Dispatches: Undergraduate Researchers in the Field
Every spring, a select group of Harvard College students receive travel grants from the Weatherhead Center to support their thesis field research on topics related to international affairs. We selected exceptional undergraduates whose research we will support financially as well as in other ways, from helping revise research methods to planning projects that don’t require travel. The Weatherhead Center has encouraged these Undergraduate Associates to take advantage of the Center’s research community by connecting with graduate students, faculty, postdocs, and visiting scholars. Four Undergraduate Associates write of their experiences last summer:
Laura Connor
Undergraduate Associate. Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, Harvard College. Research interests: International history; politics of international development; US foreign relations; US-Latin America relations; democracy promotion; and political regimes and parties.
In 2006, Evo Morales became president of Bolivia after several years of contentious relations between the US government and Morales’s then-expanding political party, the MAS (Movement for Socialism). Morales held a personal animosity toward the US government: he was a coca grower union leader in the region where the US focused its coca eradication programs during the War on Drugs. He kicked out the US ambassador and the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008, five years prior to expelling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from Bolivia.
I wondered why Morales disagreed with USAID programs—which were largely focused on “democracy promotion”—and why he waited until 2013 to make this decision. I traveled to La Paz, Bolivia for five weeks and spoke primarily with local historians, economists, and political analysts to better understand the political landscape and economy in Bolivia, the country’s historical relations with the US (which is often referred to as el imperio, “the empire”), and Evo Morales as a political figure and MAS leader.
As global threats to democratic values escalate around the world, I hope to contribute to larger discussions about the US role in the world order, whether international aid can encourage democratic forms of governance, and how democracy promotion interacts with other US foreign policy objectives. Bolivia is my case study due to its “anti-imperialist” rejection of US aid. I wanted to understand how USAID’s democracy promotion objective fared as the relationship with the US deteriorated and why the overall US diplomatic mission in Bolivia ultimately failed.
I faced a few challenges during my travels—primarily keeping pace with rapid-fire Spanish and finding Bolivian politicians willing to speak openly with me in such a tense current political climate. With those small barriers in mind, every interviewee was eager to help me in any way possible. Whether they put me in touch with additional relevant contacts, sent me reading materials, or escorted me to the bus stop after an interview, their kindness and generosity was remarkable, even when I provided little in return. I shared the most memorable conversations over cups of coffee at local cafes, often extending well beyond our scheduled time. It was rewarding to feel a part of a greater community of scholars and researchers.
While this was my first real solo trip abroad and I was nervous, I was fortunate to live with a Harvard student’s family whom I had not met before. To welcome me, the mother, Sandra, had prepared the traditional plato paceño—meat, potatoes, lima beans, corn, and fried cheese—and everyone had a glass of Bolivian beer. The family fired questions at me and my jet-lagged mind struggled to keep up. Plato paceño, they explained, dated from 1781 when there was a food shortage in La Paz after the Aymara launched a siege on the city to oust the occupying Spanish conquistadors.
A few weeks later, Sandra’s sister invited friends and family to a bonfire. Bundled up for a Bolivian winter night, we drank té con té, a hot cocktail made with black tea, cinnamon, lime, sugar and singani, the Bolivian national liquor. We listened to Bolivian music, roasted marshmallows and danced, warmed by the drinks and the dancing.
These experiences taught me much about Bolivian history, culture, and family life, and enriched my research more than I could have imagined. Ultimately my research was successful, and many meaningful memories and life lessons came from living with my host family. I am truly grateful for all I learned during my time in Bolivia.
Dina Kobeissi
Undergraduate Associate. Departments of Government and of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard College. Research interests: Modern Middle East and North Africa; public policy; human rights; international relations; political communication and media; and Arab diaspora studies.
The history of international influence in Syria is complex and multifaceted, shaped by geopolitical interests, regional conflicts, and internal developments. Certain countries, notably the United States, have a longstanding history of imposing sanctions on Syria dating back to the late 1970s. The intensity of these measures increased in 2011 when Syria descended into conflict; the country was met with the introduction of more comprehensive sanctions from the United States as well as other entities like the European Union and Arab League. The aim of the sanctions is to compel the regime to engage in negotiations and to address a range of allegations related to weapons use, political oppression, and human rights.
