Alleiah KALL, Class of 2021

Can you take us through your academic background?

I did my Bachelor’s in the Social Sciences at Sciences Po Le Havre.

Although the campus has a Europe-Asia focus, my main area of interest was Spain and the Spanish-speaking world, so I concentrated more on the European side of the courses I did. I decided to take my interest in Spanish and History further by doing my third-year Erasmus exchange at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

At the Master's level I chose the École de la Recherche over Oxford, and did a two-year Master’s degree in History between 2019 and 2021. I am now working as a PhD researcher in History at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. I am also studying ballet.

What inspired your interest in History?

My interest in History began as an interest in Anthropology and the rights of marginalized people. At Sciences Po Le Havre, I was struck by the way my teachers breathed life into History. The literary and artistic primary sources they gave us to read brought historical characters' imaginaries home to me in a very personal way. I found myself thinking about how contemporary people could relate to them in their own quotidian contexts, and I did a local outreach project on that with some friends in 2016-2017.

My main history courses introduced me first to 19th century revolutions, and then to European protest cultures in the Long Sixties; I developed a strong interest in social movements for immigrant rights.

My Master’s thesis at the École de la Recherche brought these two aspects together. I narratively brought together activists’ expectations of History, and their hindsight-enriched vision of its role in their own protest movement; this allowed me to investigate the interaction between the sans-papiers movement of 1973 and the Marche pour l'Égalité et contre le Racisme in a very human way. I carried that motivation into my PhD project, where I hope to study the way local people created “working ideas” of history around internment camps in France and Spain in the 20th century. My overall interest in History has always been fueled by the question: how do we live history and how is our quotidian behavior influenced by the way we conceive of it?

What skills did your years as a student at the School of Research (formerly the Doctoral School) give you?

The main skills I learned here were: how to renew my own ideas, how to avoid comparing my efforts to other peoples’ work, and how to live with uncertainty.

During my meetings with my supervisor, Professor Gerd-Rainer Horn, I felt especially encouraged to make the historical ideation process a creative one. I learned to play to my strengths by combining ideas and discovering intellectual connections between them before going into concrete archival material. Covid increased the degree of uncertainty in life; I learned a lot about how to be versatile when I found myself reformulating my Master’s thesis proposal four times. It was sometimes difficult to feel confident about my own methodological approach when I was surrounded by so many better-established and well-structured methods in the academic environment around me. However, I believe that it was precisely that level of uncertainty which oriented my interest towards the way in which ordinary people create their own historical narratives, and the methods and logics that historians use to construct their research. That reflection became the cornerstone of my approach to research.

Which lecturer or course made the greatest impression on you?

The course that made the greatest impression on me was a class on oral history and the art of interviewing that I took during my first semester as a Master’s student. It was taught in French by Professor Claire Andrieu, and it introduced me to the theatricality of history for the very first time. The principal assignment we were set, was to locate and interview protestors against the Algerian War. In the context of retelling, I was fascinated by the way witnesses of historical events simultaneously expressed an orally constructed version of themselves as a “character” who acted in an expected way, and their own human need to comprehend their past actions and render them relevant today.

I was also exposed to the dilemma that historians face, when the meaning that the witness gives to his or her testimony, and the affective response provoked by that, are not in line with the analytical narrative that is expected of the historian. It was during this course that I learned to accept my own way of writing, thinking and communicating - which other people were happy to interact with and understand despite language barriers. Pedagogically speaking, this class taught me more than any other course at the École de la Recherche.

What are your fondest memories of your school, cohort and lecturers?

The fondest memories I have of my Master’s years - otherwise heavily affected by covid! - revolve around the supervision tutorials that were organized during the first semester; I remember the excitement of planning the initial phases of my research project, discussing it with my supervisor every two weeks, and diving into Spain-related instances of historical protest. I call that the “dreaming” phase of the mémoire! I really enjoyed office hours with teachers, when I had the chance to talk to them about term papers and career choice. Those were glimpses into ways of thinking that made me wonder what it would be like to eventually formulate one’s own research approach.

I also deeply appreciated the time I spent working at the Bibliothèque de Recherche in the evenings. My job was to manage temporary library employees’ schedules and engage in library administration from a front-desk position. That experience introduced me to the research world on the resource-provision side of the equation; I learned a lot about mutual respect and the contingent nature of what historians do.

What position do you work in today?

I work as a PhD researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

What were the key steps involved in deciding on and launching your career?

I was unsure about doing a PhD after my Master’s. I had talked to too many struggling postdocs to go into it without questioning the viability of an academic career. I knew that, in spite of myself, research was one of my most evident strengths. Nonetheless, I had always approached research and writing as an art form rather than a scientific enterprise. This meant that I put a lot of energy into my work; what drove my effort was finding joy in the interaction between ideas, and expressing them in a way that evoked atmosphere and provoked reactions. What I asked myself was, however, could I make a career of it?

In the middle of my mémoire and a global pandemic, I somehow got through 10 PhD applications; I was accepted to Oxford, Cambridge and the EUI. As a young Master’s student who had absorbed the idea that Anglo-American universities were in a league of their own, it was quite a dilemma. One of the first things I did was to ask my teachers for advice. Strangely enough, although my Master’s thesis focused on the underlying structure of historical narratives, it was hard for me to perceive the underlying structure behind research as a career: the elements of life that would eventually support it.

Two of my teachers in particular gave me advice that helped me see what mattered. My supervisor, Professor Gerd-Rainer Horn, highlighted the vital importance of solid funding and the expected duration of the PhD. Our Directeur des Études, Professor Mario del Pero, encouraged me to look for what I had valued most at the École de la Recherche: the small History community, a congenial environment and the possibility of diving into research with enjoyment and a feeling of support. As a PhD student, I have the incredible privilege to be working on something that I love. It will be a hard road, but what motivates me is the possibility of being able to write or teach something that can move the hearts of people.

Do you have any advice for students hoping to enter the sector you work in today?

I am only just starting out, and I certainly haven’t had to work through many difficulties yet.

However, my first piece of advice to people who are considering a PhD would be: find out about the kind of life it will entail, and envision the difficult times. Ask yourself: how do I build the resources that will help me through those times? By resources I mean networks of social and emotional support, fulfilling secondary activities that take you away from the PhD bubble, the belief required to put in the hours and keep working every day on a document when no precise end is in sight.

My second piece of advice is to make sure you have solid funding, or a doctoral contract with a steady salary.

My third tip - and I am partly paraphrasing advice I was given by a current teacher of mine - is to assimilate the fact that a PhD is not the end of the road, it is only one piece of work, to be presented to a very small group of people. It does not decide the direction of your entire life! In other words, plan the life you want and feel able to organize, and make your career plan a part of it - but don’t superpose the two so that they are indistinguishable from each other.

A PhD project is not you, and you are not a PhD project!