Short Academic Story from Columbia University with a Panglossian Twist

By Oana Mihalache

The seventh floor of the International Affairs building is unextraordinary at first sight, but it’s a melting pot of valuable research, an intellectual furnace. I like to call it the political science laboratory of Columbia University. As a visiting scholar at Columbia, I attended weekly research seminars on the seventh floor. At one of my first seminars, a PhD student presented her research about civil-military relations and US foreign policy in Liberia. This was the starting point of an intricate, yet rewarding academic journey. I learned important lessons along the way. 

The first lesson was about the power of teamwork. As I sat in the seminar, I was reminded of the ancient Greek agora, with an orator taking center stage. The audience was composed of  PhD candidates and students from Columbia, visiting researchers like me, and political science professors. What better way is there to improve your paper, I thought, than by presenting it in front of some of the brightest minds in the field - the renowned Columbia professors from the political science pantheon. 

“If your research does not make somebody unhappy about it, there’s no point in doing it,” said a professor at one point during the presentation. 

The seminar was an intellectual truce: the audience gained knowledge and the researcher gained valuable feedback. In sharing our ideas on how to improve the paper the PhD student presented, it was like we were all playing  darts with the researcher’s work.  

Writing a doctoral dissertation can be a solitary journey. But draft presentations can lead to encounters like these: a room full of peer reviewers ready to polish the presentation until the last noticeable scratch is ready to shine. 

After the presentation about Liberia and 45 minutes of comments and advice, I had heard many new insights about US assistance in post-conflict army building. It seemed like the PhD candidate’s research was ready to publish. Yet, I soon saw there were many things that still remained to be addressed.  Research is a laborious process and the academic life at Columbia can make it even more so. As I watched this process in action, I began to think about my own PhD research and the long road of trial and error that lay ahead. It’s scary to put your ideas on paper when you are surrounded by some of the brightest in the field. But my curiosity made it easier to set aside the fear.

Now, with a new, virtual academic year in full swing, precious flashbacks from a not-so-distant past come to my mind. I arrived at Columbia in the autumn of 2019. I thankfully had more than a couple of months to get to know the pre-pandemic world of academia and the buzzing life of the university campus. There were countless learning opportunities and I set myself on a very tight schedule to take full advantage of the seminars, library hours, classes, conferences, social and networking events. I thought the sky was the limit in terms of what I could learn, assimilate and write. I was enamored by a Leibnizian ‘best of all possible worlds’. 

My research focused on humanitarian interventions and their impact on state sovereignty. It brought together the medieval discussion on patchwork loyalties and discussions regarding the state after intervention. As I tried to balance my busy schedule, I aimed to write something innovative that sparked debate in the field. But this Panglossian illusion soon faded and I’m glad it did. I learned was to respect my own limits.

The idealism I embraced at the beginning of my time at Columbia seems even more distant. I learned to embrace instead a healthy realism – my thesis was not going to be my magnum opus, and that was okay. I could still contribute something valuable to the field. 

Thus started a thorough academic investigation. My first stop was Lehman Library in the International Affairs building, where infinite resources awaited. Long shelves were filled with books on humanitarian intervention and sovereignty. After I immersed myself in reading, I would have a long talk with my academic advisor, Stuart Gottlieb. Later, I would receive careful guidance from other members of the Political Science department. I am grateful to Page Fortna, Michael Doyle, Jack Snyder and not only for what I learned from the enriching discussions with them.

Then came a trip to Butler Library. An imposing mammoth, both in terms of size and the valuable collection of knowledge it hosted. Butler faces the famous Alma Mater statue on the stairs of the Low Library, gracefully holding its scepter and quietly imparting knowledge over Manhattan. 

My first attempt to bring a serious contribution to the field was written while doing research at Columbia. The article is now under peer review, waiting to see the printing light of a journal. Other shorter articles followed, on topics related to the conflicts in Libya and Syria.  

Then spring came, and with it, quarantine. Yet, I still felt like Alice in an academic wonderland. I was surrounded by a miniature Lehman collection, as I got to keep the borrowed books for longer than expected. I had rich conversations via zoom and interviews with UN officials that shed light on my research. I had lone walks across Harlem – a place I still call home. 

I did not get to give Columbia a proper farewell last Spring, but I will do it now as a new year begins, and as I continue to unpack lessons from my time here. I arrived at Columbia full of curiosity and academic naiveté. Now I’m leaving with a collection of lessons yet to be fully revealed and distilled.

Oana Mihalache was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where she was affiliated with the Saltzman Institute for the 2019-2020 academic year. Now she is pursuing her PhD studies at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest. Her research is focused on the republican thought from a security perspective in explaining sovereignty after instances of humanitarian intervention. She currently works as an adviser at the Presidential Administration in Romania.