New insights into research and professional development

Kristina Puzarina[nbsp]LCSR associate researcher and student on University of Mannheim talks about the academic intership in Bremen, Germany.

Kristina Puzarina LCSR associate researcher and student on University of Mannheim talks about the academic intership in Bremen, Germany.

In the beginning of January, 2012 I commenced my 2-month internship at the Research Centre for East European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa or FSO) in Bremen, Germany. The project I am mainly involved in is called “Domestic discourses and foreign policy-making in the Caspian region. The case of export pipelines from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan” lead by Dr. Heiko Pleines. Its main aim is to analyse public debates on the issues of pipeline export, identify primary actors of these debates, as well as their impact on political decision-making in authoritarian states. As it was launched only in the fall of 2011, I had a brilliant opportunity to participate in the very early stages of the project and gain valuable experience of initial preparations for empirical investigations. Together with another FSO intern, we have gathered texts from national newspapers, journals, news agencies and professional internet websites and compiled a media database which will be further used for discourse analysis. Furthermore, I also contributed to the online journal “Russland-Analysen” issued by FSO in cooperation with German Association for East European Studies (DGO), by writing an overview section on the recent events of mass deportations of illegal Tajik migrants from Russia as well as assisted in translation of articles written by Russian academics into German language. This issue will be published later in March.

Although the internship is not over yet, I can already say that it had a positive impact on my professional development. Working in a research institution as FSO, I gained a first-hand experience of being part of a big research project and learning not only from established professors, but also from young academics. It is a very rewarding process! I definitely plan applying my improved research and analysis skills in my LCSR project on subjective human rights assessment and future academic career.

Kristina Puzarina, University of Mannheim