As dissertations begin to occupy an ever growing space in the mind of third year students, who better to talk to than the winner of the 2024 History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group (HPGRG) Undergraduate Dissertation Award: Tom Rawcliffe.
For those who haven’t read Tom’s dissertation, ‘Our Little West’: Väike-Õismäe and the Role of Architecture in Constructing a Western Identity in the Estonian SSR, 1968-1975’ takes the district of Väike-Õismäe, in Estonia, and explores how ideas of ‘Westerness’ were constructed and communicated through the local architecture.
Tom: “The dissertation started from my observation that Estonia and Estonians believe that they are fundamentally Western and European… it is very interesting to me that you have a country, part of the Soviet, that perceives itself as Western.”
Winning this award came as a surprise to Tom. For him, one of the most important parts of the award was that it meant his dissertation “spoke for itself” and got the award on its own merits.
Something I was most interested in asking Tom was about his experience learning Russian and Estonian. Arriving at York, Tom threw himself into two years of York’s Languages For All, a language learning scheme run by the university, where he learnt the basics of the Russian language. But it was his year abroad to Estonia that Tom described as a “game changer” for consolidating his Russian skills, and for learning Estonian. Learning these languages proved very useful for Tom’s archival research, where many documents were either in Russian or Estonian.
Tom initially applied for a year abroad in St Petersburg, which he was allocated a month before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Because of this, Tom was allocated Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia. Tartu was the only feasible option of year abroad destinations which was relevant to Tom’s studies.
Tom: “ Estonia very much wasn’t on my radar, and I don’t think it’s on many people in Western Europe’s radar.”
Tom’s year abroad shifted things academically but also personally.
Tom: “I really enjoyed my time there, being there during the war was an amazing but also thought provoking experience.”
We then went on to discuss Tom’s experience in Estonia more generally. When Tom spoke, it was clear how invaluable the experience of living abroad was to him, and how it impacted the way he viewed the world. As a student of Russian history myself, I was particularly interested in understanding how the war in Ukraine impacted his experience of living and studying abroad.
Tom: “Having lived in England I'd never have to consider the idea of someone coming over and invading.
Going to class and seeing army trucks go past or columns as reservists on exercises is something I never got used to. Having soldiers walk past you is not something that happens on Fossgate.”
Meeting Ukrainians who had been taken in by Tatu University, Tom was able to talk to them about their experiences and worldviews, something which was clearly of a lot of importance to him. For Tom, this unique experience enabled him to put himself in the shoes of people in a very specific geopolitical situation, going on to say that it was “invaluable to me as a person and how I viewed the world.”
Libby: “I wondered if you had any advice for students who can’t travel to the countries they’re studying.”
Tom: “Don't let the fact that you can't travel there put you off, first and foremost you should do what you're interested in and what you're passionate about because that's going to produce the best work.
We're living in a time now where we have digitisation, we have online archives, there are so many resources out there for everything.”
Working with archives is often the worst nightmare of history students, so I was eager to learn more about Tom’s experience working in archives and with documents not in his first language – an impressive feat.
Tom: “I looked at the plans of the district which were very hard to track down. The level of English in Estonia is amazing… but you’re working in archives where things are difficult to find, the websites are in Estonian.”
He went on to say how he was presented with “effectively just a trolley full of documents about the plan and they kind of just said well off you go.” He ended up taking pictures of everything and sifting through it over summer.
Tom: “It was a difficult, difficult process but a rewarding one.”
Tom ended up taking pictures of everything he came across, even finding himself with hundreds of documents on drainage systems. He then sifted through these images using Google and his knowledge of the language to translate them.
Through his work in Estonian archives, Tom has made accessible an area of history for those who don’t speak Russian or Estonian. An integral part of history is bringing hidden histories to the fore, and this is something Tom has achieved. He made it clear that if you do something you are passionate about, originality will come naturally, and learning a language is one of the easiest ways to fill a gap in the historical record.
Tom: “The most important thing about a dissertation is that it's something you're passionate about, but it's also the originality. If you can think of something original it will stand you in much greater stead when you get it marked.
In my experience the more things you read and the more things you look into you soon find the historical record has a lot of gaps that can be filled quite easily and in an interesting way.”
I was also curious to learn more about Tom’s methodology, namely his use of architecture as a historical source, a largely underutilised mode of analysis in historical practice.
Tom: “I think one of the main cheat codes in finding some originality is, rather than looking at content, looking at approach.”
