The presentation was held at the initiative of Tolibjon Mustafoev, researcher of the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan. Tolibjon is also a visiting research fellow (seconded fellow) at Lund University within the framework of the Central Asian Law project, funded by the Marie Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange scheme within the H2020 Programme. 

During the presentation, the project team talked about different methods of research, specifically focusing on the challenges and ethics of doing ethnographic research in non-Western contexts such as Uzbekistan. Visiting research fellow from Turkmenistan, Berdymyrat Ovezmyradov also talked about the importance of interdisciplinary approach to research and the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods in social sciences. The principal investigator of the project Rustamjon Urinboyev, shared practical insights from his fieldwork experience and talked about the hidden codes and norms of doing fieldwork in the post-Soviet societies.

The participants of the event were mostly young researchers and staff of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan, Tashkent State Law University and the Graduate School of Judges of Uzbekistan. It was a very lively event and participants asked many questions about the ethnographic research method and its ethical aspects. There were also suggestions to introduce ethnographic research methods as a new discipline at academic institutions of Uzbekistan.