I am Fortunate to Have Spent Another Academic Year in EHESS Paris as a Double-Degree Student

Jamievee Bautista (from Philippines), alumni 2021 of the program Comparative Social Research after the study continues his Ph.D. in Political Science and Sociology at Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy.

When I decided to pursue my studies in Russia two years ago, I must put it straight that my main motivation was the MCSR program itself (entirely taught in English and has a huge selection of seminars), aside from my curiosity of the post-Soviet space at large. The domain of comparative social research was alien to me, but the curriculum of the program is tailored to welcome local and international students from diverse academic backgrounds. In parallel, the equally competent professors of the program who also feature a strong international profile bring their own pedagogical approaches and research works which enriched and diversified the learning process.

Although the program tends to bend towards the quantitative research tradition, the options for other methodological seminars are diverse including Qualitative Comparative Analysis and of course qualitative methods in sociology. I am fortunate to have spent another academic year in EHESS Paris as a double-degree student where I further developed and conducted my research on visual sociology of social movements. The experiences from both institutions have immensely prepared me in pursuing my doctoral studies and honed me to be an engaged and reflexive social researcher beyond academia.

As the MCSR program continues to hit international academic rankings, I am confident that the whole experience, albeit very demanding and challenging, will be extremely rewarding after all! 

Jamievee Bautista (Philippines), Graduate 2021