What is it about?
This chapter explores the emotional, ethical, and psychological challenges of researching war crimes and genocide, especially when the researcher is personally connected to the conflict being studied. Drawing from personal experiences in Kosovo, the author reflects on interviewing survivors of atrocities while also carrying memories of war from childhood. The chapter examines how researchers can experience secondary trauma, emotional exhaustion, and internal conflict while trying to remain academically objective. It also discusses practical strategies for maintaining ethical and methodological rigor in sensitive research environments.
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Why is it important?
The chapter is important because it highlights an issue that is often ignored in academia: researchers studying war crimes and genocide are not emotionally untouched observers. Listening to stories of rape, torture, displacement, and murder can deeply affect researchers, especially those who have lived through conflict themselves. It argues that universities and institutions focus heavily on protecting research participants but often fail to prepare researchers for the psychological impact of this work. The chapter therefore calls for better emotional support systems, trauma-informed training, peer support, and greater awareness of secondary trauma in academia. The chapter is also important because it challenges the idea that emotion automatically weakens research. Instead, it suggests that empathy and personal connection can enrich understanding, as long as researchers remain methodologically rigorous and ethically responsible. Basically: humans studying human suffering may, inconveniently, also have human reactions.
Perspectives
The chapter brings together several perspectives: Personal perspective: the author reflects on conducting fieldwork in Kosovo while carrying personal memories of war and displacement. Academic perspective: it draws on trauma and genocide scholarship to explain concepts like secondary trauma, vicarious traumatization, and emotional resilience. Ethical perspective: it discusses the responsibility researchers have toward both participants and themselves. Methodological perspective: it explains how objectivity can still be maintained through rigorous methods, peer review, triangulation, reflective journaling, and ethical safeguards. Institutional perspective: it criticizes the gap between theory and practice in academia, arguing that institutions discuss trauma but often fail to adequately support researchers facing it in real life.
Furtuna Sheremeti
University of Prishtina - Law Faculty
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: When Researching War Crimes and Genocide is also Personal, April 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004754720_005.
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