I met with my mentor, Dr. Anthony Wanis-St. John on Wednesday, September 6th for about an hour. We discussed the Olson Scholars program and how our mentor-mentee relationship will work, deciding to meet a minimum of every two weeks. Because of my previous research on women in international relations (namely for my AU Scholars Women in Politics Class, but also from research projects and extra-curricular activities in high school), I feel comfortable with where I am starting on the women part of my topic, but I know very little about the peace and security side. Dr. Wanis was happy to suggest a few sources, particularly a book by Louis Kriesberg on international conflict resolutions, and the Inclusive Security Institute, a think tank located in downtown DC that studies inclusive security (a category my topic fits neatly into) and works to make research about inclusive security readily available to the public. Dr. Wanis knows several people who work at the institute, and will put me in direct touch with them. Dr. Wanis and I also talked a little about where I am at with my research—how I feel about it, what I have looked at so far, and we examined a few of my assumptions and perspectives, for example that the purpose of researching women in peace and security rests on the idea that peace and security is the primary goal of the participants of the peace and security field.
I don’t have too many concerns or questions moving forward, it is mostly just a matter of time management and making sure the research and reading gets done, such that I make significant process in the next two weeks before I meet with Dr. Wanis again. My next steps are primarily to buckle down and work my way through material, so that when we get (in class) to creating a research question based on statistical analysis, I know enough about women in international relations and peace and security to create a viable project. I will especially focus on investigating the field of inclusive security, which I had no idea existed until Dr. Wanis told me about it. After this first meeting with my mentor, I am really looking forward to other discoveries I will make because of his suggestions and advice.
SIS Olson Scholars
It sounds like you had a productive meeting, Julia, and I’m glad that you came away with some specific reading suggestions to further your background research and help you establish the puzzle that you want to investigate. Remember that your primary focus here should be establishing the puzzle, and not necessarily a question tailored to any one methodology (as you will have to adjust your question for each of the three methodologies that we examine in the second part of the course). Keep reading and researching!
Writing/posting note: make sure to include correct footnote citations and bibliographic information for the sources that you reference in your posts!