Welcome to Wednesday, February 22. Today’s Briefing was written by Sylvia Goodman, with contributions from Julia Piper. Write to us: sylvia.goodman@chronicle.com.
When conflict and politics disrupt research.
Russia’s war on Ukraine caused an abrupt rupture in academic research. Joint projects were called off overnight, with European countries outright banning research cooperation with Russia. Russia’s government, too, announced measures to discourage international collaboration.
Russia is not the only place where on-the-ground fieldwork has become difficult, if not impossible, for outside researchers. In China, President Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on power has extended to academe. Archives have been closed to the public. Once-innocuous topics of inquiry, like trade policy or migration, have become politicized. Wariness of the West has made it more difficult for researchers to interview officials or average citizens. And Sino-American tensions, including policies put in place by the U.S. government, have further chilled scholarly exchange.
If the door has been slammed shut for researchers of Russia, it has been closing, bit by bit, for those who study China. After the relative openness of recent decades, many worry this could be a return to a time when both countries were largely closed off and academics were forced to do their work from afar.
“We’re back to being Cold War scholars,” said Jeremy S. Friedman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School who studies the history of communism and socialism in Russia, China, and the developing world.
Find out more from our Karin Fischer.
