Anne Jensen SandHi everybody!
My name is Anne, and I am a Danish master’s student of EUROSUD with a background in journalism. I have for some time wanted to add an academic specialization to my more practical profile. When I saw that the EUROSUD master existed, this was the perfect option for me, as it allowed me to dig into one of my all-time favourite subjects – Southern Europe – and combine it with in-depth research, particularly when doing the dissertation in the fourth and final semester.
Wanting to improve my French, I therefore chose to spend my third and fourth mobility at Aix-Marseille Université as a student on their research track. As most people choose the professional track, we were the only 2 EUROSUD students on the research track, and the only 6 French students. This made teaching very intense, but it was also a privilege having so few of us in class, as it made it easier for everyone to engage in discussions. We had classes on methodology, nationalism, religion, migration, borders, political transitions, cultural and collective memory in South Europe, with some classes specifically focused on the Balkans. We also had a French language course and one compulsory language class, which in my case was Italian.
As our schedule was almost entirely different from the one that professional track students follow, and the fact that they often had classes at another facility, we unfortunately didn’t see the other EUROSUD students at the university, unless we bumped into each other at the library or at lunch at the university cafeteria. However, this was made up for in the evenings or weekends, since I lived in a university dorm with four other EUROSUD students.
I never doubted that I wanted to choose the research track, and this didn’t change while being in Aix-en-Provence. Furthermore, if you’re really keen on an internship, it’s possible to do that on a part-time basis while also writing the dissertation. However, this requires a great amount of discipline. I have chosen to focus solely on the dissertation and possibly hand it in in June instead of September, and I am actually looking forward to it. After having moved around and gotten used to new universities, subjects and classes on a half-yearly basis, it is going to be interesting to get the time to really dig into one subject, in my case left-wing populism. If you are going to Aix and have any questions, feel free to reach out!
Anne Jensen Sand