Creating a Research Agenda

Lightly edited from Zoom’s automatic transcript, so expect some transcription errors. Speaker labels come from Zoom, and […] marks a passage that was cut.

Elisa D’Amico I hope that's working. Yep. And sharing. Does everyone see my PowerPoint? Yeah, great. Okay. And also, somebody say something if you can't hear me very well, because I live in front of a kind of busy street, and sometimes it gets… Yeah, I don't know when rush hour quite is yet. It might be starting. OK. So I'm going to be talking about how to cultivate a research agenda today. And I think that this is one of the trickiest things that happens when you're transitioning from the PhD to the job market because we're so consumed with our dissertation. And we might have some side gigs that we do with maybe professors. here or there. Sometimes it's more attached to their research agenda than ours. Sometimes we end up doing things. That are, like, side projects that we need to be able to explain in our research agendas as to, like, why we… It.

Elisa D’Amico did that or went down that path, and I can answer some questions about if you want ideas on how to do that later. But regardless, it's, like, it's about, like, finding who you're… who you are as a scholar, and… oh, this is the new person. And… Like, cultivating your research agenda is something that you have to do for your job market materials, and it also helps you feel like a more confident scholar. As well, okay. So… I'm gonna talk about, like, what a research agenda should kind of look like, and how to, like, speak about it, and how to identify it. And then I'm gonna… we're gonna go through three examples. One of them is gonna be my research agenda that I… that I sort of, like, fed them when I got the job that I have now.

Elisa D’Amico And then I'm going to talk a little bit about Katie. I'm on her dissertation committee and we've been talking about like over the last months. year, maybe, about, like, how she can brand herself as a scholar, and so she's, like, at the phase that many of you will be. And so, yeah, like, what it's kind of like working in that, like, pipeline right now. And then Kasia… who is, like, a little bit behind… maybe, like, a year behind me on the job market, so she's, like, at this phase where she's now, like, feels like she now has, like, a solid research agenda and outputs, and so what that looks like at that stage as well. Okay. So like, we have this tendency to, like, want to over-explain the… maybe the stuff that's part of our dissertation or our research agenda, like, agenda, like, I do migration and climate and policy and conflict and unrest and protest and da-da, like, to try to, like, hit, like, check all of these boxes, like, to seem like you do a lot as a scholar, and that's not ideal. Like, you want to be able to, like.

Elisa D’Amico Like, say, like, elevator pitch, say who you are, like, at a super, super, super zoomed out high level. So to do this, I recommend that you pick, like. one or maybe two strands, like, very high-level strands of the discipline. Still a subfield, but, like, a very clear, upper-level, strong subfield. And then you can dig into, like. the offshoots of these major strands, like, below, but you should be able to be like, I do this and this, or I do this, and say it really, really clearly. And then, if you organize it into, like, a couple of higher-level strands, it's easier for you to place the subsets of what you do. And, like, when you're applying for, like, a Comparative Politics job or an IR job, because we see, like, a lot of the same applicants for both of these jobs, because it can be kind of transferable, or if you do political economy, and you also do… like, IR… like, the way that you frame these things.

Elisa D’Amico Matters a lot for, like, just tweaking teeny bits of how you're framing yourself on the job market while still seeming super holistic and having, like, a research agenda that you don't have to mess with, in different applications. So, another thing about this is you need it to be recognizable to, like, a non-expert committee. Like, if you say something kind of niche, like, oh, I do, like, these, like, institutions and, like, private… enterprise involvement, blah blah blah blah. Like, at this level, it's gonna be hard for, like, a committee who is, like, like, representative of the broader department, and even external to the department entirely, maybe external to the discipline entirely. Like, they need to be able to understand easily what you do, and not want to, like, go down the path, because there's so many job applications out right now.

Elisa D’Amico like, you want to really avoid them… the chance of them looking at it, being like, I don't know what's going on here, and setting it aside. Like, that's how easy it can be. So you want to be like, I do this and this, and they're like, okay, and then they move along, right? And so… You can have these substrans where you get specific, and that's where your individual papers, your dissertation, pieces of your dissertation, your co-authored papers, your working papers, that's where all of that's. And even sometimes your op-eds and your public policy engagement outputs can go there too. So, like I said, you want these, like, substantive fields, but not, like. Like, so, so, so high level, like… You will say in your application, like I do politics or comparative politics and international relations or political economy. Sometimes if it's a computational social science job, you will say computational social science, although we'll talk a little bit more about that later. But that's just like checking the box for whatever job you're applying to because you're qualified for a lot of these different lines. But you want to say something that's like a super strong subfield. So think Think of like the top journals in like given your field is political science.

