ABSTRACT
This chapter presents autoethnographic reflections on unanticipated ethical issues encountered during my PhD research. Focusing on two distinct time periods of an interdisciplinary PhD in sociology, autoethnography, and psychotraumatology, I analyse the periods during and post fieldwork conducted in Ulyanovsk, Russia. This fieldwork was conducted for a mixed-methods study into the intergenerational transmission of war-related trauma from parents to children. Influenced by personal familial experiences of war and trauma (my father was a captain in the Soviet army and served in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation), my PhD project focused on the Soviet–Afghan war of 1979 to 1989, and the ongoing impact of this war on the first post-Soviet generation. In this chapter I discuss the personal impact and consequences of conducting a research study that included my private life story and experience of trauma transmission, and additionally interrogate issues in utilising Western-based research practices and ethical frameworks when conducting studies concerning participants from non-Western cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
