Patience in the Process
My mentor for this year is Dr. Susanna Campbell.
Here is an excerpt from her bio:
“Dr. Campbell’s research and teaching address war-to-peace transitions, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, development, global governance, and the micro-dynamics of civil war and peace. She uses mixed-method research designs and has conducted extensive fieldwork in conflict-affected countries, including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Sudan, South Sudan, and East Timor. She has received several large grants for her research, including from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Network for International Studies, as well as a United States Institute of Peace Dissertation Fellowship.”
Here is a link to her website: http://www.susannacampbell.com.
Dr. Campbell and I met on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. I am the first Olson Scholar she has worked with, so we discussed the program and what our approach will be for the semester. Every week she is going to introduce me to a new piece of the research puzzle, and give me readings from peace-building experts. She advised me that the purpose of the readings will be to understand how to talk about peace-building. Learning the vocabulary of the field and research fundamentals will be my starting point. I appreciate that she encouraged me to be patient–we aren’t in a rush to find the specific question I’ll tackle this semester because I need to understand the conversation first.
She lent me her book, Global Governance and Local Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2018) so that I can see how she discusses peace-building. She also recommended I get my hands on The Process of Social Research (Dixon, Singleton, Straits; Oxford University Press, 2d edition 2019). I received the latter book on Friday, and have been looking through it already. I like that we are focusing on the fundamentals of research and the broader conversation of peace building, rather than prematurely rushing to find a specific research question. From past experience, I know that deepening my understanding of the sum of the parts will provide a necessary framework as I dive into the details of each individual piece of research and peace-building conversation.
We have another mentor meeting on Wednesday, and I will likely make another post after that meeting. The goal outside of the assignments from our Olson Scholars section will be to look through both the books she recommended.
Sounds like you have a solid direction coming out of this meeting, which is always a great thing. It’s a great point about needing to find the language that experts use to describe our given fields — I know that’s something I’m struggling with in my own project right now. On a similar note, it also might be worth all of us looking into some of the approaches that others have taken to studying similar puzzles to ours. Whether that be a frequently used data set (large-n), a particular example (small-n), or types of symbols frequently employed (interpretivist), I imagine it will help us all to get a good grasp of those so that we can at least reckon with them, even if we don’t end up using those approaches. Looking forward to seeing where your project goes!
I think today’s class was a great example of what we should be doing as we conduct our initial reading for our respective subjects. I was struggling a bit to recognize the patterns of the different types of research I was reading until we dove into the readings for today. I always appreciate the insight you provide in class, and I appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback on my post. I am also looking forward to seeing your research.
It sounds like you had an informative and productive meeting with Dr. Campbell. I’m glad that you’ve received some reading suggestions (and that you are following up on them!) and I am also glad to hear that you are keeping the bigger picture in mind — what I like to call the broader conceptual puzzle that informs your research — even as you delve in to the specifics of your topic area and the research process. Keep reading and researching! I look forward to seeing how your research develops.