Placement Report: IRIO Department – University of Groningen

Faculty of Arts – University of Groningen

Placement Report:

IRIO Department –

University of

Groningen

Steven Janse

S2774909

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ... 2

THE ORGANIZATION ... 3

BEFORE THE PLACEMENT ... 3

Preparations ... 3

Expectations ... 4

DURING THE PLACEMENT ... 4

Tasks and responsibilities ... 5

The workplace ... 6

AFTER THE PLACEMENT ... 7

Personal evaluation ... 7

Evaluation of placement supervisor ... 8

Reflections ... 8

Recommendations to other students ... 10

CONCLUSION ... 10

ABBREVIATIONS... 11

INTRODUCTION

In this placement report I will reflect on the internship I conducted at the IRIO department of the University of Groningen from June 29, 2020 until August 16 of that same year. When reading this report, one might wonder: why did an MA IR student of the University of Groningen choose to conduct his placement at his ‘own’ IRIO department? Are there not more interesting organizations to try? Did he not want to broaden his horizon? Did he not want something more practical? And while the answer to the last three questions might be a resounding ‘yes’, when looking at the date of this report one may understand. This is because I was looking for a placement amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Obviously, with organizations sending their staff home to work from there en masse not many were looking for an intern. Therefore, my quest for a placement at the ministry of foreign affairs or at other organizations dealing with international politics, which had started around March, had not been very successful. As I had already completed all my MA courses and as I was making steady process with my MA thesis, I was determined to graduate this year. The fact that I was unable to find a placement jeopardized this objective. Luckily, the university recognized the problems the Corona situation would present to MA IR students who wanted to graduate and therefore several positions were created at the IRIO department.

While at first sight these were not the kind of positions I had in mind when I started looking for an internship, the uncertainty around the timeline of the Corona-situation and my desire to graduate this year caused me to cast my doubts aside and seize this opportunity with both hands. As one can read in the following pages, this placement, although it was not my first choice, still proved to be an interesting, educational and satisfying experience.

In the following sections I will first give a very concise overview of the IRIO department as I assume most readers will already be very familiar with it. Then, I will describe the preparations I made and the expectations I had prior to the placement. After this, I will give an overview of my tasks and responsibilities during the placement and comment on the difficult situation which is working from home. Subsequently, I will conduct a personal evaluation, an evaluation of my supervisor and a reflection on certain matters after the placement. Finally, I will reach a conclusion about the experience as a whole.

THE ORGANIZATION

The IRIO department of the University of Groningen is the largest International Relations department of the Netherlands.1 _{It focuses on teaching the BA level International Relations}

and International Organization program and the MA level International Relations program. The unique selling points of these programs compared to other IR programs are the separation between the BA program and the MA program and the interdisciplinary approach to IR. Furthermore, the department’s researchers contribute to the ever-growing body of academic literature on a wide range of IR subjects.

BEFORE THE PLACEMENT Preparations

When the IRIO department informed their students about the vacancies in May, I immediately read up to all the projects that had open positions. I applied to a few which sounded interesting by means of sending an email with a motivation letter in which I explained why I would have liked to contribute to the project as well as my CV. Amongst the projects were several research projects as well as one project which was about revamping the course ‘Aid, trade and beyond’. First, I received a few rejections as apparently more qualified students had also applied. Then, to my great relieve, I was contacted by dr. Doortmont, who supervised the position at the ‘Aid, trade and beyond’ project, who invited me for an online interview. The interview was a pleasant experience. Dr. Doortmont explained a bit more about the project and why the course needed an upgrade. I then explained to him that I had followed a similar course during a minor I took a few years back and argued that this made me the perfect candidate to assist him in this undertaking. The interview ended with dr. Doortmont telling me there was one other candidate that he was going to interview and after this he would make a choice. A few days later, I received the news that dr. Doortmont would welcome me and the other applicant both on board as research interns. It turned out that there was another subject that dr. Doortmont wanted to change and thus he needed two assistants. I was assigned at the other course, a MA level research seminar named ‘Unexpected Connections’.

