Gloria Lintl MSc Global Politics (2009-10)

Hi, I'm Gloria Lintl and I studied MSc Global Politics (2009-10) within Social Sciences: Politics & International Relations at the University of Southampton.

My Masters degree at the University of Southampton has considerably extended my analytical, argumentation and research skills, and has enabled me to critically analyse complex subjects and issues, which is an incredibly helpful skill at my current traineeship at the Europol HQ in the Hague.

Q: What did you enjoy about your course?

The Department of Politics & International Relations has a welcoming feeling, and lecturers and supervisors were always inclined to help, to further discuss subjects studied in class, and were even happy just to chat informally with students, which was a nice change from my previous institution where things were more formal and less student-friendly.

Q: How did you find support from the staff?

All my lecturers were unique in their approaches to teaching their sometimes very different subjects, ranging from Philosophy and Methodology to Arms Control and Human Rights. However, all shared a passion for, and incredible depth of knowledge of, their respective subjects, which led students to become just as passionate. We were able to delve deep into subjects and explore them from different angles. This often led to very heated academic discussions, which were truly enjoyable. All lecturers and professors were genuinely interested in our arguments and enabled us to develop them further. My dissertation supervisor was incredibly helpful, and gave me a lot of inspiration and guidance for my work analysing the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides.

Q: How did your degree help your career plans?

Since finishing my Masters programme, I completed an internship at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, where I worked at the foreign politics desk during the Libyan uprising, which was an incredibly fast-paced and challenging environment. As I have strong language skills, I was in charge of establishing relations with different news agencies in order to collect incoming footage. My brief stint in journalism was interesting, and sensational, and a great experience.