Introduction

This is a joint research blog initiated by Linda Gerlach and Jamila Adeli. The aim of this blog is to think aloud and share some of our observations and thoughts with you.

We quickly realized that doing research in area studies during the Covid-19 pandemic was going to be different from the way we were doing research before. However, we did not really expect the pandemic last so long. Now wave after wave is coming and makes the planning of research trips almost impossible. Apart from the planning insecurity we also suspect that Covid-19 will have a (lasting?) effect on globalization, the global economy and our social structures. With this blog we want to share some of our experiences and thoughts with you on what challenges we face due to Covid-19 but also on new windows that open up due to the forced reorganization of the world.

Despite this really complicated research situation, luckily, both of us were able to do a short trip between two Covid waves to two very different locations: Jamila travelled to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) where she visited the Abu Dhabi Art Fair and Linda travelled to Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) in order to undertake some field research preparations.

In our first posts we compare some aspects of our experiences at these two different locations. These are the posts that carry “Abu Dhabi” and “Dar es Salaam” in their titles. There are always two posts answering the same question which are thus meant to be read in parallel.

Apart from the post about our research locations we add posts about topics that we are currently thinking about together and that seem important for our research or us personally.