Camps and camp-like spaces have long sparked interest among geographers, sociologists, historians, architects, political scientists, and anthropologists alike. This scholarship has varyingly conceived of the camp as a modern technology of humanitarian aid and population management, a thanatopolitical institution, a site of protest and resistance, a metaphor of sovereign exclusion, or a means of colonial expansion, and more. However, comparatively few studies have explicitly focused on the methodologies of actually doing research in/on camps. The characteristics of camps, that make them of interest to researchers in the first place, generate methodological, ethical, and practical challenges for conducting research. Consequently, this special section contributes to an already multifaceted and growing body of camp studies literature by dwelling specifically on the "how" of studying camps. It does so by drawing on broader critical methodologies