1 _{“International Relations and International Organization (IRIO),” Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (website),}

Expectations

I was quite excited for this placement to begin. Having followed many courses at the IRIO department throughout my BA and MA programs, I was eager to see what it would be like to stand on the other side of a course, juxtaposed to the receiving end of it were I was usually situated. I expected that I would really be reviewing the course from the perspective of a student. After this, I expected, we would jointly come up with a new direction for the course. My responsibilities then, I expected, would be collecting useful literature, making PowerPoint presentations, making exam questions and maybe even preparing a lecture all by myself. Before the start of the placement I formulated several personal learning objectives. These were the following:

• I would like to experience how a university course is from the ‘other side’. So instead of taking the course, making the course.

• I would like to improve my independent working skills.

• Closely related to the former point, I would like to improve my independent decision-making skills.

• I would like to improve my ability to spread out a workload instead of rushing it all in just before the deadline.

• I would like to develop teaching capabilities.

DURING THE PLACEMENT

Before I can start elaborating on my tasks and responsibilities during my placement, I feel obligated to explain the course I was assigned to a bit more. The course Unexpected Connections is a research seminar for students of the IR master program which focuses on connections between the global and the local which at first hand seem unexpected. These connections can then be used to explain phenomena, both on the local and on the global level. In order to alleviate the abstractness of this explanation I will present an example of such a connection. One such an unexpected connection is the impact of the global market for cosmetic products on the position of women in Ghana. Almost every cosmetic product contains shea-butter. Shea-butter comes from shea-nuts which exclusively grow in Ghana. Traditionally, farming these nuts is a job for women and therefore, when global demand for shea recently skyrocketed the position of the women who control its supply became a lot

better. It are connections like these which have the focus in the course. As mentioned before, after teaching this course for a few years dr. Doortmont felt it was time to change the course a bit. This is were I came into play.

Tasks and responsibilities

The placement began in June with a video meeting with dr. Doortmont in which he explained what he would be expecting of me the coming time. I then received my first tasks, which included reading into the course and reviewing it from my point of view as a student and drawing up an advice concerning hybrid teaching during the Corona times. This first assignment was quite a hefty one. To clarify, I have not taken this course as a student. So, to familiarize myself with seven weeks’ worth of material in just one week was quite some work. Therefore, I made a selection of the material which I thought looked most important and focused on that. At the end of the week I wrote two advices: ‘The course: radical change or upgrade?’ and ‘Advice hybrid teaching’. I quite enjoyed writing these advices as it were interesting subjects to critically think about and as it was nice to provide an informed opinion on the matters.

The next week, after sending my work to dr. Doortmont, we had another video call. During this call he expressed his gratitude for the comprehensive advices and we engaged in a brainstorm session about the course, taking my advices into account. I really enjoyed this session as dr. Doortmont made it quite clear that he really appreciated my advice. Before the course I worried a bit that because of the difference in the level of knowledge on the subject matter I would not be able to contribute anything useful but after this conversation these worries were taken away. After the brainstorming I received my new tasks for the week to come.

The process above describes the work cycle of every week. The week would start with a video call in which dr. Doortmont and I discussed my work from the week before, after which I would be given a new assignment for the week or weeks to come. During the rest of the placement I was handed the following assignments. First of all, I was tasked with updating the existing list of literature from the course so far. This meant that I had to critically analyse the list of literature and look for new literature to replace or complement the existing reading.

Second, I was tasked with collecting academic literature and audio-visual materials for the new theme ‘Mining in Ghana and the rest of the Africa’. As this was a new theme which was

not addressed during the course in previous years this assignment allowed for a bit more creativity. With some directions from dr. Doortmont I was tasked with digging into the world of mining in Africa and find unexpected connections myself. After I found a few I collected academic literature and some useful documentaries and summarized them for dr. Doortmont so we could discuss it during our next brainstorm session.

Third, my final assignment allowed for even more creativity. I was tasked with finding unexpected connections for a new theme: proto-colonialism and post-colonialism in IR. For this assignment dr. Doortmont gave me gave me little directions and allowed me to go my own way with it. Eventually I opted to focus on unexpected connections between proto-colonialism and post-proto-colonialism and sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, nature conservation projects and international law. After I identified these connections, I went about collecting useful literature on these subjects so that it could be assigned to students during the course.

