Developing curiosity about specific topics and subjects can
lead to the start of a journey. Asking a question that have not been answered
or to start developing a more detailed question about something that have been
already been answered but needs more clarification is a journey that the
researcher learns a lot throughout it. My research questions evolve around the
political system and radical Salafism in Saudi Arabia. The title of my project
is “I was so surprised to know that I got the opportunity to work under the
guidance of Dr. Eric Shiraev, a person who is very knowledgeable and professional
at the field on comparative politics. He helped me to improve my analysis
skills, which helped me a lot to develop an analytical argument to try
supporting the ideas I had about the rise of terrorist groups in Saudi Arabia. I
began questioning those topics when I was back home, in Saudi Arabia and I
wanted to answer those questions academically so I can expose it to other Saudi
nationals who might have the same questions by developing an argument and
analyzing facts in order to prove a specific thesis that I have developed from
those questions. This project so far was the most beneficial opportunity that I
had during my college career. It gave me the chance to be exposed to a huge
amount of for my research.
I am planning to continue studying about topics of
comparative politics and international relations in order to go back and serve
for my country, Saudi Arabia. This research gave me a different insight that
would help me to understand the way the system is built on in my country, which
eventually would help me when I am working there. On weekly bases, I try to
spend an hour and a half to two hours to work on my research; I sometimes spend
four when I get into very complicated arguments and discussions. I meet with my
professor often the times, but I use online communications to update him on my
work all the time. I found out this week that of the names that I am looking
for in my research is translated from Arabic into a different name in English,
which was interesting to discover how they translated it into English and which
methods they used to do that.
