Tutors in the Wild
Under this rubric, we want to report on our tutors' international and intercultural experiences. Most of our tutors at BA International have done some sort of fieldwork for their Bachelors, masters, PhDs or post-doc projects. In this rubric, they share their experiences and tell their funny and memorable stories when being abroad and being part of another culture.
This issue features our tutors Vedant Mehra and Andy Ciofalo. Vedant reports on his internship at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague and Andy reflects on his experiences gained during his archaeological fieldwork in the Caribbean Islands.
Can you tell us more about the time you spent abroad?
Vedant: From October 2019 to July 2020, I was an intern at the OPCW. There I was a member of the organization’s External Relations Division. The division manages the political relations of the OPCW with its 189 member states alongside communication and outreach with the general public through OPCW’s 5 official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Russian. My daily responsibilities included: assisting senior colleagues with OPCW’s online communication through social media monitoring and website management; organizing Public visits of University Students and Diplomats to the OPCW's headquarters; contributing to Public Diplomacy and Crisis Communication Strategies of the OPCW, and conducting research on WMD Non-Proliferation and Chemical Weapon attacks.
Andy: I have been carrying out archaeological fieldwork since 2011 in the Caribbean Islands. My first excavation in the Caribbean was on a beautiful but small island known as St. Vincent. However, more of my fieldwork was concentrated on the Bahama archipelago including the Turks & Caicos Islands in addition to the Dominican Republic. Each field season occurred usually in May and June after classes at Universities in the United States finished. Typically, fieldwork would last three weeks, but occasionally I carried out excavations on multiple islands extending my time spent abroad up to six weeks. As a paleoethnobotanist I spent most of my time in the Caribbean studying precolonial culinary practices trying to reconstruct which plants people ate and how their cooking processes varied. Fieldwork for us consists of a variety of tasks and even more as a field manager. These tasks include waking up every day before 6:00 in the morning, driving 15-20 students to the excavation site (which is usually a 40 minute drive down a long bumpy dirty road to areas of an island that do not have many visitors or inhabitants). Also, managing the excavation procedure, teaching students how to figure out where to excavate, and proper excavation techniques (aka how to dig a square hole). This also includes artifact identification, management, curation, and cataloguing. Sometimes this is tedious and monotonous, other times it is full of excitement, lively discussions, particularly when we recover a “special” artifact that is not usually found such as shell tooth inlays for a wooden statue, human remains, or an ancient beer brewing pot.
What were your main intercultural experiences, what situations do you particularly remember from your time abroad and what did you take away in terms of skills?
Vedant: Getting the opportunity to observe the internal functioning of the organization up-close allowed me to develop insights into international diplomacy that were not introduced to me in academia. One prominent example of this was how multi-lateral diplomatic negotiations between countries are not exclusive to the main conference room under official protocol but also influenced by informal chats between diplomats during coffee breaks. Importantly, my internship also made me realize that classroom discussions concerning the relevance of the International Organization System overlooked the fact that the system and its powers are bound by decisions made by member states. The system and its staff implement decisions made by countries and not vice versa.
One funny situation I remember was running into a classmate from my Dutch language lesson at an official OPCW event. The concerned individual was a diplomat from an OPCW member state. We decided to have an on the spot 10-minute Dutch practice session to prepare for our test on the following day.
My time at the OPCW allowed me to improve my skills of writing, presentation, public speaking, research and teamwork alongside helping me acquire the ability to work under pressure. Additionally, being part of an international organization allowed me the opportunity to interact with civil servants and diplomats from across the world and develop strong intercultural communication skills.
Andy: Some locals are confused or jealous about the archaeological work being carried out on their island. The confusion is usually subdued after presentations, explanations, or conversations over a shared beer at a local pub. I was explained that sometimes the jealousy is due to misinformation regarding that the archaeologists are not looking for gold, to take their artifacts away, or to stop construction work from continuing, but also because many locals want to take a part in the archaeology as well. This is indeed encouraged and for many excavations, local collaborators are a large part of the team of excavators but it is logistically impossible to include everyone that wants to lend a hand.
One time on Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands, a local collaborator told me of a few cave systems he knew about and because caves are an archaeologists dream due to their unique preservation of artifacts, I immediately set off with him for a very long hike to explore. Approaching one cave system we first had to wade across a chest high stream of ocean water that was not an issue but the salt water started to loosen the soles of my shoes. Then we had to carefully walk along a half kilometer of iron stone that is razor sharp and had a steep cliff drop off into the ocean. Next, we had to shimmy down a cactus into the cave system, which was beautiful and full of signs of past cultural activity. However, once I got down into the cave the soles of my shoes completely fell off. I had to make it back across the razor sharp rock without shoes; it was not pleasant but fully worth the experience.
During the periods of fieldwork, my team leading ability improved, but also figuring out how to work in a team was gained through all of these experiences, and because Photoshop is needed for producing publications that come out of fieldwork, even my digital competences improved.
What did you learn and how can you apply this in your career? Do you have any advice for our students going abroad?
Vedant: I employ all of the skills developed during my experience at the OPCW in my teaching activities at BAIS. The primary aim of my work at the OPCW was to help colleagues communicate complex political and scientific nuances concerning chemical weapons and the work of the organization to the general public in intelligible terms. My teaching activities at BAIS are guided by the same principle, I actively work to break down complex academic content into comprehensible terms when designing and teaching my tutorials.
During my teaching, I also actively make use of my polished public speaking and presentation skills when taking the lead on explaining concepts in the classroom alongside employing intercultural communication skills and awareness when moderating discussions in the international classroom setting of BAIS.
What I can advise our students is to network. While the world is big, professional circles tend to be small (especially in Diplomacy and International Affairs). Attending events and volunteering in initiatives on themes that raise your interest is an excellent way to achieve this. Talk to peers and professionals and make a genuine attempt to know their stories. The fact is everyone started somewhere, maybe you find inspiration in their story for your professional career. I certainly did!
Andy: Teamwork, team leading, and digital competences are needed in almost every career; these were valuable abilities to improve and build upon. Even if I never go on another excavation because of Covid or a change in career, I cannot imagine many jobs where these skills would go unused.
I would like to encourage our students to make sure to read and learn as much about your host culture before going abroad. As well as enjoy the time in a foreign place. Not everyone is as lucky as I have been by being able to go on fieldwork for a decade. The few weeks in the summers go by fast but they create lasting memories that can forever change your life.