During the last two classes for the course “Researching Africa in the 21st Century” we were lucky enough to have a variety of guest speakers to enlighten us about the different digital methods when it comes to presenting our research. Interesting, but not the best for a technological invalid such as myself.
During the first session these included a quick presentation (emphasis on quick) by Paul Vierthaler about quantitative research methods, interesting for an economist like myself, but not applicable for my research that I will be conducting in Kenya. Another guest lecturer in the field of branding and logo-making gave us a quick workshop on creating a logo for our research. This was relatively challenging for me since I am as creative as a brick. I do find logos interesting (I’m very good at guessing logos in general knowledge games), but creating my own posed a challenge, particularly since I have no interest in branding and find the need for a research logo questionable. I did manage to make a logo eventually using an online programme, and was quite proud at the end of things!
The seminar last week was useful since everybody had the chance to talk about their progress concerning arranging an internship and coming up with a research topic. I wish this took place at an earlier (and more frequent) stage since I found out that Kim has a good contact in Mozambique, the country I was so desperate to do my internship at! Gutted to find this out so late since I will now be going to Kenya. Anyhow, other than talking about our research progress, we got a short workshop by a guest lecturer on the use of WordPress and the website V4T which I am currently writing on. I had some past experience with WordPress since I used it quite intensively at one of my past internships. So it was nice to get a brief refresher course.
I am looking forward to the remaining classes and hope to learn more about methodology before actually going to Africa. With an internship finally arranged, a large burden is finally off my shoulders. I can now focus on practical issues and start working on my research proposal!