Field research in the contexts of conflicts, disasters, severe poverty, and marginalization entails being continually exposed to the daily life struggles and suffering of our research participants. Fieldwork in such environments involves emotional experiences on the part of respondents, but at the same time, such occurrences also impact the researchers. We discuss three instances in this piece: 1) how the emotions of the research participants impact qualitative research; 2) how researchers are affected by emotions during the practice; and 3) the strategies in handling such situations.

In a refugee camp, carrying out research is most important. As refugee residents, we feel there is much to be improved about the conditions in which we have to live, and research is one of the avenues through which we can indirectly raise our voice to attempt to change things.