The workplace

Sadly, due to the circumstances of the Corona-crisis the university called upon all of its personnel to work from home. Obviously, this included me, meaning that I had to do my internship from home. Though not unexpected, it was disappointing that this situation remained so during the whole duration of my placement. I do find it a real shame that I was not able to experience life on the work floor, working closely together with colleagues, attending physical meetings and maybe even a little office banter. Furthermore, trying to find the focus to work fulltime from home presented a challenge. With no physical place to go, getting up early in the morning was hard and required some alternative methods, such as placing different alarm clock across the room and asking a roommate, who is more of an early bird, to yell at me to wake up in the morning. Furthermore, to use the same spot for both work and relaxation felt weird. I did try to find an alternative workplace, such as in a library or wherever, but due to the Corona situation I found none. Eventually though, I got used to the situation and by making clear arrangements with myself about hours in which I worked and hours in which I relaxed I managed to get my work done.

AFTER THE PLACEMENT Personal evaluation

All in all, I am quite satisfied with the way in which I completed this placement. I think that the products which I delivered were of a high quality and I think that I contributed to quite an extent with the revitalization of the course. Apart from my own impressions I also base this of outcomes of the evaluation meeting I had with dr. Doortmont which endorsed these feelings. I will further evaluate myself with reference to my earlier coined personal learning objectives. My first objective was to experience a university course from the other side. I succeeded in meeting this objective. I now know how such a course is designed and how to go about translating an idea of a direction into a workable subject. It was interesting for me to learn that the lecturer has quite some freedom of in how they want to design the course. This way, one can really give their own twist to a course which seems to me like a lot of fun.

Second, I wanted to improve my independent working skills and closely related with that my independent decision-making skills. I formulated these objectives as I had noted throughout my studies I have always found it difficult to work on large assignments that did not provide much guidelines and allowed for creativity. Due to the lack of guidelines I would often struggle with the question whether I was interpreting the assignment in the right way and I was afraid to think outside of the box. This I wanted to improve. During the placement, the assignments I was handed were often very broad and therefore allowed for a lot of own interpretations and creativity. Furthermore, as I only had a meeting with dr. Doortmont once a week, when problems came up during the assignment I had to make decisions myself. Also, as the course was about unexpected connections thinking outside of the box was almost always a requirement. Therefore, the assignments I was handed during my placement were perfect to work on improving my independent working and decision-making skills. I noticed that due to the positive feedback dr. Doortmont gave after I handed in each assignment, I got more confident in choosing directions and making decisions independently as I noted that if I can justify a decision to myself I can also justify it to someone else. I learned that in work like this there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer. If you can justify your answer or your decision with solid arguments than that is fine.

Third, I wanted like to improve my ability to spread out a workload instead of rushing it all in just before the deadline. I formulated this objective as during my studies there were many

papers that I wrote in a raging hurry during the last three days before the deadline while I had ignored their existence the weeks before. The added stress that did brought about every time lead me to the realization that I wanted this behaviour to change. During my placement I found that I was much more able to spread the workload across the week. This was because I had made very clear arrangements with myself about which hours of the day were working hours and which were time off. However, I did still find myself having to work a few hours during the weekend. But this was more due to the workload of the assignments rather than poor time management skills on my side.

Finally, I wanted to develop teaching capabilities. Before the start of the internship I expected that I would be more involved directly in the teaching of the course. I expected to be more involved in formulating exam questions, formulating assignments and preparing lectures. This way I expected that I could learn a bit more about teaching. However, at this point in time the course was still very much in the preparation-phase. Therefore, the work was more about thinking about the direction we wanted to take the course and conducting research into the feasibility of these directions rather than developing exam questions and lectures. As a result, I did not get to develop any teaching capabilities.

Evaluation of placement supervisor

During the placement I found my collaboration with dr. Doortmont very pleasant. As mentioned before, he was very receptive and appreciative of my contributions which really made the experience quite satisfying. Also, the assignments he handed to me always were about different, interesting subjects which kept the work fresh during the weeks. After the placement, we held an evaluation talk in which we exchanged compliments and critique about the period. This too was a good experience.

