UDP Internacional

24 July 2023

Victoria Díaz and Josefina Mattoli, students at the UDP Faculty of Psychology, won Globalink Research Intership scholarships, awarded by the research organization Mitacs-Canada, to carry out 12-week research internships at Athabasca University in Edmonton, Canada (MV) and at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, respectively.

The Mitacs Program allows undergraduate students from Diego Portales University to have the opportunity to participate in research projects abroad at leading international universities. In this way, students receive academic training and skills with an international, intercultural and global focus.

As Anoek van den Berg, General Director of International Relations UDP, has pointed out, Mitacs is a program promoted by the Canadian government, a leader in the area of articulation between universities and companies. “It is an honor to be part of this pilot version in Chile through CRUCH, where we are part of a select group of 6 universities that started this new program between Chile and Canada”, she concludes.

In relation to her expectations of carrying out this internship, Victoria comments, “I am very happy to have the opportunity to learn about how research is carried out in multidisciplinary teams that seek to promote social change, and what are the contributions that research in psychology can give to the discussion of this problem that has been little studied, but that represents a serious humanitarian crisis worldwide that has been increasing both in Latin America and in the rest of the world. I believe that participating as a research assistant in this project will allow me to display the research skills that I have developed during my undergraduate studies and thanks to the support of the team at the University’s Center for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Studies (CEPPS). In addition, it is a great opportunity to internationalize my career and improve my command of English”.

Regarding the relevance of the research in which she will participate, the student adds, “The “Indigeneity, Displacement and Patriarchy” project seeks to relate forced migration processes to the ethnic dimension of the people affected, and to understand how these processes are mediated by legislation that tends to reproduce a colonial and patriarchal perspective that reinforces systemic violence towards these highly marginalized communities. People who are forced to migrate often live highly traumatic experiences since they are exposed to physical and socioeconomic vulnerability and may have serious difficulties accessing social protection, health, education and integrating into a different culture”.

“Forced migration is a phenomenon that arises from sociopolitical problems, such as the violation of human rights or wars, ecological disasters, or phenomena produced by humans, such as human trafficking and slavery practices. According to data from the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) for the year 2021, the number of people who are victims of forced migration has doubled in the last 10 years and there are currently around 78.5 million people in this situation, 61% being forced to migrate within their own country, and a large part of the remaining percentage refugees and people seeking asylum in other countries”, added the student.

She also referred to the great opportunity to work with the academic in charge of the research, Fynn Bruey, who is a doctor of law and focuses on African studies, critical theory of masculinities, as well as mental health studies in survivors of forced migration. She currently teaches at Athabasca University in Edmonton, Canada.

For her part, Josefina Mattoli, who will do her internship at the Chemosensory Neuroanatomy Research Laboratory (LRNACS) at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, told us about her expectations for these 12 months of learning “I think it will be a great opportunity to learn what the world of research is like outside of Chile, and also to get to know the local culture. As I want to continue my postgraduate studies abroad, I hope it will be a very good first opportunity to insert myself into a university and research context 100% in English, as a practice for what I hope will come my way in the future.

Finally, she highlights the importance of the project in which she will participate as a researcher, “the project is called“ Plasticity in the chemical senses ”, the professor in charge is Johannes Frasnelli, from the Université du Québec à Trois–Rivières in Trois–Rivières. Try to better understand the effects of training on olfactory acuity in sommelier students. We will compare their olfactory abilities before and after 1.5 years.