This summer, I sought to learn more about sanctions on Syria and hoped to gain a better understanding of two main areas. Firstly, I wanted to understand what countries like the United States sought, and continue to seek, with sanctions. What brought the foreign policy tool to be implemented and what are the goals of those imposing it? Secondly, I wanted to understand how different sectors—such as healthcare, business, oil and gas, and humanitarian aid—have been impacted by sanctions, both directly and indirectly. This was challenging because changes in access to different goods and an absence of a well-functioning economy can be attributed to the state of war Syria had found itself in following 2011; I wanted to know how sanctions specifically changed the behavior of businessmen, pharmacists, and government officials. How did people adapt to life under sanctions from major world powers and some of their biggest trading partners? Overall, I wanted to explore the unintended effects of sanctions, and how those effects play a role in shaping the country.
To explore purpose, I reviewed sanction guidelines and policies, alongside conducting interviews with individuals who have expertise in or have been involved in shaping those policies. To understand the impact of sanctions, I conducted several interviews with Syrians who experienced sanctions on the ground, many of whom expressed their frustration with the economic restrictions and the everyday impact they feel as a result. When I interviewed a young man, he told me, “In Syria, we have nothing and everything,” explaining how essentially, if you are connected enough, and if you can afford it, you can circumvent the sanctions and obtain anything from the medication you desperately need to the newest iPhone. I also spoke with professors experienced in Syria’s wartime economy, and humanitarian organization leaders who shed light on the impact of sanctions for the most vulnerable. Their guidance was particularly valuable in pointing me to existing research related to my topic.
From speaking with various individuals, I gleaned answers to my questions from different perspectives—from those whose entire international companies were forced to close their Damascus doors to pharmaceutical industry figures who had their supply chains cut to normal citizens who found themselves needing a VPN for their social media accounts. From professors and academics, I learned how the regime actively sought to mitigate negative impact to their power and how broader foreign relations with countries like Russia and Iran were exacerbated.
Ultimately, the interviews I conducted allowed me to better understand how sanctions are playing out in Syria: how sanctions not only fall short of their intended goals, but also have varying impacts on different segments of the population. In my senior thesis, I hope to focus on an area of study that has not been thoroughly explored, the impact of sanctions on inequality. I believe understanding such impacts can contribute to the larger discussion on sanctions, potentially influencing future decision making surrounding their deployment.
Garrett O'Brien
Undergraduate Associate. Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, Harvard College. Research interests: China-Africa relations; development studies; postcolonial theory; semiotics; and South-South relations.
Upon arrival in Kigali, I was told that the country was twenty-nine years old. This idea initially shocked me. How could a country with a history reaching back to before the Bantu Migration be only twenty-nine years old?
It quickly became clear that the Rwanda that I was living in was in fact that young. The country experienced a rebirth from the ashes of destruction after the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis, where up to one million Tutsi, Twa, and moderate Hutu people were killed. After the genocide, the Rwandan government had to reconstruct the value of the Rwandan life. To do this, the government pursued the country’s then-current development trajectory and transformed the country from a place of absolute carnage—a place where neighbors and family members murdered each other in the street and the value of life was unrecognizable—to a place that has been globally recognized for its success in economic development.
To overcome the position that the country found itself in, the government established a series of fundamental principles that would guide Rwanda’s development path. Agaciro, one of the most salient of these principles, is an untranslatable Kinyarwanda word that roughly means self-worth, dignity, and pride. This principle has clearly influenced the development strategy of the country and has underscored the importance of self-reliance and agency in Rwanda’s economic and human development.
The two main goals of my research this summer were to better understand the Rwandan development mission and vision and to learn more about how Chinese investment plays a role in the future of Rwanda. To accomplish these goals, I conducted twenty-five interviews with government officials who had firsthand knowledge of Chinese investment in Rwanda and discussed topics of development, modernity, South-South partnership, and agency.
I based my research out of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the government agency in charge of realizing the Rwandan development vision and managing foreign direct investment flowing into the country. I connected regularly with RDB analysts who work on the front lines of Rwanda’s economic development and planning as well as prospective investors who were interested in investing in Rwanda. Using RDB as a home base allowed me to make connections across the Rwandan government such as the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Bank of Rwanda.