Reflections

As this placement was a rather odd placement, considering it was not at an external organization, some interesting reflections can be made. First of all, I will reflect on whether my expectations were met. As one may have already picked up in earlier sections, some expectations were met while others were not. The first week of the placement was probably most like how I had imagined it. It was quite interesting to review the course from my point of view as a student. Furthermore, in the brainstorm session that followed we did come up with new directions we wanted to take the course. This really lived up to my expectations of

being situated on the other side of a subject. In the weeks that followed, when the focus started to shift from reviewing and thinking to collecting useful literature and other materials, this was also still quite how I imagined it. After all, what is a course without reading material? However, reality started to shift away from my expectations in the last few weeks. Like I mentioned before I had expected that after a while I would be included in formulating exam questions, preparing lectures and creating assignments. Unfortunately, as dr. Doortmont explained to me, this phase of preparing the course was not yet reached during my placement. Secondly, I will reflect on difficulties I came across during the placement. As I have already touched upon, the greatest difficulty I encountered was working from home. Spending long days at home alone behind my computer was not how I had expected my internship to be. Getting up early in the morning and focussing on my work while being home without any direct supervision was hard at first. However, by finding creative solutions in order to get out of bed early in the morning and by making clear arrangements with myself about when to work and when to relax, I eventually managed to do my work just fine. I do know now though that when I will find a job later in life, I prefer to work in an office rather than from home. Apart from this there were no noteworthy difficulties that I came across.

Third, and maybe most importantly, I will reflect on the question whether this internship was worthwhile, and I will argue that it was for a number of reasons. First of all, this placement has allowed me to put my knowledge into practice, even though it was situated in an academic environment. Rather than taking a course and absorbing new knowledge, making a course required other skills. It required me to access all the knowledge I had about IR and use it to formulate new directions for the course to head to. Second, it has opened a new door for me regarding my future career plans. Before this internship, my plans were quite limited. I wanted to make policy at the ministry of foreign affairs, an international organization or a non-governmental organization and not much else. I had never considered a job in education or research. This internship however, together with writing my master thesis, has changed this. I have come to the conclusion that research, possibly in combination with education, is something I am interested in doing. Already, I have applied at an institute which gives workshops to diplomats and other international professionals about international security and at another one which conducts research in Eastern-Europe. This way, this placement has surely broadened my horizon.

Recommendations to other students

At the moment of writing it does not look like the Corona situation is likely to change anytime soon. Therefore, I expect upcoming MA students looking for a placement to face the same problem I did: organizations not looking for interns for the time being. If the IRIO department keeps up this practice of opening up research vacancies for their students, I highly recommend other students to apply for one of these positions. While at first sight it might not be the exciting placement at an important international organization one first had in mind, my experience proves that it can still be a satisfying, educational, interesting internship.

For anyone who has chosen to aim for one of these positions, there are a few recommendations I would like to make. First, apply for several positions, not just one. When I applied I got the impression that the positions were high in demand as I was rejected for several of them. So do not put all your eggs in one basket. Second, do expect the pace of the placement to be a lot higher than the pace of your studies so far. Assignments can be quite heavy and often include a lot of reading. Do make sure that you plan accordingly. Third, if at all possible, try to find an alternative place where you can work as working from home can be very distracting. Anything along the line of a library, a vacant room in your house you can occupy or maybe a vacant office at the workplace of someone you know will do the trick. If this is impossible, make clear arrangements with yourself about during which hours of the day you work and during which hours you can relax. And be strict. Finally, realize what your capabilities are. It can be quite overwhelming at first to be an assistant to someone who has way more experience than you do. But once you realize that you too are an academic, that you too have research capabilities, that you can contribute and that everything you do to lighten the work load of your supervisor is greatly appreciated by them, you will do just fine.

CONCLUSION

As one can conclude from this report, while conducting a placement at your own educational institute may sound off at first, in the end it can still be worth your while. During my placement as research assistant to dr. Doortmont I have been able to put my knowledge about IR into practice by helping to revamp an entire course. Furthermore, this placement has opened my eyes for the possibilities of pursuing a future in the worlds of research and education. In conclusion, I can recommend this type of internship to any MA student who finds themselves

unable to find a placement elsewhere due to the Corona situation and still wishes to conduct an interesting, educational and satisfying internship.

ABBREVIATIONS

BA – Bachelor of Arts IR – International Relations

IRIO – International Relations and International Organization MA – Master of Arts

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“International Relations and International Organization (IRIO).” Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (website). Accessed August 21, 2020, https://www.rug.nl/let/onze-faculteit/organisatie/vakgebieden/irio/.