Ashley Jackson

Preach @jmurtazashvili @_alice_evans I thought I was alone in finding conferences (at best) mostly a time-waste and (at worst) stale/unhelpful Example: a prestigious conf at Oxford where I was told my proposed fieldwork on the Taliban was unnecessary & unacademic. LOLZ https://twitter.com/jmurtazashvili/status/1203675505695821832 …

What reason was given for that comment? The gaps in knowledge are still immense; I need one hand to count the people doing important research on the Taliban. (And yes, five years ago, the number was greater.)

That's so kind. I think the issue was that fieldwork isn't terribly valued in (certain circles of) IR anymore? There's such a focus on quant, at the expense of old fashioned qual. And there seems to be a hierarchical element to some confs, to a degree which can't be healthy