Contributing to the “Covid-19 and the Social Sciences” essay series, Oscar Abedi, Maria Eriksson Baaz, David Mwambari, Swati Parashar, Anju Oseema Maria Toppo, and James Vincent outline various paths toward reducing field research’s potential for exploitation, especially that of Global South collaborators. The pandemic has highlighted inequalities and immobility that differently affect facilitating researchers and contracting researchers. In response, the authors identify key issues that institutions, publishers, and individual researchers must reflect on in order to counteract these imbalances—and take advantage of an opportunity to fundamentally transform field research into collaborative knowledge production.
Anju Oseema Maria Toppo
Anju Oseema Maria Toppo is an assistant professor at the Department of History, St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi in Jharkhand, India. She has served as guest faculty at Nirmala College and at the Postgraduate Department of History, Ranchi University. Her ongoing research is on gender and forest management, focused on the empowerment of indigenous women in Jharkhand. She is also engaged with the Adivasi social movements. She holds a master’s degree in history from Loyola College, Chennai, and is currently a doctoral researcher, affiliated to Ranchi University.