Hi Rex,

Quote Originally Posted by Rex Brynen View Post
(In the end he got the ethics clearance. Interestingly, his first topic was turned down not by the university but by the USAF--they considered it too dangerous to send an officer to the country in question on research, although our other graduate students routinely visit there!)
LOLOL - now, why doesn't that surprise me !!!!

On t'other hand, I've noticed the research boards (and ethics boards) tend to be driven by political and legal considerations much more than by the potential value of the research. I had one of my projects turned down by an ethics board because I wasn't the right gender and then the decision was reversed when I proved that the board members were politically biased.

I also think your comment about being in Canada is spot on. Even in Ottawa, where I teach and we have a fairly high uniform count, we don't see that many on campus. BTW, there is a session at the Canadian Political Science Association annual meeting this year on COIN and ethnography and the military. I'll be quite interested to see if we have many uniformed folks showing up to it.