Elisa D’Amico like, you see, like, Review of International Political Economy, you see Journal of Conflict Resolution, you see Journal of Peace Research, you see Environmental Politics, so you see some American, like, politics and, like, elections-related stuff, too. You see these, like, very high-level disciplines. If they have, like, really excellent journals in the field, it means that, like. They're a very, like, high-level discipline in the field, and so it should be, like, something that people can, like, get the gist of and understand. So, like, I do gender and peace, or I do, like, AI and governance and human rights. Like, whatever mashup of these, like, high-level things that you do. Is, but it should be, like, simple, and everybody in the field should know what it is without you having to, like, explain it. And the reason why I suggest having two strands of research is because it helps you blend the other pieces of your agenda together a little bit more, and it helps explain some of your fringe pieces. Like.

Elisa D’Amico I'll get to… I'll get to how I do this later. Thanks. And then, so this is something that I've been very, very much telling people on the job market right now. And this was really good advice that I got on the job market was. My dissertation advisor, or I guess before the job market, told me to get super into environmental stuff and climate stuff because it's about to be really, really trendy. There's about to be a ton of job lines opening up about this. This was incredibly true. Like, I like, incredibly true. And I got really lucky with that piece of advice. And while that's, like, maybe not the case in American jobs right now, it's maybe that'll come back. Anyway. So, I don't know, we can… if you have questions about what is, like, trendy, because it does kind of change, but they do go in waves, and there's some stuff that's, like, very clearly trendy, some stuff that's kind of run its course, I could answer questions about that as well. It's kind of hard to, like, keep your thumb on.

Elisa D’Amico And then, ideally, you want to pick I mean, I did not do this necessarily. I kind of started doing this, but wasn't, like, super comprehensive or cohesive about it early on, but if you pick this earlier on, then, like, you will have a stronger case by the time you're on the job market, but… Yeah, it can be tough to navigate that way. This is something I see a lot. Your dissertation is one — you want to frame, even coming straight out of the PhD, trying to get an assistant professorship, you want to frame your dissertation as a part of what you do. You don't want to be like, hi, I am Elisa D'Amico, and my research is on climate and migration and unrest. and that's, like, directly my dissertation topic. Like, my dissertation talks about this, this, and this. Like, do not frame it that way. Like, the dissertation is, like, the… probably the most substantial piece of work that you've done, so you should definitely want to, like, speak a lot about it, but not as, like.

Elisa D’Amico the main event. Like, the main event is, like, I'm a scholar of this and this, not my dissertation is about this and this. Yeah, so like I said, my dissertation work does this and this, but it's part of a broader agenda where I'm also working on Z, and whatever. And everything that you talk about that's a subsect shouldn't neatly fit under your, like, one or two, like, higher-level strands of work. And if you have very unexplainable projects, you might want to think about how to put that into maybe your cover letter or research agenda or research statement or maybe drop it. And… you need to look like an adult with agenda, like someone with a program that will keep producing for a decade. Like, you want to look like you're already their colleague, right? Like, they have research agendas, they're producing on all of this stuff. I mean, if they have, like, full professorship or, like, associate professorship, they have, like, a lot more freedom of being able to change their agendas if they want, a little bit, but… or pivot, but we don't have that freedom yet, so you need to look, like, very cohesive, right? And promising, like, this isn't just, like, a one-and-done, like, a lot of people can write a dissertation, not a lot of people can, like, turn that into, like, a whole entire career, right?

Elisa D’Amico Don't front-load your methods. So this is actually… I was recently at APSA in Boston a couple weeks ago only, I think. That's crazy. And I was here… I was talking to a lot of, like, full professors about this, now that I'm on the other side of the job market. And they were like, do not ever lead with your methods. Don't say, I'm a qualitative scholar, or I'm a critical scholar, or I'm a computational scholar. Like, this is the worst thing That you can do, because it immediately, like, makes it seem like you're a research assistant capable of doing a certain thing a certain way, but not that you… have like a political science personality like that like you know like everybody like you can be like Like, if you're pitching somebody in an elevator, like, what you do, and you say you're a computational social scientist, they're gonna be like, yeah, you and, like, the other 50 kids I talked to and all my students. Like, you know, like, it's not very valuable unless… because I mean, I'm speaking more about computational social science, because this is, like, more my… methodological strain, but, like, there are some computational social science jobs out there, but… Not, like, a not, like… it's better to have a brand, like, even in those, they'll want you to have your own, like, brand. And they're, like… I'm not seeing as many this year as there was in the previous couple of years because I think it is also just becoming much more commonplace.

