Last week I mentioned that I was asked by some members of SDPI to present a “brown bag” seminar on Social network analysis. Today, I cherished my first opportunity to share the methods to a renowned and prestigious institution in Pakistan. It took a lot of preparation, time and energy, but I felt I had done a nice service. Even if I was able to persuade just a few people about the value of these methods, and have the opportunity to share my ideas and research, it was no doubt a great experience. I have never done an academic presentation in Pakistan before, so this was the first time. I…
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Preparing for Dissertation Fieldwork…Take 2
In just a little over two weeks, I will be embarking on my second field assessment for my dissertation, which will consist of three months of travels to various cities in Pakistan. In addition to a year or two added to your timeline for dissertation completion, fieldwork and original data collection – (involving various pieces like survey questionnaire, field interviews, recruiting respondents, snowball sampling, archival data collection from field offices) – naturally becomes a whole league on its own. Fieldwork overseas and in challenging contexts, provides an entirely different layer of challenges to several elements to your dissertation research both conceptually and in the design. Necessary steps include completing multiple forms…