Being a Part of Your International Community

by Laura Stevens (2022-2023 Experimental Liaison) 

COVID-19 was a terrible and turbulent time for everyone and was an especially difficult time to be studying as the world turned to online teaching mediums. However, one positive to the shift online is that it is easier now than ever to be a member of your international community. This resource will cover the benefits of getting involved in your international community and easy ways to immerse yourself. 

Being a Member of International Networks
As one of the first UK-based students to be a part of the APLS student committee, I am really excited to be part of an international community of researchers and practitioners working  in Psychology and Law. In addition to my role within the student committee, I am also a research assistant within the Rights for Time Network – an international organisation that brings together academics and practitioners to explore how time affects war, displacement, and violence in order to progress conversations about humanitarian protection. I am also a member of the UK-South Korea Eyewitness network that fosters collaborations to improve the documentation of eyewitness memory evidence globally. All the aforementioned networks are either free to join or for an extremely subsidised fee as a student, so there is no better time to immerse yourself in international research. 

Benefits of International Networking

• You meet incredible researchers who are revolutionising in their area, as well as amazing practitioners and community actors who are making an impact on the ground. You get to learn from these people and consider what future research questions are integral to developing, understanding, and designing research projects around these ideas. This could lead to future funding opportunities!
• You can learn about interesting and diverse cultures and take part in cross-cultural research that is driven by partnerships within that country. 
• You can develop your skills as a researcher by co-designing research methodologies and carrying out research in different contexts. You may encounter unforeseen challenges and learn how to overcome them. For examples of when international research may be difficult and potential methods to overcome such barriers, please see a Webinar from Global Challenges students at the University of Birmingham, UK, here.
• Obviously, you get to potentially travel to some really cool places!

Ways that you can get Involved!

• Attend conferences, either in person or online. Post-COVID, many conferences are offering hybrid methods which can help financially if you cannot afford to travel or want to attend multiple conferences a year. 
• Check out travel grant schemes, both from the conference themselves but also from your institution or organisation. There might be money there to assist you in travelling to a conference. This could help you travel and help develops your grant writing skills!
• When at the conference – make the most of it. Attend networking lunches, poster sessions and ask questions. You never know when someone you meet could become a future collaborator or mentor.
• Attend online webinars hosted by different organisations or networks. These are typically free and recorded to enhance participation from all time zones. Follow up with speakers via email about anything you found interesting. 
• Sign up to the mailing lists of networks you are interested in.
• Follow researchers and practitioners in your field from all over the world on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep up to date with research advances; like and retweet their work to show your interest!
• Find other people working on similar areas to you and email them. See if you can run a research study in both labs and possibly do a cross-country comparison or consider grant funding together!

 
Being a member of your international community does not need to be as difficult or as expensive as you think. Happy Networking!