Witness now, write later? Considerations for online language-focused research during wartime

Abstract

Sometime in late March 2022, I was chatting to a non-anthropology colleague at home in Canada about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despondent for numerous reasons to do with the war, I mentioned that I felt a bit hopeless about ever doing research in the Sakha Republic again – the site of most of my ethnographic work since 2010. “But you do language work, right? Can’t you do something online?” they suggested. I had, incidentally, been pondering that possibility, and told them that maybe it would be possible. However, I was reticent: there remained the question of whether it would be safe and ethical for my research participants. I mentioned this, and my colleague asked: “But online, it could be completely anonymous, right? And you’re talking about language, which can’t be that controversial?” I replied simply that no, anonymity in online research is actually hard to guarantee completely, and that no, the theme is not uncontroversial: the question of Indigenous and minority language promotion is indeed politically charged.