Time changes – so do you
Hello everyone,
how have you been? I hope you are all getting to enjoy the flexible learning week a little – I pleasantly realised that this meant my intensives were a week later (luckily I did realise, haha) and that I can slow down a little bit 🙂
However, I do have some KIPP-related updates to share and a wee insight into why I chose today’s title.
But let’s start with a little recap of my first supervisor meeting. I have had a lovely wee chat with my supervisor last week and while it was very short, it helped me get a clearer idea of where I am at and what I my next steps should look like. My supervisor is a senior lecturer in Finance so if I go ahead with my idea to investigate Bitcoin as a for of elevating inequalities in Latin America, he certainly might have some expertise and insights to share. Generally speaking, he seems very good at offering guidance and can help me with some initial data analysis. And he pointed out that we can probably both learn from one another, since he has never supervised a student outside his field. However, there were also certain questions he didn’t quite know how to address them best – but no worries because thankfully I have a supervisor & course leader network to back me up. Moral of the story: my Bitcoin idea is my number one at the moment. I would love to do a literature review and initial data analysis to see whether bitcoin can help include people that might otherwise be excluded from the banking system. And in the second part of my masters project I would like to make these insights more understandable and relevant by trying “narrative storytelling through photography” – thus, I am seeing what my options are resource-wise if I keep my focus on a country that’s rather far away. Could I travel there? So I need to check now whether this is feasible and if not I can readjust my research idea a little bit. If feasible, this gives me a good indication of what I would need to plan in the next couple of months in order to ensure I stick to the timeline, but it was good to get started and go beyond just brainstorming and actually seeing whether I can make my ideas reality.
So while I’m awaiting more insight into these currently “open questions” I can do some initial literature browsing and look up some example of narrative storytelling. There surely is a lot of expertise within EFI (with the MSc in Narrative Futures) in this area as well so I might (after a bit more research) contact one of the lecturers to have a quick chat and discuss my ideas a little bit and what feedback they might have for me. Furthermore, I think some personal reflection is always good to not only keep my project on track, but make sure it fits me as a person – not what I would like me to be, but where my strengths actually lie.
And this is an area where I had an interesting realisation this weekend. I found myself in a situation where I was like “I am really good at this usually, I’m sure I won’t struggle” and then realising that maybe while this might have been true a few years ago (and that’s what I based this assumption on) not only does time change – so do you. Maybe certain tasks or difficulties I encountered a while ago seemed more surmountable than nowadays – maybe because I have changed, my habits, the network around me or simply not having to face something as regularly. This is absolutely very abstract for now, but I do think once I narrow down my idea I want to draw up an “expectation list” – what I assume this undertaking will entail, what opportunities and challenges and then I’ll write down how I judge myself to deal with each one of them, critically reflecting whether this is actually how I am currently working on things or whether this is based on assumptions from the past. Right – with this little abstract exploration of “who are we” I am going to end this blog and hop back soon to get back to this point and dissect it with a little more detail.
All the best,
Kassandra
#lilac
Hey Kass – great to hear that you’ve been enjoying the chat with your supervisor and think there is a lot of opportunity there. Is there a specific part of Latin America that you would focus in on if you were going to travel there?
Your reflection on changing and adapting is very poignant and certainly some self reflection can’t hurt. I suppose this entire process is designed to change us (for the better) across views and skills, and considering the pace of the course – change is probably quite significant even in a few months! Good luck with your musings 🙂