From Romantic Advances to Cyberstalking in the Field

So far, the implications of sexual advances and cyberstalking on fieldworkers’ personal and professional lives have been rarely discussed in published form. While collecting data for my postdoctoral project in Central Asia, I experienced various forms of sexual harassment, ranging from unwelcomed sexual verbal and physical advances, whistling and catcalling to stalking both off- and online. In being honest and transparent about my personal experiences with unwanted sexual advances in the field, I neither wish to draw generalisations about Central Asian men, nor to discourage other female scholars from conducting fieldwork in the region. By contrast, I hope that my personal reflections will help other researchers mitigate and avoid similar situations.