North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
The Journey of Fieldwork: Unravelling Stories of the Older Chinese Community in the UK
Miriam Tenquist, Sociology, University of Manchester (2019 Cohort)
As I embarked on my PhD journey in Sociology, I felt a deep calling to give voice to the experiences of ethnically minorities older communities. Specifically, I chose to focus on the older Chinese community in the UK, as their stories remained largely untold. In this personal blog post, I will share my experiences and the challenges faced during fieldwork, including finding participants, travelling across the UK, cultural barriers, and navigating fieldwork expense forms and processes. I will also highlight an encounter that reminded me of the importance of maintaining hope and momentum in the face of obstacles.
Read MoreInternship at Credit Suisse – Frankfurt
Michael Grebe, Economics, University of Manchester (2018 Cohort)
At the beginning of last November, I embarked on a journey to join the Derivative Sales team at Credit Suisse in Frankfurt, Germany as part of a 6-month internship. Working in the financial hub of Germany was an exciting opportunity to meet other fellow researchers working in the private sector and exchanging ideas about some of the latest methodologies in our field of research. Working with and talking to my colleagues, I was able to get some very useful and interesting insights about the behaviour of financial market participants and real-world applications of statistical pricing models for financial derivatives.
Read MoreExploring Interdisciplinary Research and Ethnomethodology: My Visit to the University of Siegen’s Special Collaborative Research Center
Dipanjan Saha, Sociology, University of Liverpool (2019 Cohort)
Earlier this year, I had the incredible opportunity to visit the Special Collaborative Research Center (CRC) at the University of Siegen in Germany for three months. This research visit not only allowed me to engage with prominent researchers in my field but also provided a unique platform to bring a new dimension to my interdisciplinary research journey. In this blog post, I will share my experiences and highlight the invaluable insights gained during my Overseas Institutional Visit (OIV) to Siegen.
Read MoreUK Fieldwork Blog
Jonathan Craig, Social Anthropology, University of Manchester (2021 Cohort)
Since February of this year, I have been conducting ethnographic fieldwork on the UK’s Kent coast, primarily in the town of Dover. At a national level, the town’s ongoing symbolic and historical significance is embodied by its famous Castle, White Cliffs, and other prominent military fortifications. Since the UK left the EU in 2020, meanwhile, bank holiday backlogs of frustrated travellers and commercial cargo have drawn the eyes of British and European media. Perhaps most significantly, however, Dover has recently become a landing point for a sharply increasing number of irregular ‘small boat’ migrants.
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North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership 