Öppet seminarium: Opportunities and pitfalls of theory-practice research
Welcome to an open seminar with Professor Fiona Terry on the opportunities and pitfalls of theory-practice research, humanitarian work and armed conflict.
How can we bridge the gap between academia and practice and what are the opportunities and pitfalls with theory-practice research? In this seminar, Professor Fiona Terry from the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, will share her experience of working with these questions.
Fiona Terry is a scholar-practitioner with over three decades of field- and management-experience in humanitarian affairs, including assignments for Médecins Sans Frontières, the ICRC and UNHCR in Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Sudan, Myanmar, Nepal, Afghanistan and Tanzania.
We will be discussing questions such as:
- What can academic research that humanitarian field experience alone cannot, and what do academics systematically miss without practitioner knowledge?
- What did collaborations with scholars, such as in The Roots of Restraint in War report, contribute to humanitarian work? What are the lessons learned from this type of collaboration?
- How can practitioners turn complex and uncertain research findings into operational decisions when action is urgent and evidence remains incomplete?
- How can military experience and knowledge of doctrine, weapons, command structures, and battlefield practice strengthen humanitarian analysis without falling back on military assumptions or compromising humanitarian principles and perspectives?
Please note: Chatham House rules apply (i.e. participants cannot attribute any statements made during the discussion).
Bio: Honorary Professor Fiona Terry (School of Political Science and International Studies at The University of Queensland, Australia) is Head of the Centre for Operational Research at International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Australian National University (ANU) and has made significant scholarly contributions to understanding humanitarian policies and politics, e.g. her award-winning book “Condemned to Repeat: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action” (Cornell University Press, 2002).
Register by 3 September
The event is organised by the Civil Wars and Military Intervention research group (CWAMI) at the Swedish Defence University, and is chaired by Associate Professor Linnea Gelot at the Department of War Studies, Swedish Defence University.