Year Abroad Internships - Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social-Programa Peninsular (CIESAS)

CIESAS is one of the most important national research institutes in social anthropology in Mexico and has seven centres in different regions of the country. CIESAS—Peninsular is a small branch of this larger institute and was set up in 2000 to investigate social and cultural issues in the Yucatán. By working as research assistants to established researchers at CIESAS students will both contribute to on-going projects and receive practical research training.  The exact programme will depend on the interests of the student as well as research projects being carried out by Dra Fortuny and researchers in CIESAS or other local institutions at the time of the internship

Objectives of the Internship for Students:

  •  To develop anthropological research skills by working with experienced social researchers.
  • To gain experience of working on one or more empirical research projects relating to local social issues.
  •  To gain knowledge and understanding of salient social, cultural or political issues in the Yucatán.
  •  To enhance fluency in Spanish.

Students can expect:

To contribute to on-going projects by working as a research assistant for one or several of the researchers at CIESAS. This will involve some of the following types of activities:

  •  Accompanying researchers on fieldwork trips
  •  Doing relevant literature or web searches
  •  Assisting with interviews
  •  Collecting and analysing documents
  •  Doing observation research
  •  Producing bibliographic summaries
  •  Assisting with the storage and presentation of research findings—using computer   programmes where appropriate
  • Attending research seminars

Internship schedule

You will spend the first semester (September—January) studying relevant courses at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY) in Mérida. Between February and June you will undertake your internship at CIESAS for a period of not less than 3 months and not more than five. During the period of study at UADY you should arrange to meet with Dra Fortuny at least twice before December 15th to discuss the internship and your research interests, during which your suitability for the internship will be evaluated. A final decision regarding your acceptance as an intern will be communicated both to you and to the director of Latin American Studies at Essex University by December 15th at the latest. The final decision rests with Dra Fortuny and CIESAS. 

Qualities and Requirements

Prospective interns should be mature, independent and motivated, and be prepared to work in a collaborative way. They will have shown enthusiasm for learning research skills during the second year of their BA studies, and have obtained at least a 2.1 grade for their CS241 coursework.

Contacts

For further information about this internship, please contact Dr Andrew Canessa, e-mail Canessa (non essex users should @essex.ac.uk).

Internship Supervisor: Doctora. Patricia Fortuny Loret de Mola (Profesora Investigadora)