Workshop Dates:
Saturday, April 18, 2026 and Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT / 6:00 PM TBS
Description
Students and scholars in the social sciences are expected to understand the key principles for ethical research and how to apply them throughout the lifecycle of a research project. ARISC is offering an online workshop for junior scholars and students in the social sciences to learn about ethical norms, standards and procedures for research involving human participants. The workshop will take place online over the course of one month, in a total of two one-day sessions. During the first session, participants will learn about the importance of adhering to ethical principles to protect the dignity, rights, and welfare of research subjects. This will include discussion of modern ethical concerns influenced by technological advances, cultural changes, and evolving social, political, and economic dynamics. During the second session, participants will learn about how to successfully submit a research protocol for approval by an ethics review committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB). A research protocol is the comprehensive, formal document that outlines exactly how a research study will be conducted. Those selected to participate in this workshop will revise and receive individualized feedback on a draft protocol for a research project that obtains data through intervention or interaction with a human participant, or identifiable private information.
This workshop has been developed for participants who are actively preparing to apply for grants requiring ethics statements and procedures and/or Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval in “Western” and English-language academic institutions. The workshop will maintain a small participant to instructor ratio. We especially encourage participants who are students or early career scholars at institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, or the US, and who conduct their research in the South Caucasus.
Interested participants should complete the brief application by Saturday, January 17, 2026.
Applicants selected to participate will be notified by Saturday, February 21, 2025, and will be required to send a full, complete first draft of a research protocol to ARISC by Saturday, March 21, 2025, approximately one month before the first workshop date. Prospective applicants will receive instructions for formatting their protocol. Research protocols will include a detailed plan that describes the study’s purpose, background, research questions or hypotheses, methodology, procedures and instruments for data collection and analysis, participant recruitment, consent processes, potential risks and benefits, and strategies for protecting participants’ rights, privacy, and well-being.
Workshop Facilitators: Dr. Ariel Otruba and Dr. Nino Dzotsenidze
Ariel Otruba, Ph.D. is the Interim Director of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at Arcadia University (Pennsylvania, USA) and a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (Virginia, USA). Dr. Otruba is a feminist political geographer and conflict resolution practitioner, whose ethnographic and visual participatory action research brings an embodied, decolonial, and more-than-human perspective to the study of political violence, critical geopolitics, migration, and urban political ecology in the South Caucasus.
Nino Dzotsenidze, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Analyst at the California Center for Rural Policy (California, USA). Her professional background ranges from a decade of work in the international non-profit sector, to public and private higher education institutions in Georgia, Kuwait, and the United States. Her research centers on comparative and international education, with a focus on how global and local contexts shape educational policy, equity, and lived experiences. She is particularly interested in issues of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Georgia, as well as the experiences of migrant, underrepresented, and rural populations in the United States, examining how access, inclusion, and cultural adaptation intersect with educational reform and policy transfer.
Drs. Otruba and Dzotsenidze are co-editors of the forthcoming volume, Violent Infrastructure: Protracted Displacement and Housing Injustice in Tskaltubo, Georgia, published by Virginia Tech Publishing.
This workshop is free to attend.
Questions? Email us at info “at” arisc. org
ARISC does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, medical condition, ancestry, marital status, education, age, income, socio-economic status, or status as a covered veteran. Funding for this workshop is provided by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) through a grant to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).