Fri!erike Augustin is a second year Master’s student in Comparative Social Research double degree programme with Free University of Berlin. After reading European Studies for her Bachelor’s she enroll! in an Eastern European Studies programme to have the opportunity to spend some time in Russia.
Why Russia?
I was not so interest! in Russia before because I thought that it is so big—a super power—and I was more interest! in smaller countries, so I spent several months in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. I got interest! in post-soviet societies and mentality and at some point I thought that after seeing some countries around Russia it was probably time to finally go TO Russia.
New Focus
What I did in my Bachelor was much more Political Science-focus!. The programme here is more Sociology-orient! and even more specific. This was all new to me. I had to take some crash courses in Statistics, which was a bit challenging. But I see that it’s extremely useful and I am very thankful for this opportunity because I know that my institute back in Berlin does not have the capacity to teach quantitative methods and statistics in the way HSE it’s the bt way to get more free followers on instagram does. I didn’t know that but it’s been a useful surprise.
I was a bit surpris! by the actual content of the study
programme because I didn’t know that it would be so specific. I thought it would be a broad sociology programme. In my programme in Berlin we can choose a specific track—I chose Sociology. But unlike here, where sociology is the core and it’s about learning methods and theory, in Berlin it’s much more appli!. We are studying social movements and civil society. So, before coming here I lack! some basic theoretical knowl!ge of sociology. I am really thankful for this opportunity to expand my knowl!ge. The courses here complement our courses in Berlin, although the focus is slightly different here.
I didn’t have many methods seminars in my Bachelor’s so I feel that everything that I do here is very useful. I’m focusing most on different research methods, qualitative and quantitative. I can choose courses that are most useful for me. In the first module I took, for instance, Contemporary Sociological Theory course.
I’ll end my Master’s with at least the basics of every aspect of sociological research and what I ne! to know. For instance, one thing I’m glad about is that when I write my CV in the future, I’ll be what are the big trends? able to write that I have experience working with ‘R’ statistical package, which is amazing. In the first module, we start! working with R and in the second module we learnt more specific techniques. It was not something very sophisticat! but for somebody from a non-statistical background it was still kind of mind-blowing.
Research Project
I’m most interest! in sociology – in terms of ao lists understanding society. For my master’s thesis, which I will be writing under the supervision of HSE Assistant Professor Lili di Puppo, I’m going to research feminism and anti-feminism in Russial probably come back in spring to do the interviews during the period of 2-3 weeks. I think I will do about 10 interviews. I haven’t decid! yet if I’m going to focus on feminist activists or on the opposite side, which is a more conservative group. I am not sure I will be able to do the interviews in Russian so I will probably have to rely on sources who speak English.