Honor Sullivan-Drage

Honor Sullivan-Drage is a Latin American Studies MA student (2018/19). Here she tells us about her fieldwork trip to Montevideo, Uruguay.

I spent one month in Montevideo, Uruguay to conduct interviews for my dissertation. Fieldwork was fundamental to my study as I wanted to understand how a Conditional Cash Transfer affected women in terms of empowerment and labour market participation. Having not done a dissertation for my undergraduate degree, the idea of fieldwork was especially daunting. The experience was definitely challenging, as recruiting participants proved quite difficult, and adapting to Uruguayan Spanish wasn’t easy!

My time in Uruguay, however, was also really enjoyable; as well as conducting interviews, I made the most of the culture through museum and theatre visits and attending football matches and film festivals. Doing fieldwork was both a great experience and allowed for original research which is a benefit for any dissertation. Fieldwork is an amazing opportunity, especially with the grant from the Institute which is a massive help.