Roundtable: documenting the (in)accessible

Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 5:30–7:00 p.m.

Géopolis 2207, UNIL

Access to the field is a central issue in social science research. Much more than a mere formality, it engages the researcher in an uncertain and demanding process that begins well before the first contact and continues long after data collection has ended. Yet this stage is sometimes treated as a mere logistical prerequisite, obscuring its methodological, relational, ethical, and political dimensions. From Federal asylum centers to the Federal Intelligence Service, this roundtable brings together Tamara Constantin and Megane Lederrey, whose work has explored fields considered inaccessible.

Tamara Constantin has studied the Federal Intelligence Service (SRC), an organization whose culture of secrecy is integral to its institutional identity and whose opacity toward the outside world is essential to its operation.

Megane Lederrey conducted an ethnographic study of the Federal Asylum Centers (CFA), facilities administered by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) but managed by private entities. Security and humanitarian imperatives are intertwined there, placing the residents in a situation of vulnerability and high institutional dependence.