In the CBU Program in Tampere we started since the very beginning planning our MA Thesis topics. I will never forget the first meeting in late September, when our coordinator Anni Kangas asked: "So, have you thought what are you going to write your thesis about?". I must have stared at her for some seconds ... and thought "is she kidding? We've just come and I'm maybe starting to understand how things work here AND I've to start thinking of the Thesis??"
But that was a very good way to keep us focused! Meeting almost every week to brainstorm and familiarize with Tampere's academic standards!
I've to say that anyway that was a shock for me! Coming from Italy, where most of the exams and assignments are done orally, answering the professor, and almost no-one is initially interested in the final thesis, this was completely new. Anni was questioning us continuously and correcting almost every wrong comma. It was really demanding and sometimes really stressing ... but I've to admit that I'm really grateful for that! From my own experience, but also hearing other Finnish students, it is very hard in the humanities to find someone really devoted in teaching the academic methodology of research. And what we learned last year I believe is "pure gold"! Also if someone it is willing to continue researching!
The teaching of International Relations in Tampere University stresses particularly theories and methodology, and it took me almost the whole year to grasp the general picture and orientate my research ... I've never studied them so specifically before. In Italy, International Relations as a major is not very popular, and the more wide "Political Science" spans from the proper political science to anything else, covering economics, history and sociology. So I had to narrow down my spectrum. Even now I'm told many times to narrow and focus my topic!
We had a great help also from our current coordinator, Mikko Vähä-Sipilä, when Anni had to leave to continue her research in Helsinki. Though we had to write already a complete research plan for March, with Mikko we went through it once again, focusing on our primary data, research questions and methodology. To re-elaborate everything after the theoretical courses we had in the previous semester and concentrating on what is actually relevant for the thesis, help us in grounding better our topics. Plus the continuous seminars and presentations made us presenting our theses many times orally in English, so that I feel much more confident in discussing my research in very different situations.
The whole process is not easy. Sometimes some critique can put you down and make you wonder what are you actually doing. But they do help you in improving your work!
Almost all of us are preparing the theses with a critical/constructivist approach, except Erik, who, in the American tradition, is preparing a positivist critique of neo-realism. Knowing each other topics and interests helps us in suggesting the others new material and essays on what we are writing about, and that's really comforting!
Usually after our seminars, we have our unofficial meetings, at somebody's place or in some public sauna or pub where we relax and enjoy the evening. After a 4-hour"struggle" in a classroom, those are the perfect "after-match" :)
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Now outside the weather is pretty stormy and the first snow is already falling! Good omens for my departure! I've just got confirmed some day ago for a 2-month internship in Rovaniemi's Arctic Center, and I'll be leaving this Sunday.
All of us managed to have some internship somewhere (Sini at the Swedish Embassy, Laura and Leena at some Finnish Ministry) thanks also to some support from our department. Anyway we had to look for them ourselves. I really hoped to get to the Arctic Center, since my thesis will deal with the Arctic, and there I'll get for sure more information, discussions and possibly further inspiration!
So, the Southerner is moving further Northward!
Next time, live from Rovaniemi!
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