Some three weeks ago I returned to Helsinki from Tokyo, and I have already written about my trip to Tokyo in my own blog, but I thought it might be worthwhile to reflect on my research visits to New York and Tokyo here.
I was lucky to get funding from the Tutkijat maailmalle program to visit two great universities: I spent three months in Parsons The New School for Design (New York, USA) and another three months in The University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). Doing my PhD in a business school in Finland, it was amazing to visit two institutions that were intellectually somewhat far from what business schools usually represent. Seemingly far, I must admit, after realizing I found numerous connecting points to my own research. Now, my research on visual knowing and visualizing knowledge isn’t your typical business school research project (some people even said they wouldn’t touch my topic with a ten foot pole!), but to a large extent my thinking has been shaped by the business school discourse: after all, I’ve studied in two business schools in Finland for almost eight years!
Anyhow, I soon realized there are differences how people from different disciplines think and talk about same phenomena, and this I found extremely interesting! Talking about the same phenomenon with different concepts and theories can sound frustrating at first, but once you get beyond the initial confusion, things really start to progress. So, not only was I able to be a member of two academically prestigious communities, I was also able to further my own research by talking to my colleagues in both New York and Tokyo.
To describe how much I learned and experienced during my research visits in a blog post is simply not possible. Well, if I want to keep this in a readable length, that is, so please allow me to focus on few takeaways that I think might be useful for other scholars – and for people funding research – thinking of going abroad.
- Being a visiting scholar expands your horizon: naïve? Maybe so, but quite often we take our current environment as the borders of our world. Anu Partanen recently wrote in Image (sorry, the article is in Finnish) about how Finns often do not aim high enough, and I agree with her to a large extent. When I first arrived to New York I was mesmerized, scared, but mainly excited: now I would really see how my research matches with the global standards. What I soon realized was that people abroad doing amazing research are also ’just’ people: however, what sets them apart from us Finns – at least for the time being – is their drive! So my takeaway here would be as follows: dream big and be proud of your work!
- Going abroad is an excellent career boost: both in terms of learning and growing your network. Nothing magical about this one, should be a no-brainer.
- As a visiting scholar you acquire skills and tools that you can utilize in your home institution: this is actually something I’m excited about! Once you work with people from different institutional contexts you realize how your home institution could be improved. And, naturally, there are also moments when your best practices could benefit the institution you are visiting.
I could go on for hours about the importance of going abroad during your PhD project, but hopefully this has already convinced you. If not, or if you just want to know more about my visits, get in touch with me. To recap my key point here: go abroad, expand your comfort zone, challenge yourself, and contribute to your home institution and the schools you are visiting. I’m really happy and honored to be one of the Tutkijat maailmalle researchers, and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in becoming better scholars!