Elisa D’Amico And even, like… Like, even if it's not something you front, and you do want to mention, like, your methods that you use, you can mention, like, your methodological proficiency, like, way, way, way down in your, like, cover letter, if you want to. Or briefly, briefly, briefly in the first paragraph, using mixed methods, leveraging computational methods, just a teeny, teeny clause in the middle of while you're talking about who you are as a substantive scholar. OK. This last point I made is, I don't know that much about political theory, but maybe that's different. for political theory, I don't know. Okay, so I'm gonna talk a little bit about what I did, and I also just got a ton of really good advice from, mentors and people that were helping me revise my CV along the way to help me, like, organize myself this way. It is… You're going to want to — even outside your dissertation committee, it's useful to ask for a super external view on how they see you as a scholar, and maybe somebody else in your department or something, or a friend that's older further along in their career.

Elisa D’Amico Because this outside look when you're in the weeds can be just super, super helpful. So when I went on the job market, I actually for this job, I had to do a presentation, a standalone presentation about my research agenda. And this is how I framed it. So some of what I do is climate change and environmental politics stuff. Some of what I do is conflict, peace, that sort of thing. But most of what I do is at the intersection of the two. And that explains my articles that I wrote with my dissertation supervisor that is on like more law and policy, but it's all environmental, even though I do a lot of conflict. And then another lady on my dissertation committee that I worked with, she did conflict. So I had non-environmental stuff with her. But it is true that like my dissertation and a bunch of my other papers are at the intersection of the two.

Elisa D’Amico But I still publish standalone articles just in climate and just in conflict. So, like, it's, like, having this super easy, like, mashup to latch onto was really, really valuable, and, like. now, when I'm, like, meeting new people, somebody will introduce me as, like, this is, like, somebody that's, like. early scholar in the… in, like, the environmental politics world, and sometimes I'm, like, more of a conflict resolution person. Like, I can take on any of these identities pretty… seamlessly. It does help when you have more outputs, and, like, proof in the pudding to do that, but, like, you can have this identity… like, there was a period of time where a lot of what was falling into these categories was in, like, my working papers, and not maybe just going under review. And that's okay, too. And maybe even some of my, like, policy outputs.

Elisa D’Amico So… Like I said, every paper that you write, or, like, not even paper that… or, like, working project that you have, chapter of your dissertation, like, needs to fall into one of these Buckets, so, like. I've seen cover letters that are like, these are my R&Rs, these are my things under review, these are my working papers. And that's, like, that's fine if you maybe do only have, like, very… one very specific strand and agenda, but it's nicer to see things lumped together by like the substantive. Let me just check the time. the substantive part rather than, like, the phase. Because when… I mean, when you're reading along and you're like, oh, they already have an R&R on this and a couple of working papers, like, okay, like, I buy it, like, within each section, right? And the dissertation is… was, like, for me, was, like, one line in my like, this intersection of climate and conflict.

Elisa D’Amico I mean, if you have your dissertation as a book project, you might, like, want to give it, like, a full paragraph, but still in the vein of, like, these various strands, right? Like, the substantive strands. Yeah, I also then, like, bridged it with being, like, so not only do I do all of this scholarly work, but I have a bunch of public-facing outputs, because I also, like, care about translating this to society or to the policy world, so here's all of those, right? And that's also an option. And so, at, like, at the end of it, I was, like, said something like. So, like, after all of this, blah blah blah blah, my goal is to foster, like, for my research to foster both, like, climate resilience and a resilient or sustainable peace. And that, like, was clear. That's, like, something they could latch onto, right?

Elisa D’Amico Okay, so… I have, like, this little high-ish level mashup of what I do, like, in the very, very, very beginning of my CV. Again, I kept it very, like, high level, and… Understandable, like, these are pretty much all… maybe besides the… computational social science and policy stuff, like these high-level, subfields, I guess? Hence why the computational social science and policy and methods stuff is at the end. Like I said, substance comes first, so they're like, okay, I know exactly what this scholar does. And so you want everything to be cohesive. like, built into your job talk as well, because in your job talk, you will talk about your broader agenda, but also with your research statement and your cover letter. Like, you don't want to be… overly tailoring your cover letter, and then every other part of your materials looks like you're this cohesive scholar that does, like, this.

Elisa D’Amico thing at the nexus of this other thing. But then. You really targeted it for this. specific job that maybe is, like, a small part of what you do, and that they still would have considered, but it's like, oh, it now doesn't, like, look as cohesive, right? We don't want that. Like, when somebody's reviewing your materials, they should be like, oh, this is the girl that does this, this, and this. Like, cool, great. Like… And that should, like, shine through, right? It should look cohesive, because that's what it looks like if you're… a colleague. I will say that in… so in the cover letter, I… Like, organize my stuff by… like strand or substantive strand. when writing about my papers, but in the CV, I list it by, like, level of progression, so I have, like, my book contract, all of my publications, what I have forthcoming, what I have an R&R for, what I have under review, and then my working papers, because it's a little bit cleaner that way, and also they will, like.

