The Sussex Junior Research Associate scheme is a brilliant opportunity to learn about doing independent research. In 2020-2021, two second-year linguistics undergraduates, Harriet Nye and Joe Thompson-Smith, won funding to work on their own projects for 8 weeks over the summer.
In this post, our guest blogger is Harriet Nye who reflects on her experiences of adapting to the demands of conducting research in the context of a global pandemic. Thanks for contributing Harriet!
You can see the conference style poster that Harriet created based on her research here.
---------------------------------------------
University had just closed due to Covid-19, and lockdown was imminent. Summer 2020 for me was looking very bleak. I had been relying on getting a summer job, and the idea of me staying at home with nothing productive to do was very overwhelming.
So when Dr. Justyna Robinson approached me and asked if I would be interested in working on a research project with her, I jumped at the opportunity. I had heard about the Junior Research Associate programme ever since I started at Sussex, and I had always been interested in applying. The idea of getting paid to research a topic that personally interested me sounded far better than the misery of a typical zero-hour student job, which were in such short supply.
Justyna and I had several meetings over Zoom, and put in my application 20 minutes before the deadline (not recommended!). Amazingly, I was accepted onto the scheme. Justyna was appointed my supervisor, and Rhys Sandow my PhD mentor. My project was a bottom-up, sociolinguistic analysis of Covid-19 diaries (poster linked above). The diaries were sourced from the Mass Observation Archive at The Keep. It felt great to apply the knowledge I’d gained in my modules at uni to something so current and important. And I learned so much more too. For example, I now know how to do bottom-up linguistic analysis, how to code metadata, how to make an academic poster, and I know the corpus website SketchEngine like the back of my hand - all skills I can use for my dissertation next year.
Working on my research project was not all sunshine and rainbows, and certainly debunked some research myths for me. A research job is not as glamorous as it might seem. It’s not all high-level, critical thinking. Some of it could only be described as donkey work - I spent a week and a half removing identifying information from over 200 documents. Boring but necessary. I was also unlucky that I couldn’t go to a coffee shop or even the library to work - I spent hours at my desk every day, rewarding myself with 15 minute walks outside. And with no external deadlines or timetables, my motivation was tested more than it ever has been before.
-Some much needed respite.
That all being said, it was a wonderful
experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. There is nothing more
satisfying than seeing a few floating ideas turn into a fully-fledged, 8 week
research project, and feeling that I’ve actually made an impact in the research
world.
It was also a pleasure to work closely with
members of the English Language and Linguistics department - Justyna and Rhys
made me feel welcome from the beginning and have been invaluable help to me. I
feel I’ve gained skills in whatever I want to do next, whether that’s my
dissertation, post-graduate study, or just the motivation to start whatever
work I’ve been putting off.
If you’re in second year, I would highly recommend applying to the JRA scheme!
Harriet Nye
Comments
Post a Comment