Last week the trainings and discussions we had cut across the disciplines. How does the interdisciplinary nature of this program, and the fact that students are focusing on such a diverse range of projects, help you think about your project and/or your academic interests more broadly?

The interdisciplinary nature of this program allows me to gain insights from other students who specialize in other fields and areas of study. When it comes to my project, the insights they shared have allowed me to try out various different research methods: for example, I am now combining traditional social science research with data science. Regarding my academic interests, my peers and Laidlaw have inspired me to learn and explore other subjects that I am unfamiliar with, such as history and linguistics. 

As you begin your individual research projects this week, do you anticipate any challenges in getting started? If so, what are they?

I anticipate that I might encounter some challenges regarding data collection and analysis because it is hard to use American computational scraping tools on Chinese platforms. I am currently working with Columbia librarians to find a way through this. I also encountered some challenges over the past week in writing up my literature review, but I talked with my mentor, Professor Nathan, and he directed me to a fitting angle that I should be taking.