Under the guidance of Dr Mukherjee, I researched the peaceful transition of powers between Great Britain and the United States. I was tasked to create an annotated bibliography focusing on the time period between the end of the Civil War (1865) and the Treaty of Washington (1871). Using a spreadsheet, I compiled a list of relevant books, journal articles, letters, and speeches. Additionally, in my bibliography I detailed reasons why these sources were significant to the research
Methods
To find secondary sources, I mainly used Google Scholar. In my search, I focused on key phrases such as "peaceful transitions of power" and "rising powers". I found it helpful to look at the citations of journals and books to find even more potential sources. To get PDFs of the collected sources, I found the LSE library to be very helpful. When digital versions of the books were unavailable (which they were almost never), I was able to scan pages directly from the LSE Library. For primary sources, I went to the British Library to scan and document relevant documents, including correspondence, speeches, and treaties.
Learning Outcomes
This program taught me a lot about the preliminary stages of research. I learned how to work with primary sources and create an annotated bibliography. Creating an annotated bibliography taught me how to tell which articles were reliable, which publishers to keep an eye out for, and how to efficiently decide if a source was relevant for the research. Furthermore, I learned that an annotated bibliography is necessary to create a strong foundation for a research project. Lastly, at the British Library, I learned how to work and set up microfilms, something I had never done before.
Personal Experience
This research assistant position made my study abroad experience very unique. One of my main goals during my study abroad was to learn more about British politics and learn about British foreign policy. With this position, I was able to do that in and out of the class. Through collecting sources, I was able to fill in the gaps in my knowledge.
Secondly, I really enjoyed going to the British Library to look through and scan primary documents.
In my previous research positions, my work was mostly done on a laptop, so it was nice to stop staring at a screen and use local resources by walking over to the British Library to conduct research.
Lastly, I am going to take what I have learned this year and apply it to my own research project. Next year, I plan on writing my senior thesis. While I don't know what my research will entail, I know that I will definitely use the skills I gained through this program