Upon reflection on my time in Rwanda, I feel as though I have a thorough understanding of the goals and contexts for Rwanda’s economic development and how Chinese investment plays into this story. I found in my interviews that individuals involved in development strategy within the Rwandan government are extremely cognizant of the risk of dependency on Chinese investors and have gone to great lengths to ensure that Rwanda does not find itself in a similar situation to its neighbors regarding over-reliance on Chinese public and private investment.
That said, Rwanda wants to learn from China when it comes to poverty reduction and manufacturing—but knows that the way forward must be informed by its history and its cultural context. The economic development of the country must continue to be uniquely Rwandan, no matter how important its Chinese partners become.
Claire Yoo
Undergraduate Associate. Departments of History and Literature and of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Harvard College. Research interests: Twentieth-century US history and literature; race and ethnic studies; incarceration; migration; decolonization; nostalgia; child labor/rights; gender and sexuality; and media studies.
On a gloomy Monday morning in August, I found myself literally counting sheep: the train route from London to Edinburgh crosses through hundreds of miles of British countryside, littered with grazing animals. Though seemingly random, this sleepy trip felt quite on brand for my summer of conducting archival research in Utah, California, and England.
My thesis is on Japanese American Girl Scouts in World War II incarceration camps in the United States, and it argues that this historical moment represented the transformation of an American childhood leisure activity into a performative labor of citizenship. Operating within a historical gap at the intersection of two highly censored histories, my thesis examines the US government’s PR campaign to affirm principles of democracy within its deeply unconstitutional incarceration program—which included implementing Girl Scout troops in all ten camps.
At first glance, this topic appears totally unrelated to England, let alone Scotland. But my thesis dives into the WWI origins of the American Girl Scouts, an organization based on the British Girl Guides, founded just two years prior. Thus, after a very fruitful month of research in Utah and California on Japanese incarceration camps and local Girl Scout troops, I was in England doing research on Girlguiding history.
On my first day at the Girlguiding UK headquarters, however, I was informed that the national Girlguiding Archive had actually been closed for ten years (when their prior archivist passed away). No one had filled the position since. Undeterred, I decided to manufacture my own luck: throughout July, I talked with regional Girlguiding archivists, studied original handbooks at the British Library, and planned trips to historical centers (emphasis on “planned,” as some trips fell through the gaps between outdated websites and defunct emails).
Then in August, I received a very peculiar opportunity to go to Scotland.
After months of emails into the void, the Girlguiding Scotland Archive finally responded to inform me that while it would be impossible for me to physically access their archive, there was an archivist I could come up and speak to. I was tugging at this thread of Scottish Girlguiding history purely for fun: the Scottish organization separated from the broader English Girlguiding organization in 1933, right between the two world wars, and I was curious as to what interwar changes caused this sudden split. Optimistically, it would provide insight into the greater effects of the world wars on the British organization. Realistically, it would make a very interesting footnote.
It ended up being a dead end: the Scottish organization split simply because there were so many Girl Guides that they logistically needed to have their own office in Edinburgh.
But I felt that the five-hour train ride each way was worth it, because the best parts of my summer were meetings like these. I loved having conversations with random people with shared curiosities tucked away in these niche histories, conversations that would usually become more casual and personal as they meandered on. You can write a thesis from anywhere (though obviously it’s nice to write your thesis with a view of Westminster Abbey). But the in-person experience of meeting with an archivist and visiting a site is truly incomparable: how could I explain the feeling of stepping on the same cracked desert soil that just eighty years prior Japanese Americans had built communities on when they were incarcerated by their own government?
Sometimes, counting sheep can lead you to places beyond your wildest dreams.
Captions
- Laura Connor and her host family in front of a waterfall outside of Coroico, Bolivia in the Yungas region. Used with permission by Laura Connor
- The iShop store in Damascus, Syria offers Apple products despite the sanctions. Credit: Dina Kobeissi
- Garrett O'Brien outside the Rwanda Development Board office in Kigali, Rwanda. Used with permission by Garrett O’Brien
- Manzanar Cemetery memorial at Manzanar Historic Site. Credit: Claire Yoo
- Sleepy sheep in the Scottish countryside. Credit: Claire Yoo