He expanded this point by saying that architecture “tells a story of a society,” and what it deems important.
Tom: “It's a source that's available to everyone … it doesn't necessitate language requirements, it doesn't necessitate going to an archive.”
We then moved on to the process of writing his dissertation more generally, a daunting process facing many. As I am currently undertaking the process of writing my dissertation, I was eager to hear what he had to say about his experiences and if he had any advice. The main message I got from this conversation: start early!
Tom: “Have conversations with tutors towards the end of your second year, try to get an idea of what you want to do, and start early because in third year everything steps up again.
It's intense and you don't want to be doing heavy research on top of your weekly reading, your assignments, and whatever else you may have to do.
If you can create some kind of document that tracks everything, you're going to be laughing!”
I then asked Tom about the difficulties he faced when writing his dissertation and how he overcame them. He expressed that a dissertation should be something you enjoy, but “that doesn't mean it's a painless process,” and how “you feel like you're butting your head against the wall a lot.” He spoke first about the difficulties of archival work.
Tom: “When you work with archival material you have to sift through a lot of mud to find the diamonds and doing that can feel futile sometimes when you're reading your 37 documents about something completely unrelated.”
Here I could only think about his comment on having hundreds of documents on drainage – something completely unrelated to his topic!
Tom: “The other bit that I think is universally hard is right at the very end where you're editing and it's too late to change anything. Fundamentally…letting go of your dissertation… is super hard because it means so much to you.
My advice is get it done and then leave it for two weeks before you start the editing process. It is going to need a lot of editing, I think I went through ten or 12 different edits. But leaving time to let the dissertation sit and coming back to it and editing a bit more is probably the best way to be able to be confident that you've done all you can.”
We then moved on to the topic of Dissertation Supervisors. Tom describes the Supervisor’s role as someone that pushes you in directions that you don’t expect. He spoke about how it’s extremely easy to become blinkered, a problem I think many of us don’t want to admit to. Tom explained that what you actually need is to be nudged off the straight road. We discussed his experience with his supervisor, Sam Wetherall, and how on one occasion, he pushed Tom down a seemingly random direction which later became an integral part of his dissertation.
Tom: “One striking example is I'd met with him (Sam Wetherall) and we were talking through an idea and I was struggling to articulate myself, and… he said “read this book and see the way they articulate themselves”.
The book was about a Milton Keynes housing corporation, seemingly nothing to do with Tom’s area:
Tom: “This Milton Keynes corporation actually links in some way to Estonia which is something that was so random so unexpected and something that hadn't, as far as I know, been linked before and that's the beauty I think.”
As part of the Covid intake, I was interested then to learn more about his experiences more widely at York.
Tom: “It wasn't your normal first year at all and sometimes I say that Estonia was like doing my first year … I could just crack on and do whatever I wanted to do.”
Tom was the academic officer of the History Society, an experience he found invaluable, not just for his CV but for meeting people and gaining new experiences.
Tom: “Your time will be enriched if you take a step out of your comfort zone.”
Tom is currently doing a Masters in Russian Studies at UCL, London. I was eager to find out his plans for the future.
Tom: “The next couple years after my masters I want to take as a chance to take it easy, find a job I find interesting and relevant. Maybe go abroad again, just take a few years to financially recover from the Masters because A: it's a killer and B: take time to enjoy living and being young because it only happens once and after that I'll make a decision.”
After that, Tom hopes to do either a PhD or go into a public service role as both of these, he hopes, would include the Baltics, his area of interest.
Tom: “People rush into to things after uni like grad schemes but I think it's important to get experiences and enjoy being young because it only happens once and before you know it you won't be able to get out of bed because your back will be hurting.”
Wrapping up our conversation, I asked Tom if he had any final thoughts or pieces of advice for those reading History.
Tom: “In terms of dissertation, if you're organised enough, enjoy it because. It is an 8,000 word thesis, it's not what you’d think of as enjoyable, but, if you're passionate about the topic you'll find yourself enjoying it. And make the most of what York offers, whether that's language, placements, societies, years abroad; make the most of it because the opportunities that York offers you're not going to be able to get once you leave.”
I left the conversation with Tom in awe at the determination he showed in the process of his dissertation. From learning Russian, living in Estonia where he relentlessly sifted through Estonian archives, and making the most of what York has to offer, Tom showed a great amount of resilience and dedication. I think many of us, especially those who are faced with the daunting task of their dissertation, could gain a lot from this conversation.
