We left our campuses in California and Vermont in the United States as students and suddenly became researchers in China overnight. Of course one might take a more philosophical approach to this shift, as we never really stop learning and in a way we are always students of life. But the shift was quite sudden and the responsibilities doubled over night, so while we are still technically students on a summer internship, we also became researchers trying to figure out how to make sense of uncertainty. One thing is for certain: we have left the bubble of our campuses and have been thrown into the the messiness of the field.
It must be said that our work is made easier by the immense support and guidance we are receiving from our professors, Wei Liang, Jessica Teets, and Orion Lewis. Without their work we would be completely lost. As we learn more and more that fieldwork is a fluid process rifled with unforeseen obstacles (a foreign bureaucratic system, iffy internet, and swarms of mosquitoes to name a few), we are being guided by our extremely knowledgeable and competent professors. While they are assisting us in many ways, they are also expecting us to do professional work equivalent to what a Ph.D. candidate might do in her own fieldwork. While this is great pressure, we are also extremely honored by their trust and excited by this opportunity to grow.
Two weeks into our research journey in China, we are just beginning to understand what it takes to be researchers. We spent the past semester in our own campuses doing background research and literature reviews from the comfort of our own homes. We read everything we could get our hands on for our topic and struggled to understand how we could contribute to the knowledge already out there. How could we be value added to the work that researchers before us had already done? Who were we, simple students, to think that we could contribute something of substance? The desire to prove ourselves and our excitement combined with some healthy humility and self-doubt has guided our efforts so far.
As we start to contact potential interviewees for our research, we are learning how to present ourselves as researches and not simply students. We are learning to build up our own confidence while also being completely open to the process. Making mistakes and adjusting our aim accordingly is part of the journey (as in all areas of life!). We are learning how to collaborate when our views differ from that of our colleagues and keep our cool when a whole day of work is shot due to faulty internet. We are figuring out that research is often two steps forward and one (or more) steps back and that the dance is necessary to the process. We are experiencing growing pains, yet we are adamant to move forward as we learn to transform into our new roles and identities as researchers.
Field Notes by Giulia Zoppoat, Development and Innovation Team Lead