Call For Application: Sensitive Ways of Doing, Writing and Sharing Research

IFRA-Nigeria will organize a 4-day training workshop for second year Master students and PhD students based in Ibadan, from 9 - 12 February 2026. This workshop is an opportunity to experiment and learn from the use of sensitive methods as a tool for both ethnographic investigation and research restitution.

When it involves immersion and participation, research can be seen as a highly sensitive activity. It requires observation, listening and also the ability to remain silent as key professional skills. Viewed as a long-term relationship, research is also based on “sensitive transactions”. By facilitating encounters, discussions and exchanges of views, sometimes on intimate subjects, research does not leave either the interlocutors or the researchers unmoved, unresponsive or unchanged. Conducting research therefore means accepting to be affected and to affect others, to be moved and to move others, to the point of sometimes wanting to right injustices and discrimination. Conducting research also means questioning the researchers’ modes of attention, as well as the sensitive reactions of their interlocutors to their presence, opinion and questions. In order to apprehend and share these attentions, research is increasingly using methods such as sound, image and literature, which aim to reconstruct moments, stories, imaginations, gestures, sensations and emotions, complementing the range of scientific writing. The idea is that these multi-sensory and sensitive methods will enable us to identify the often unspoken aspects of subjectivity, emotions and lived experiences encountered during research, but also to transcribe and share these experiences in and beyond the academic realm.

The organisation of a workshop on these methodological and ethical issues aims at bringing together researchers and professionals from the fields of sound, image and literature. They will present and train students in the key issues of sensitive research and the use of multiple and innovative tools for conducting, reporting and publishing on research. The workshop will be organised into successive and interconnected sessions. Some will be devoted to theoretical presentations by researchers, sound, video and photography specialists, and writers, while others will focus on practical training in (public) places in Ibadan, such as markets, the express road and lounges. A final presentation of the work conducted collectively by the participants is planned for the last day of the workshop. This could also lead to a collective exhibition of the work produced throughout the workshop.

The selected applicants will be invited to read two or three papers before the beginning of the workshop.

Criteria of eligibility:

• Being a student in Social Science and Humanities. Preference will be given to students in Geography, Anthropology or Sociology based in Ibadan.
• Ongoing second year of Master degree or PhD.
• Commit to attending all four days of the workshop. Attendance at each session is compulsory.

To apply:

Complete the online form here, where you will find spaces to upload the following documents:

• CV (2 pages max)
• A cover letter (2 pages max) describing how the workshop relates to the candidate's background and research interests. Use the template provided.

Deadline for application: January 12, 2026

Additional information: IFRA-Nigeria will offer lunch, but transportation and accommodation is not covered