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| Courtesy of mystudentvoice.com |
My first semester as an International Relations (IR) student has just ended. Even though grades have not been released yet, I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast between my undergraduate and my master study (the one I am currently pursuing).
A bit of context, I did my undergraduate in English Language and Literature back in 2013-2017 at the University of Celal Bayar, Turkey. As for my master study, I was freshly admitted (well, I was admitted in late 2019 and enrolled in courses in February 2020) at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, the Australian National University (ANU) majoring in International Relations. Having gone through the bloody months (literally and figuratively) of the first semester, it is only right that I reflect on my decision to switch from English Literature to IR. So let's get right into it!
What Prompts the Switch?
To be honest, studying IR was "the plan" from the first place. Remember that critical time in your final year of high school when you had to decide what you wanted to do next? For me it was an easy answer: I wanted to study IR in Yogyakarta. It was that specific. No, it was not UGM (I was surprisingly very realistic with my chances). Instead, I made peace with the reality that I might have to go to a private university in Jogja, like UMY or other private universities where IR major is available.
Then the option to study in Turkey came into the table. While studying abroad had always been my plan, I did not plan to do it for the next 5 years. In other words, studying abroad was a plan that I reserved for my master education. Mind you, I was a very well-planned kid.
- Elementary in my neighborhood
- Junior High in a boarding school (still within my the compound of my district area)
- Senior High in the capital of my province (Banda Aceh)
- University in another Island (Possibly in Java e.g., Jogja)
- Master in an overseas institution (as for this one I didn’t really mind where it would be).
Looking at my life plan, it's obvious that I skipped plan no. 4, not without consequences. I guess nothing comes easy or to get things easy you have to trade with the devil.
So I did go to Turkey and instead of pursuing IR, I ended up with English Literature. I have always liked English in high school. But unfortunately I only learned grammar in my English class and I was not even that good. We were not taught English novels, poems, short stories or even plays. So you can really imagine how blank I was in my first days of university. But I grew loving it and I have to admit that I was even obsessed with everything I learned. The course that I loved the most was Literary Theory. I found it fascinating that people invented theories to decode the things in the short stories, novels, poems, and etc., In a way, my relationship with English Literature is like an arranged marriage where the couples grow loving each other. It was difficult at first, but we find ways to love each other.
"If it has gone that well, why look back?" you may ask. After graduation, I returned to Indonesia and got myself a job as an English teacher at a private school. I really liked teaching - even though dealing with teenagers are not that easy. What I had issue with was the paper works and the salary. Teachers spend so much time dealing with lesson plans and meetings - that we have no times for ourselves. I literally spent my weekends marking papers and writing elaborate lesson plans (as instructed). Another thing that I had issue with was the fact that I slowly move away from the literary world. I guess there is a similarity between public and private schools in Indonesia - they don’t teach students to read the literature. I would have been very happy to stay if what I had to do was to teach Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Shakespeare and etc.,
Towards the end of my contract, I have been very active to look at my potential options. A, I could switch job or B, I could get a degree in the job that I plan to pursue first - so that I am there in a full capacity to do the job. Long story short, I applied for Australia Awards Scholarships (AAS) with International Relations as my proposed program. I specifically chose IR because during my time as a teacher I helped coach the Debate Club and Model of the United Nations where we spent times discussing social issues such as the Rohingya refugee and etc., In a way that experience gives me a taste of what it would feel like to study IR. Plus, I was always so excited every time we had that debate about certain social issues. I just could not help but connect the dot. Is this a sign that I should do what I planned to do from the first place: study IR?
I got an offer from AAS in 2018. According to the plan, I would be flown to Australia in January 2019. But there was a problem. At the exact same time I received an offer from AAS, I also got an offer from the committee of the 2018 IMF-WBG Bali Meeting to take a small part in the meeting as a liaison officer to a certain country's prime minister. I decided to defer my master study to 2020. Fortunately, AAS was kind enough to let me do it without rebuking my scholarship.
That's a very long story to tell you why I switched to IR. But that is the truth.
Now, let's go to the motion: English Literature or IR?
English Literature
The biggest misconception about English Literature is that you only learn poetry, short stories, plays and novels. While it is true that we study all of them, we also study them in relevance to the politics and social issues of the time. For example, when we read Jane Eyre, we study how women were systematically oppressed by society. Similarly, when we study A Tale of Two Cities, we also study the political situation of the 19th century such as the Industrial and French revolution, child labor, economic disparities and many more.
Earlier I talked about the literary theory course that is taught in English program. In this subject, we learn lenses or theories with which we will analyze the text. The theories that I like the most are psychoanalysis and postmodernism. I find these two theories to be fascinating because they reflect the life that we are experiencing at the moment.
Although I will always be fascinated by literature, I feel like I can still nurture my fascination of literature without having to formally study it. I will always read and analyze the books that I read. In other words, while pursuing IR I can still enjoy reading poems, short stories, and novels. They are not mutually exclusive.
International Relations
One of the reasons why I decided to switch to IR was because IR is all about the present. Meanwhile, in literature - it is very persistent that we only study the cannons - which are mostly the classics. While the quality of the classics are beyond questions - I feel like we should also study the contemporaries. How are we going to produce the new thinkers, If we only appreciate thinkers of the past?
Now that I am studying IR, I get what I wished for. What I do every day is to talk about the present: human rights, power transition, civil war, trade war, military intervention, refugee crisis, the fall of a hegemon, and etc., which I wholeheartedly like. But what I notice is that, the line between fictions and facts are very thin. Much of the things I study in IR are very philosophical and theoretical - which make them very English Literature is a sense. Quite understandably so, IR is not a science where you get a manual on how to run things. IR is a study where it offers you the possible approaches on how to handle the present situation. Sometimes it works, oftentimes it doesn't.
How do I like it so far? I like it a lot. I like talking about social issues and their potential solutions. But sometimes, I am just frustrated that our social issues can't be fixed as easily as a broken window.
Summation
I think I made the right choice to both study IR and English Literature. I have been very interested in social issues such as climate change, refugee crisis, human rights and etc. What's better way to study them, other than through IR. I admit that, although the two programs are not that different (they both are under the humanities umbrella), I still struggle to adapt. But that's why we study, right? If we have known and aced everything what are the conveners are there for?
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