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Tuesday, 5 September 2017

Dr Scott Flower is an ex-soldier, with stints as a professional mountain rescuer in New Zealand and intelligence analyst at ASIO also under his belt.

But as a researcher investigating global security, he faced entirely different dangers.

“During my first six months of fieldwork in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2007 I was caught in the middle of: a bank robbery in Port Moresby, a riot in a market in the suburb of Hohola (Port Moresby), and a looting spree and arson attack on Chinese shops in Mt Hagen where police were shooting looters,” Dr Flower says.

“I was beaten up by a drunken youth as I travelled from an interview in Chimbu province in a mini-van and was involved in a vehicle accident as I travelled overland from PNG into Indonesian West Papua.”

If his personal experiences weren’t enough, several years later a PhD student at the University of Melbourne was violently assaulted in PNG. That was when Dr Flower decided to create a specialised field research training curriculum to prepare postgraduate students to work in dangerous places.

After initially being offered at The University of Melbourne, Dr Flower’s unit—named Fieldwork in Complex and Hostile Places —is now also available to master’s and research students at UWA.

Participants complete three days of theory, followed by an intensive four day training program delivered by international humanitarian agency RedR Australia . This residential program is delivered by RedR's experienced humanitarian experts who regularly deploy into insecure environments to work with their 10 United Nations partners which include UNICEF, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organisation.

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Master of Strategic Communication student Britt Liebeck completed the new unit at UWA last month.

At the time, Liebeck was deciding whether a career in a hostile and complex place was for her and felt it important to upskill in case she decided to follow that career path.

“Participating in the unit was a challenging and sometimes confronting experience, but it was one of the best things I have done at university and it taught me so much about myself and the world around me,” Liebeck says.

“This unit tests your mental resilience and can highlight your weaknesses. It challenges your perspectives on certain issues and you’re placed in situations where you must make quite tough decisions under pressure. The outcome is that you learn a lot about yourself and those around you, which can be quite confronting.

“As a group, we dealt with this by talking, listening to one another and sharing experiences. Never underestimate the strength of a great group of compassionate people debriefing some tough situations.”

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These tough situations aren’t always new to students. Some of the learning scenarios are confronting and have resulted in students facing old traumas.

“Sadly, I am constantly surprised by the significant number of students that take the class who have experienced some form of major trauma in their life prior to commencing the subject,” Dr Flower says.

“Prior to starting this subject four years ago, I incorrectly held a view that students at university were privileged and part of a population that was underrepresented within the statistics of ‘bad stuff’ happening to them. Every class I am reminded that this is not in fact the case.

“The good thing is that by helping these students uncover issues that have been buried, the University is able to provide counselling support that was previously never received, enabling the student to take positive steps to recover and thrive again.”

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According to one US study (Clancy et. Al. 2014), female fieldwork researchers working overseas experience very high levels of sexual harassment (44 per cent) and sexual assault (20 per cent) while in the field. Other Canadian, Australian and British research students have been imprisoned, tortured and even killed.

Fieldwork in Complex and Hostile Places is designed to prepare participants to deal with these situations. Topics include evacuation, negotiation, stress awareness, first aid, vehicle check points, field security, understanding small arms, avoiding and coping with physical violence, and recognising post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr Flower says proper planning is critical to ensuring safety.

“The way I have coped with multiple field research deployments is by planning and preparing for the worst and hoping for the best,” Dr Flower says.

“You can never completely anticipate what you might be forced to confront in the field, so it is critical to be comfortable accepting bad situations, keeping a positive mind-set and focusing on what you can do in a bad situation.”

The emphasis on planning is reaching Dr Flower’s students. Liebeck stresses that she will ensure she is prepared, and physically and mentally ready, before she works overseas in a complex or hostile environment.

“You have to be really passionate about what you’re doing in that environment because it’s got to be worth it for the danger and experiences you will put yourself through,” Liebeck says.

“My goal is to continuously learn and practice new skills and acquire unique experiences across diverse disciplines, so that I can then adapt and apply my skillset to any industry. I have so many passions and areas of interest, and I hope that I can build a diverse career path to explore all of them.”

Learn more about Fieldwork in Complex and Hostile Places here .

Photo: RedR Australia

Media references

Verity Chia (Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education)                                              (+61 8) 6488 1346

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