In my work so far as a research assistant at Trinity College Dublin, there has been very little clarity and certainty to the directions I am given. More often than not, I am not even given specific items to analyze, just told to look into certain concepts or try to answer broad questions regarding my area within the topic. I generally receive directions about my work once per day. The rest of the time I am expected to be completing the tasks I was given during that period or expanding on them in whichever way I see fit. The team has made it clear that, in such early stages of the research process, we are looking to investigate whichever avenues seem the most promising to collect as much information as we can. In later stages, we will work to clarify the direction of the argument we are making and how we can best provide evidence for those claims.
The area I have been tasked with investigating plays a large role in why there is so much ambiguity and uncertainty in my work. As a whole, our team is looking into the impacts of the Marshall Plan on the Italian economy in the short and long terms, seeking to answer the extent to which American aid impacted the post-war recovery process. With this subject, most of the researchers on the team are focused entirely on Italy, analyzing economic impacts at the macro and micro levels. My purpose, as the only American on the team, is to answer some questions about American motivations for the Marshall Plan and public opinion of it within the country. Therefore, I am looking at sources and working to answer questions that no one else on my team is dealing with, giving me a wide range of flexibility, and making much of my work ambiguous and unclear.
The only work that I undertake which has clear parameters and steps is data entry, and I have done very little of this so far. These projects take very little intellectual thought, so I pass the time by listening to music or even audiobooks while I input and clean the data. Because I experience so little of this clarity in my normal day, this mundane work is actually a nice “break” for me, where I do not have to focus so intently on making productive intellectual decisions. I consciously work to enjoy this time and relax my mind for the inevitable return of complexities.
The task of handling this ambiguity in my work is made easier by my familiarity with the work I am engaging with. As a history and political science major at Pitt, I have spent many hours navigating through the archives of the American government and drawing data, speeches, and federal documents from its vast stores. With this experience, I do not need my supervisor or anyone else on my team to tell me explicitly where to look for certain documents or how to answer questions we may have. I have to trust my judgement to find the best sources I can and my academic experience to extrapolate relevant information for our project.
Beyond my work itself, I experience uncertainty in the extent to which I reach out to the other members of my team. We all focus on different areas of interest, and therefore their ability to help me with my tasks in fairly limited. I am often unsure about when I should reach out to them for their opinion on which direction to take when I reach a crossroads, or how I should interpret certain information that I uncover. I have tackled this by completing my work without waiting on approval but reaching out later to update them on what I have been up to, leaving the door open for suggestions or advice. This strategy has allowed me to continue working without significant delays but maintaining a constant connection and coordination with my supervisor and the other members of my team.
As I continue working on this project and with this team, I am confidence the uncertainty and ambiguity of my tasks will steadily decrease. With each passing day, the direction of my research and the goals of the overall project become clearer. Soon, I will be able to determine the next steps to take without consulting my supervisor or team beyond informing them of my decision and the work I plan on doing. I am not deterred by uncertainty in my work, and it only provides me with more freedom to engage with the topic and sources however I see fit.