Quick immersions and the study of Middle East politics

Abstract

This study uses “quick immersions” in Middle East politics to investigate the role that a short, yet immersive fieldwork stay can play in generating social scientific and pedagogic insights. Using three “quick immersions” in Middle East politics, this article argues that although having an extended amount of time in the field is ideal, especially when committed to obtaining “an ethnographic sensibility,” a quick immersion is better than no immersion. A quick immersion is not a substitute for an extended field stay. Its primary advantage is making fieldwork possible when time, finances, logistics, and other contextual, professional, or personal constraints prohibit a longer stay. A quick immersion is an adaptation to the constraints that might lead scholars to forego fieldwork otherwise. This study aims to dispel disparaging notions that short fieldwork trips equate with mere academic tourism, by considering the outcomes of three short immersive fieldwork trips to the Middle East: six months in UAE (2013), two months in Qatar (2013), and one month in Lebanon (2017). Although the immersion in UAE was three times longer than the immersion in Qatar, and six times longer than the immersion in Lebanon, the insights yielded from all three case studies were equally meaningful for understanding Middle East politics in ways not possible without fieldwork.