The last few weeks have been characterised by learning; becoming familiar with practical skills such as Excel, NVivo and Zotero, learning how to conduct academic research as a team, and learning how to manage both time and responsibilities. 

Having never used these programmes before, these are skills that I will not only find useful in conducting this research, but also in the future.  

We have been met with various challenges as we conduct our research, such as a lack of clear direction, confusion and timekeeping (more specific to group five). However, as a team we have worked well together to combat these challenges and push our research in the right direction.  

Over the next few weeks, I am looking forward to watching how our research comes together, now that we have an approved research brief and a better understanding of how to approach our research. 

Outside of my time at Laidlaw, I have become involved in the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church to keep up the skills I have learnt singing choral music this year, which has been a very exciting experience.  

I also got the opportunity to meet with Dr David Kretschmer, who is an academic researching an area that really interests me (intergroup relations, immigrant social and cultural integration, religion and gender, stereotyping and discrimination, social network analysis, and quantitative methods more generally). I saw his research in the Economist and reached out to him, and he was kind enough to meet with me. I learnt a lot from chatting with him, which I will use in approaching my research here and beyond. 

Additionally, I got to travel back home for the weekend, having not seen my family and friends in months. It was the perfect weekend away: I live near the coast and miss it a lot whilst I am at Oxford. I was able to relax at the beach and enjoy the fabulous weather, surrounded by my family and friends.