We are inviting academics and practitioners to contribute to an edited volume, Stories from the Field: Autoethnographic Reflections on Humanitarianism and Resilience. This book explores the personal, professional, and ethical dimensions of working
and researching in humanitarianism, resilience, and development focused on the lived experiences of researchers and practitioners in the field.
We welcome chapters that engage with questions such as:
* How has your understanding of the field changed throughout your career? You can critically reflect on past and present experiences, or future trends or expectations.
* What personal impacts have you experience in regard to your work? Were these positive, negative, life changing?
* How do you integrate theory and practice in your work? What are the tensions, interconnections, disconnections?
Submission Details:
Submit a 200-word abstract outlining your proposed chapter
Deadline: 17 March 2025
Send your abstracts to Sandra Carrasco s.carrasco@deakin.edu.au
Key dates:
Abstract submission deadline: 17 March 2025
Abstract acceptance: 31 March 2025
Chapter submission deadline: 30 June 2025
Chapter acceptance/review notification: 31 July 2025
Revised manuscripts due (if necessary): 1 September 2025
Final submission to
publisher: 28 November 2025
Editors:
Dr Sandra Carrasco, Deakin University, Australia
Dr Leanne Kelly, Deakin University, Australia / Australian Red Cross
We look forward to receiving your diverse perspectives that bridge theory and practice. Please share widely.
To help you writing your abstract and chapter, please consider some ideas (but not limited to these) for the questions/prompts:
1. Understanding the field
* Can you describe a moment in your work that reshaped how you understand humanitarianism/development?
* What ethical dilemmas have you faced in your work, and how did you navigate them?
* How have institutional structures (NGO, government, international organisations) shaped your ability to engage with communities/do your work?
* Have you ever felt like an insider or outsider in the communities you work with? How did this change/affect your practice? How do you reflect your work, motivations, work principles while working with people?
* What assumptions did you have about humanitarian/development work before entering the field, and how have they changed? How has your understanding of this field changed over time? If you could go back and tell your 20-year-old self
about working in this field, what would you tell them.
* How have you changed your ideas, expertise, knowledge over the time? Have you reflected on how it is to work ?at home? and abroad? How do you feel working with less advantaged or vulnerable people? Do you think there should be something
that needs to be changed in the sector or people working on it?
2. Personal impacts
* How has this work impacted your mental, emotional, or physical well-being?
* Have you experienced burnout, moral injury, or compassion fatigue? How did you cope? Have you felt vulnerable while at work?
* What role has identity (gender, ethnicity, nationality, class, etc.) played in your experiences and interactions in the field?
* Have there been moments when your personal values or beliefs conflicted with professional expectations? How did you respond, aligned or managed the contradictions? What impact did these experiences have on you as a practitioner/academic?
3. Reflections on theory, practice, and impact
* How has your understanding of success or impact evolved in your work over time?
* What frustrations or limitations have you encountered in standard humanitarian/development approaches?
* Have you ever challenged or resisted dominant narratives or methodologies in your work? What happened?
* How do you negotiate the tension between personal involvement and professional detachment in your work?
* What do you wish policymakers, donors, or the public better understood about the realities of your work?
* How are academic and practitioner worlds interconnected or disconnected? [theory and practice]
