Gulnora Iskandarova: "I am thankful to SILC for giving me opportunity to conduct research"

April 27, 2016

The Student Intellectual Life Committee (SILC) supports student-initiated projects, professional development opportunities, and student research. It awards small grants every month to AUCA students.

Last academic year SILC gave grants to 25 sophomores, 24 juniors, and 13 seniors. Since freshmen do not have a reliable GPA and the committee needs an overall GPA for the application, SILC does not give grants to freshmen. Seniors are ineligible in their second semester generally, on the other hand, SILC has given grants to some seniors in a few special cases for their academic development and senior thesis.

Gulnora Iskandarova, a senior student of Anthropology department, told us about her SILC experience.

“Participant observation is one of the principles of ethnographic method which most anthropologists use during their research where they go to research location at least for one year and live with people by observing, studying, experiencing new culture from inside, and SILC gave me opportunity also to go to new place, conduct ethnographic research, meet new people and importantly practice and develop my research skills.

I applied for SILC at the beginning of 2015–2016 academic year to support my senior thesis research at Talas region of Kyrgyzstan which is located in Northern part of the country and considered one of the developed regions in terms of agriculture by cultivating kidney beans and economically advanced in comparison with other regions. I studied there how cultivation of kidney beans effect to social, cultural and economic life of people at Talas and their practices, discourses and local economy. And thanks to SILC I was able to visit twice Talas region in November and February, in my winter holidays, where I lived in the family of farmers who were engaged in agriculture.  

During my fieldwork I observed how people live in the villages, how they build a discourse on what they cultivate, conducted interviews with local people on how cultivation of kidney bean influences to their social life, cultural practice local economy. In addition, I could build good relations with my host families that they consider me as a family member who is interested in their everyday lives. These experiences were important for me because only after practice you can develop research skills and these skills will follow me during my professional career.                                                                                       

SILC application process is not difficult; it is easy to submit application with required documents online which save time of students. I applied for SILC twice, fist time in my second year to conduct a research in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and second time in my senior year for senior thesis research at Talas region, Kyrgyzstan. I heard about SILC during my first year of study at AUCA from SILC awardees, it was interesting to know their experiences and later I also applied and got support from SILC.

And I am thankful to SILC for giving me opportunity to conduct research in Talas region, meet new people, experience new culture and as well as improve research skills. SILC supports not only research but also other various activities such as international conferences, seminars, summer schools and exchange programs. I would advise students to use their opportunity and apply for SILC by showing significance of selected activity to their academic life, professional career and personal development and of course gain from it maximum experience for your development as it will be useful and helpful in the future.”

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