Scholarship / Stipendium Hungaricum - Political Science and International Relations BA [3]

Hello,

I am applying to Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship and I would like to see what you think of my motivation letter. I hope others can benefit both from what I wrote and from the constructive criticism I expect. Please note that "the notion of elasticity" mentioned in the last paragraph relates to my research proposal. Please find it below (word count: 595).

motivation letter

I am applying to Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship to start my doctoral studies in Doctoral Program of Political Science of Corvinus University of Budapest in pursuit of a career in academic research in comparative politics. I developed an interest in comparative politics as a result of an effort to explore the relation between political parties, voters and political systems. I then became more interested in political culture and the institutional design as a framework on which the political phenomena occur. I try to reach a better understanding of democratic performance through unraveling the ties between cultural structures and institutions, which almost always includes an economic aspect.

I have completed Political Science and International Relations BA program in French at Yeditepe University with High Success Scholarship. Following that I started MA program at the same institution in English language with a graduate student assistantship. I then however intended to continue my academic career abroad in order to pursue a better life and started Political Science MA Program at University of Wroclaw in Poland. My academic journey so far has provided me with the occasion of writing dissertations in two different foreign languages, having somewhat lesser knowledge of another two, being in touch with academic traditions of various countries, and gaining different perspectives from a cultural vantage point

Making the most of a limited situation, I worked as a musician, freelance and also for a non-governmental organization, and freelance translator during my undergraduate studies. My professional experience in Poland covers a four and a half year period of employment, fourteen months as accounting specialist and around three years as team leader for accounting teams, at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which later became DXC Technology through a merger. These efforts, which started due to economic concerns, had an impact on my studies and the delivery of my final dissertation. I have recently resigned from my professional duties and delivered my dissertation, and now am awaiting the date of defense.

My academic motivation is to understand the cultural and institutional elements of choice of vote. I believe I present a novel approach in my research proposal which will spark further questions in the field. Considering the research interests of academic staff of Doctoral Program of Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest, I think the research I propose aligns with the academic composition of the institution. My aim is to further elaborate this topic and publish on elements of elasticity, and to extend my research on new countries. In future, I intend to incorporate a sociological element; a categorization of events which necessitates a new interpretation of political universe. This new element will be oriented to explain the extent to which voters are impacted by political events in their choice of vote which will have supposedly important implications on charisma building process and understanding of populism. I intend to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship where I will further elaborate the notion of elasticity, or where I will be focusing on said sociological element, depending on the course of my doctoral studies, based on the advice of my supervisors. Additionally, since I am aware that academic life does not only consist of research and publications, but also a responsibility to train new generations, building my teaching skills is equally important to me. In this regard, I intend to build upon the experience I gained during my graduate assistantship. Having the chance to benefit from the expertise of academic staff of Doctoral Program of Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest will be an enormous motivation for reaching my goals.