areas which allow the Faculty to address some of the key global challenges faced in seeking to achieve fairness, security, prosperity, social harmony and progress.

We are “a gateway to interdisciplinary research... Harnessing the national and international experience and expertise of staff in the fields of Conflict, Peace-Building, Human Rights and Transitional Justice."

We benefit from a depth of expertise amongst our staff and a range of internationally renowned specialists. The global impact of our teaching and research is a defining feature of the University. As a member of the Russell Group of the UK's leading research-intensive universities, Queen's inspires its students to be the pioneers of progress who change society for the better.

Students enrich our thriving research culture and contribute much to our academic activity. In return, we provide a stimulating learning environment where individual interests can be pursued and academic ambitions achieved.