research assistant paul?
In addition to getting sunburned, going without sleep, and almost dying last weekend, I also received an email from one of my old professors.
Dr. Goodman Elgar, from the Department of Anthropology, wrote to inform me of a research assistant position with the University of Cambridge dealing with an ethnography of pastoralists in Central and East Asia. There's very little that's been done on that region of the world - it seems the development of agriculture in Southwest Asia is sexier - and they want someone to do archival work to see what exactly has been done on the subject. This is preparation for going out and conducting large-scale ethnographic research in the region.
However, the original posting calls for someone with a Master's Degree, previous research experience, and fluency in either Russian or Chinese with a willingness to learn the other language -- all requirements that I cannot meet. If that wasn't enough, applications were due at the end of June. So why even bring it up? Well, Dr. Goodman Elgar used to teach at Cambridge and is good friends with the program director running this research project. She sent a letter of recommendation through overnight delivery on my behalf and apparently did such a good job of promoting me that the director at Cambridge said it would be fine for me to apply - despite being both late and under-qualified. After some panicked consultation with blithe_wayfarer on the best way to present my curriculum vitae I sent off my documents, contacted a few other professors to act as references, and now it's just a matter of waiting until 17 July for my telephone interview.
As I was already contacting professors, I decided to send emails to a couple others to let them know how I've been doing recently. Much to my surprise they were the first to write back and also volunteered to be references without my even asking them about it. Always nice to feel loved. Especially after the program director at Cambridge wrote back to confirm that my CV was just a single page. I have one presentation and preliminary research work to my credit but she also knows that I only hold a BA, so what did she expect? I'm super excited about the prospect of doing research in my area of interest - well, one of my areas of interest - but at the same time my chances don't seem very good. On top of that, I'd already told the academy director that I'd renew my contract to work at the 학원 for another year. Man, why did this have to happen all at once? I guess now it's just a matter of waiting to see what happens ...
(As a semi-related aside, the Mongolian Naadam [Наадам] ended earlier tonight.)