All,
It’s Mid-Term time again! For those of you who have taken my classes before, you know that I take a somewhat unique approach to the Mid-Term and Final. I call the blog assignments that we do at these magic moments “updates” or “challenges.” I don’t call them papers. Rather, they are working documents that are designed to help you think through and integrate ideas from the class readings into your (evolving) thesis or dissertation topic. Yes, I realize your thesis/dissertation topic is evolving all the time, and will likely continue evolving until the moment you graduate. With this in mind, please use the Mid-Term Challenge to flesh out your research topic (if you haven’t done so already), articulating a way to implement arts-based feminist methodologies in your research. The methodologies we have discussed so far in this class encompass several forms of narrative (including fiction, creative non-fiction and oral histories, as in The Quilters) and poetry (which you are all quite good at, I must say!). Please integrate your reading of the second half of SABORAMI into your Mid-Term response.
The Mid-Term Challenge asks you to explain what you plan to do for your Master's thesis or Doctoral dissertation. Provide a general overview with enough detail for us to get a clear idea of what you want to do, how you will do it, and why you chose your particular topic.
For some of you, this will be your first opportunity to articulate your thesis or dissertation plans in writing. For others who have taken my classes before, you have had some experience in this area. Either way, it probably won’t be easy. But you're going to feel GREAT when you have something written down. If you've been anxious or worried about the thesis/dissertation process, or if you've been avoiding taking that first step, writing something down - no matter how sketchy or preliminary - will be an act of valor!
You may go about this in any number of ways. For example, if you already know who your research participants are or will be, or if you are still in the stage of considering different individuals or groups to work with, you could meet with a familiar person, or acquaint yourself with a new person, and record your conversation with them (in field notes, not video or tape recording unless you already have IRB approval). You may choose to visit a location and jot down your observations, develop your notes into a narrative or poem, and use this as part of your Mid-Term Challenge.
If you’re interested in pursuing something more along the lines of SABORAMI, you can include visuals (art and/or photography) in your response to this assignment. We haven’t yet read the chapter about visual arts-based research in Leavy’s book, but you can anticipate it by observing Vicuna’s text. It is a very good example.
It may sound like I'm asking you to write a long paper, but actually I think you can do it in about 3 paragraphs. The first paragraph will explain your plans for your thesis if you are in the MAE program, or your dissertation if you are a doctoral student. You may not know exactly what you're going to do, but this paragraph will give you a chance to start thinking and writing about it. If you have more than one idea and can't decide which way to go, write them all down. The group will offer you guidance!
The second paragraph can introduce the methodological approaches discussed in Leavy’s book that resonate with you. Explain why they resonate.
In the third paragraph, explain how the ideas in paragraph 2 connect to your thesis/dissertation project. Your thesis/dissertation topic may still be a hazy idea. However, the aim of this assignment is to twofold: 1) For you to state your thesis/dissertation work in clear, concise and concrete terms, and 2) For you to integrate ideas from this class into your thesis/dissertation.
Now, the 3-paragraph structure is just a suggestion. I don't advise less than 3 paragraphs or more than, say, 8 paragraphs. You do not have to write a formal research paper. This assignment is more about identifying what you want to do, getting your ideas down in writing, and seeing how your ideas and the readings in this class fit together.
In addition to the 3 paragraphs, I want you to produce a creative research document of some sort – it may be fiction, poetry, notes from a conversation, observation notes, visual art or some combination of these elements. How you put them together is your choice.
Please email me both parts – the 3 paragraphs and creative document – as Word doc attachments.
Remember, you are using these forms as methods, or ways, or doing research. This research should relate directly to your dissertation or thesis. It should have practical value to you as a student moving forward in your program. Make something you can use! You are students in programs that encourage and appreciate creative activity combined with original scholarly research. Approach the Mid-Term as an opportunity to find the right balance (for you) between creative and scholarly research activity. It will be different for each of you, but you can learn a lot in the process of doing it and we can learn a lot from each other.
I expect and welcome your questions about this assignment. Please, feel free to post your questions here. If you are uncertain about something – anything! - chances are that someone else in the class feels the same way. So don’t be self-conscious. (If you are self-conscious and can’t help it, you can email me.)
