opportunity to work at a think tank like the Ditchley Foundation has only confirmed this further.
First Year Masters, MSt World Literatures in English, Remote Working Work Projects The project largely consisted of researching and writing a paper assessing Ditchley’s evolving contributions to democracy and multilateralism using the foundations largely unexplored archives of conference papers and recorded discussions. I contributed to business development by making the archives accessible to the public by producing summary papers and interactive timelines on issues discussed at Ditchley such as the Anglo-American media and US-EU relations. I then formatted these for the Ditchley website or Smartify app. This enables future collaborators to have a greater understanding of what the foundation does and what it has already achieved. Daily Life Met weekly or bi-weekly with Ditchley's Impact Lead and the other intern (both were lovely) via Zoom. We each chose different topics, then would go through the archives (which date back to 1958, but due to patchy digitisation we mostly focused on 21st century conferences). We peer-reviewed each other's work each week and then met to discuss what to change/ how we would take our research further. There was also an intern social every week which involved discussing current affairs or a topic of general interest via Zoom. I also had the opportunity to go visit Ditchley in person, which was an incredible opportunity to visit the property, to meet those who worked there, and to discuss what our research had produced with the foundation's Director. Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my internship and I loved working with Ditchley. Everyone was incredibly interesting and welcoming (both virtually and in real life) and I have been asked to return for future collaboration and events, which is very exciting. It has definitely convinced me that I am interested in both a research-based and political career.
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