Elisa D’Amico Yeah, it will show to the… it will show them that you have publications, and that you have things in the pipeline. It shows them that your pipeline is ongoing, right? Okay. So Katie, I'll let Katie talk about this. as she wants, but I'll just… like, explain what I'm… how we've been talking about it from my point of view, who's already kind of gone through this process of, like, finding an identity. And she's, I don't remember, a year or two out from the job market. And so we've been talking at length about — she's been picking up these various different assistantships and papers and side papers and stuff and working on her dissertation. And we've been talking about how to frame her. So, Katie, I was just looking at your CV and your materials, and I think I responded to you and had some comments about it, but your CV opens with, like, a skill list, and I'm assuming that that was more for research assistantships that you've been applying for recently, rather than maybe what, like, it would look like if you were on the job market, but… If you wanted to be known as a computational social scientist for your skills to do certain research, then that would make a lot of sense.

Elisa D’Amico And that's showing them that how you can do various tasks, but not like what you're doing and what you're bringing as like your personal substantive interests, which in many research assistant situations, that's fine, but you kind of want the reverse when you're on the job market. And so we've been figuring out, like, amongst all the stuff she does, like, what is her substantive strand or strands? And we've… I don't know, we've been tossing around this thing that's, like, institutional responses to unrest, because her… dissertation looks at police response to various things. She has some work on, like, climate legislative universe stuff, and climate… like, protest and policy outputs, so, like, I think that this is tying together nicely. She has some election stuff, we have to… Which can be similar in some ways, we will talk about that. But a lot of what she does substantively is environmental, but doesn't have to be. So that's kind of what we're working with now. And then she leverages computational methods in most of her… like, research, but that's, like, how she's doing it, not, like, her substantive identity, right? And so we're, yeah, we're kind of trying to pin that down. So let's see, what have I put here? Policies that outcome… yes, this is, like, literally taken from a WhatsApp conversation that we had the other day.

Elisa D’Amico But, like, the paper that I have with her, she's looking at policy as the outcome or the dependent variable. She also looks at policy as an input variable in her project that she has for one of her other assistantship sort of jobs. That is, like, very, very computational and not empirical, but it is looking at these policy inputs. And so… Like, then she has, like, response beyond just legislation, she has this, like, police respond thing as well, so these major parts of her current, like. like, publications that are further along in the pipeline kind of, like, live in this universe where she's looking at, like, both policy inputs and outputs, and a lot of it, what she's looking at is in the environmental vein, but she just also looks at response to unrest more broadly. So, it's about kind of tying all of that together, and also with some of these, like, side projects that she's worked on as well. Kasia, or… okay, I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna let Katie talk about this a little bit if she wants to, and then we can go to… Kasia's.

Elisa D’Amico Katie, do you want to speak a little bit?

Katie Nutley Yeah, I mean, I didn't expect to speak on that.

Elisa D’Amico You don't have to.

Katie Nutley To, to maybe sort of like clarify here, I'm still… I'm just going into my third year, which means that I'm probably at a different point on the job market than a lot of you guys, and I think the whole, it needed naming, not new projects, is probably fairly pointed, because I love a new project. So, I think that that's, that's fair. But yeah, I do have this paper, like, my dissertation sort of broadly deals with partisanship and police response, but specifically, I leverage protest data. Right? And what I find more and more is that there's, like, this selective response. by institutions to protesters, but you also sort of see that, I think. in how legislators deal with environmental protest, and then also sort of how they invoke environmental policy paradigms. So I think it's not just sort of this chain, I also think that there's… there's a selective response there, too, if that makes sense, which I think sort of strengthens that… that idea that there is a chain, more or less. And so, I don't know, it's something that I'm still… I think it's helpful to know that now, because then I can sort of, like, make my work coincide with that. But it… it has been definitely hard fought.

Katie Nutley I would say, against my better nature. So.

Elisa D’Amico No, it's really, really good. It's really good, and I've been thinking about this. I think that you should… I'm trying to push her to do her last dissertation paper, like, have an environmental protest police response component, because then that pulls in all of these, like, environmental-related side projects that she's done. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I'm not her supervisor, but. Yeah, because then, like, you have the environmental… stuff which is really, really trendy, right? Especially, I mean, like, as long as you're staying outside of the US, right? Like, it's still really, really popular, and that could be good for you to kind of, like, keep on the side. Yeah, it's, like, so fun, though, to, like, grow and develop and, like, have all these little things that you're doing and you're interested, and then, like, reflect and see how they fit together, but she's still, like, yeah, like, she's still early, so there's gonna be more later looks, like, looks back to, like, build it out a little bit more. Okay.

