Working as a research assistant has given me the
opportunity to greatly increase the capacity in which I am able to conduct
research.I am working with Dr. JP Singh, Professor of Global Affairs and
Cultural Studies. I am also working with two other Global Affairs undergraduate
students: Naila Rafique (Class of 2015) and Corina Solarzo (Class of 2016). The project that I am working on uses content
analysis to first, determine if there is participation and second, extract
types of participation in telecommunication projects for developing countries.
Part of the project was also using a coding scheme and revising it as we became
more familiar with the content analysis that was conducted every week. As a
Global Affairs major, I have been exposed to the interdisciplinary nature of
the field. On a weekly basis each research assistant reviews World Bank
Documents that specify the details of telecommunication projects in various
projects. After conducting content analysis on each document, a coding scheme
is used to code qualitative and quantitative data in an organized excel sheet. Each
person’s data is then compiled into another research sheet that is discussed
during a calibration session. A calibration session is meetings in which we
partake in a dialogue where we can help each other understand the results that
were found when collecting data.
This week, I discovered the benefits of
conducting calibration sessions with my research team. Together, we agreed that
this method was the most beneficial for our research. This has allowed me to
expound upon my knowledge of international affairs through my concentration of
media, communications, and culture. This research will help with my future
goals by giving me a better foundation for conducting original research as an
Honors student and in Graduate school.
