Dissertation progress report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dissertation progress report - Essay Example One may assume that the topic that I have chosen for undertaking research studies is a pretty simple one and that anyone could simply refer a few editorials in the newspapers and journals and come up with the requisite dissertation. In fact, I strongly believed that this was a good way to conduct my research as I had access to excellent library and archive facilities in the University in addition to being under the able guidance of my supervisors, who have always been extremely supportive and understanding at all times and have acted as true guides at all times. But, as the rest of this report will go to show, I am of the firm belief that opinions and the actual facts will never be highlighted in either newspapers or journals. I have strongly understood over the years that the facts and information presented in the newspapers are merely the opinions of the writers, at least in a majority of whatever gets printed in the form of articles and that the real facts are largely subdued or remain unheard. Therefore, I felt the need that something concrete had to be done in order to get to the real facts and upon analysis, I came to the conclusion that rather than rely solely on literary sources, it would be better for me to get to the people who have been feeling this hatred against the west. I strongly believed that getting to know them, the conditions and events that have come to characterize their lives over these years and the reasons for them to blame the west for all this. The undertaking of any such activity in this regard, especially in the form of a public survey really seemed as if it would bolster the quality of my research even though I knew that I would have to travel to countries that are considered to be dangerous and unsafe especially for people from western countries.But, before I proceeded with any such activity, I needed to make sure that I was on the right path and this required me to do a lot of groundwork so as to allow myself to generate an action plan for my research activities. This, I felt could be done by attending seminars and conferences, which I had not done before due to personal reasons. Therefore, I made it a point to attend all such conferences that discussed about the topic of 'Anti westernism' in detail. Due to my inability to be able to shift to Paris owing to personal reasons, I had made arrangements with my supervisors to work on a part-time basis. But, even then, the thought of my new approach propelled me up and I have been on it over the last few months.Primarily, I began to attend th e conferences and seminars that were conducted regularly at SOAS, which stands for- 'The School of Oriental and African Studies'. The various seminars and conferences that have helped me design a road plan for my research are listed below: "Attitudes towards Reform and Western Integration: Comparing Late 19th-Century lema and Early 21st-Century Kemalists" by Mr. Zafer Yoruk. "The Justice and Development Party: Still Searching for Security and Legitimacy" by Prof. Ihsan Dagi. 'Turkey's Accession Process' by Ambassador Michael Lake, Former EU Ambassador in Turkey (1991-98). "The Prospects for Cyprus post-Annan and Turkey's Accession Decisi' by Andrew Dismore, MP From the subjects of the seminars that have been listed above, I can say conclusively that I got a fair idea of the major