Description
The methodological choices affect the design of research from the very beginning, determining which questions are asked and by what means they are explored. The empirical research process is equally significant, as it continuously (re)shapes the trajectory of the study—a dimension often missing in doctrinal analyses of international refugee law. This paper draws on instances and reflections from three empirical studies I conducted between 2016 and 2024 with refugees and humanitarian organisations in Turkey which is among top refugee hosting countries for the last ten years. By foregrounding the negotiations of multiple identities and agencies among researchers, refugees, and humanitarian workers, it examines not only how fieldwork is experienced by a female researcher, but also how feminist encounters and positionalities actively shape the research process itself. It disrupts conventional understandings of what it means to be displaced, to feel at home, protected, or cared for through feminist engagement in empirical refugee law research.
