A question for Anna Mossolova
Doctoral student from the School of Humanities of Tallinn University Anna Mossolova defended her doctoral dissertation in December last year, where she focused on the Yupik peoples’ practice of mask-making before and after their first contact with Europeans and Americans at the beginning of the 19th century. We asked Anna Molossova, who successfully defended her dissertation, one question.
Writing a doctoral thesis is a huge undertaking and definitely needs constant self-motivation. What’s your trick? How were you able to consistently work on it to achieve a successful final result?
The trick is to keep your focus, but also make sure you don’t lose track of the big picture during the routine activities of a doctoral student. I also think it is important to seek new knowledge from outside the university and to keep expanding your network of academic contacts. Meeting new people in your field provides you with new ideas and inspiration. Business and study trips and conferences have always motivated me and helped me achieve a better result. Throughout my doctoral studies, I have always been on the move: I spent half a year at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and one year as a visiting doctoral student at the University of Anchorage and attended several conferences in both Europe and the United States. Fortunately, there are a number of programmes in Estonia as well as the European Union that support and finance trips like these.