Elisa D’Amico Kasia, do you want to go ahead? And talk a little bit about, like, where the phase you're at on the, like, job market and stuff.

Kasia Houghton Yeah, so, I finished my PhD in December 2024, and I've been really lucky to be working as a postdoc research fellow since, well, since before then, but since then too. And I think, I mean, all of the stuff that you've spoken about, Elisa, really resonates because the journey has been tough. Like I'm definitely a maximalist when it comes to interests. So yeah, a bit like Katie was saying, like it's hard to really narrow down. to somebody that doesn't know you very well exactly what it is that you do, and what you like to do. But I think, finally, with outputs, I've kind of managed to, like, form this agenda, and I think when you're doing your dissertation, and then you've got loads of ongoing side projects as well, it's really hard to kind of visualize what it… what your research agenda looks like. But then as… slowly as things start coming out, like, publications start coming out, you kind of see the fruits of your crazy labor.

Kasia Houghton But, yeah, as in working… working hard, doing all these things, basically. So, personally, like, my PhD was on… was, I would say. it was area studies focused, but it had a really strong theme of mediation and conflict intervention, and that's kind of what… I was really interested in the… in the case. But I was more interested in the theme, and I knew that from my PhD that I wanted to build this out, and then through my postdoc, I've been working a lot on mediation in general. So this formed, like, a very clear strand. I… yeah, because I'm Maximalist, I have three strands, sorry, Elisa. But they all kind of… they all kind of, like, tie into this idea of, like, strategic peacemaking, basically. But yeah, so I… I worked on mediation in my… PhD, and also conflict intervention in my PhD, and then since then, working more concretely on mediation globally and peace agreements.

Kasia Houghton And then with, sort of, co-authored projects, I've been working more on political economy of peace. Resource competition. And the international security element, I think, does kind of come hand in hand a lot with conflict studies, but I have really specifically looked at external interventions in conflict, so I think this is where it comes in. But anyway, I've tried to tie it nicely together within my, kind of, cover letters. as, like, strategic peacemaking, but often highlighting whatever it is that the job call is looking for, whether it's international security, or IPE, or peace and conflict studies. Yeah, I don't think I'll say any more about that because there might be some questions later. And I have one more slide. that I kind of added, like, last minute, but I'm currently in the process, probably like a few of you here, of creating postdoc proposals and grant, like, applications and things like that, and… Even though it's a real, it's really hard work, you know, writing so many words of a proposal that might not ever come to fruition, but hopefully does.

Kasia Houghton It has… it has been quite fun in some ways, kind of deciding, oh, like, this is the next step in forming your research agenda, and how can this like, what can… what can you do, you know? Because you have the impact… so you have the freedom to decide how your research agenda progresses, and then also the kind of impact that you want to have, and also the things that you want to learn. And I've had a lot of… fun enjoying that freedom, despite the hard work. So for me, like, there are specific methods that I wanted to learn, and also explore a bit more of, like, the political economy side of things, so I've written that quite heavily into my proposals. Like, yeah, and… if there's anything that's kind of new and interesting that's coming out, so for… for us and who work… I mean, Elisa and Katie have worked with me, so… There's like this whole thing that's, you know, coming out that's peace tech and that's really interesting and it's an emerging area and I would really like to hopefully be part of that, you know, in the future research project.

Kasia Houghton And if you love things like traveling, you know, field work. Or data science, and you want to learn these skills, or be at the forefront of this type of innovation. Like, work that into your research agenda. Why not? Because you have the power to do that, so it's quite fun. Anyway, that's all from me.

Elisa D’Amico And I just wanna also, like… two-finger, like, about, like, what you can work into your research agenda. So not everything that you're interested in and that you put on your agenda has to be, like. completed or done in any way or part of your, like, dissertation. Like, it can, like, if you build it in strongly, say you have working papers on these other, like, things that you're interested in, if it's, like, a cohesive story, even though you haven't, like, published anything on it yet, like, that's also completely fine. Like, you can have, like. an emerging… like, especially if it's, like, you want to pull something more trendy into your research agenda, you can have, like, an emerging strand that is, like, less developed than the other thing, because yeah, like, scholars do this. They, like, work on something, and then they, like, work on something at the intersection of what they're doing, and you know what I mean? So that's also okay, I would say.