Criminological fieldwork often involves sustained engagement with sensitive topics such as violence, incarceration, victimization, and institutional harm. While these research contexts generate critical knowledge, they can also place a significant emotional and psychological burden on researchers and research teams. Prolonged exposure to trauma, moral distress, and institutional constraints can take a serious toll on those conducting the research itself. Yet, despite the concept of ‘do no harm’ extending to the researcher, researcher’s wellbeing remains overlooked in formal methodological training. This interactive workshop is designed for researchers at all career stages who conduct qualitative, mixed-methods, or ethnographic fieldwork in challenging contexts. Rather than offering a prescriptive methodology, the workshop creates a structured space to reflect on the human dimensions of field research.

Participants will explore how positionality, prior experiences, and emotional responses shape research encounters, ethical decision-making, and data interpretation. Through guided reflection, small-group discussions, and practical exercises, the workshop addresses common but rarely discussed challenges such as emotional overload, boundary-setting, secondary trauma, vicarious trauma, and navigating uncertainty in the field. Grounded in criminological research and empirical fieldwork experiences, this workshop equips participants with practical tools to prepare for, cope with, and reflect on emotionally demanding research environments. By centering researcher wellbeing as an ethical and methodological concern, the workshop aims to support more sustainable, reflexive, and resilient fieldwork practices, recognizing that caring for researchers is integral to producing rigorous and responsible criminological knowledge.

Date: Tuesday November 17, 2026
Time: TBC
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Academic work is intellectually demanding, but it also involves significant mental and emotional labor that often remains invisible, including managing feedback, navigating expectations, negotiating roles, and continuously adapting to changing demands. Teaching assistants, PhD researchers, and professors are expected to perform at a high level while balancing these cognitive and relational pressures, often without explicit guidance. This interactive workshop offers a practical space to reflect on how we work together in academic settings and how communication, feedback, and expectations shape both performance and long-term engagement. Participants will explore common challenges such as giving and receiving feedback, collaborating across hierarchical roles, setting and recognizing personal and professional boundaries, and managing expectations in supervisory and research relationships. Through guided reflections and discussions, participants will gain insight into their own working patterns and the hidden mental load of academic work. The workshop emphasizes developing resilience not as individual toughness, but as the ability to work with clarity, self-awareness, and adaptability within complex academic environments. By the end of the day, participants will have practical strategies to navigate academic relationships more confidently, communicate more effectively, and engage in their work in ways that are both productive and sustainable over time.

Date: Wednesday July 1, 2026
Time: TBC
Location: Brussels, Belgium

Are you preparing to navigate the complexities of field research? Whether you’re a first-time researcher, a seasoned academic, or a practitioner, this workshop is designed to equip you with the tools and strategies to approach sensitive topics, manage unforeseen challenges, and maintaining your well-being during intense fieldwork. Universities and other research institutes are increasingly confronted with burned-out and traumatized researchers. Receiving the right training will help to navigate these challenges.

This workshop is not another traditional lecture where you passively absorb information, or a rigid methodology class that tells you how research should be done. This workshop is an interactive, research-informed experience where you will: engage in guided self-reflection and group discussions, explore how your personal experiences shape your research, and create practical tools to sustain yourself in the field. Through this workshop, you’ll become a more confident, self-aware, and resilient researcher. Someone who understands that fieldwork isn’t just about collecting data, but about navigating the human experience of research with integrity and self-trust. Gain practical skills, ethical insights, and strategies to enhance your fieldwork while prioritizing your well-being.

Summer is over, the new academic year has kicked off and our agendas are already fully booked until the end of the year. But did we schedule enough time for ourselves to maintain our well-being?

In this community well-being session, I draw on my expertise as a yoga teacher and mental health first aider to guide you through practices that help foster a mindful start of the new academic year.

This session is free and open to everyone. No need to prepare anything or perform in a certain way. You come as you are.

The end of the semester is approaching, papers need to be graded, articles revised, and research grants submitted. On top of running behind the usual train of academic performance, the past months have thrown even more challenging questions on our path: Should I switch positions? Do I need to relocate? Will my department be able to continue its work? What is the fate of our students?

It is hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel when all of a sudden every new issue seems more concerning than the previous one and in need of our immediate attention. Consequently, taking care of our mental health gets pushed to the bottom of our to-do list. In this community well-being session, I draw on my expertise as a yoga teacher and mental health first aider to guide you through practices that help to stay mindful in turbulent times.