Surviving Fieldwork: Systematic Review of Trends in Fieldwork Risk and Safety Studies of Anthropological Research

Abstract:

In 1990 the American Anthropological Association published “Surviving Fieldwork: a report of the Advisory Panel on Health and Safety on Fieldwork.” The risks addressed in the original survey covered a broad variety of field-research risk topics including, among a wide variety of issues, death, assault, tapeworms, and disease. Since then, research regarding fieldwork risk and safety is increasingly common, though few systematic evaluations have been conducted to examine research and policy trends. This presentation shares findings from a systematic review of 853 published studies of anthropological fieldwork risk and safety. We share trends in the research literature including size of the studies, research design, age range of participants, educational level of the participants, if BIPOC and disabled populations were a focus in the study, common themes in the findings, policy recommendations and suggestions for future research. We close with a critical evaluation of the research trends, including a discussion of the continued lack of BIPOC and disabled scholars in studies of fieldwork risk and safety.