Best of luck with your Mid-Term Challenge. I can’t wait to read what you come up with!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
SABORAMI by Cecilia Vicuna, pp. 9-71, Discussion Topics/Questions
Let me begin this week's blog by encouraging you to read the Afterword, pp. 157-163, which Vicuna wrote specifically for the 2011 edition of SABORAMI. Since most U.S. citizens know little about Chile or any other Latin American country, this Afterword will help provide context. Any additional online research you can do on the 1973 Military Coup in Chile will greatly enhance your understanding and appreciation of Vicuna's historic text.
The Afterword makes it clear that the body of SABORAMI was written before Pinochet became the Dictator of Chile. (For those who don’t know, Pinochet was one of the worst human rights violators of the 20th century.) The text brims with hope for a newly born Chile that embraces a uniquely Latin American form of Socialism deeply rooted in indigenous, Pre-Colombian culture. Most citizens of the U.S. are unfamiliar with this kind of political vision. It would be like contemporary Americans longing for a political system that aligned with the values and traditions of Native Americans.
Question #1
Especially since 9/11, we are accustomed to dismissing alternative political systems and positions critical of the U.S. as “anti-American.” We have a hard time imagining why anyone wouldn’t want to be like us, trained as we are from an early age to see ourselves as the best in the world. Yet on p. 34, Vicuna writes: “Latin America should never become like europe or the u.s.” Now, put your researcher’s cap on and answer as thoughtfully as you can to this question: Why doesn’t she want her country to be like the U.S.?
Question/Topic #2
Much of Vicuna’s artwork is temporary and ephemeral (see pictures posted on Flickr). The art in her book of poems, The Precarious, for example, were small frail structures made of natural materials. Many were site-specific, made outdoors with found(natural) objects such as stick and rock. Once made, they were left behind to crumble or blow away. The installation piece, Autumn, which is described on pp. 63-67, embodies this particular aesthetic.
The fact that Vicuna’s art that could not be bought and sold on the art market, but rather was time-based and performative, put her in the vanguard of the ‘60s-70’s international art scene. Like other artists of the time, her aesthetics extended to the political realm. Unlike her European and U.S. contemporaries, however, her political vision was uniquely Latin American and, unlike Kahlo and Rivera (with whom you might see parallels), uniquely Chilean. In other words, her art and political vision was specific to her time, place, and political circumstances. So, what is the relationship between the installation piece, “Autumn,” and Vicuna’s political vision?
Question/Topic #3
SABORAMI is not poetry-based research as defined by Leavy. Written before poetry was recognized as form of research, SABORAMI anticipated its development. In what ways would you say that it IS research? In what was is it NOT?
****
I have to admit, this book is a tough one. I thought that since Vicuna is a poet and visual artist, it would fit nicely with the chapter in Leavy’s book on poetry as research. In fact it does fit, but to see this requires extra effort to learn and understand the political situation Vicuna was living in at the time.
The Afterword makes it clear that the body of SABORAMI was written before Pinochet became the Dictator of Chile. (For those who don’t know, Pinochet was one of the worst human rights violators of the 20th century.) The text brims with hope for a newly born Chile that embraces a uniquely Latin American form of Socialism deeply rooted in indigenous, Pre-Colombian culture. Most citizens of the U.S. are unfamiliar with this kind of political vision. It would be like contemporary Americans longing for a political system that aligned with the values and traditions of Native Americans.
Question #1
Especially since 9/11, we are accustomed to dismissing alternative political systems and positions critical of the U.S. as “anti-American.” We have a hard time imagining why anyone wouldn’t want to be like us, trained as we are from an early age to see ourselves as the best in the world. Yet on p. 34, Vicuna writes: “Latin America should never become like europe or the u.s.” Now, put your researcher’s cap on and answer as thoughtfully as you can to this question: Why doesn’t she want her country to be like the U.S.?
Question/Topic #2
Much of Vicuna’s artwork is temporary and ephemeral (see pictures posted on Flickr). The art in her book of poems, The Precarious, for example, were small frail structures made of natural materials. Many were site-specific, made outdoors with found(natural) objects such as stick and rock. Once made, they were left behind to crumble or blow away. The installation piece, Autumn, which is described on pp. 63-67, embodies this particular aesthetic.
The fact that Vicuna’s art that could not be bought and sold on the art market, but rather was time-based and performative, put her in the vanguard of the ‘60s-70’s international art scene. Like other artists of the time, her aesthetics extended to the political realm. Unlike her European and U.S. contemporaries, however, her political vision was uniquely Latin American and, unlike Kahlo and Rivera (with whom you might see parallels), uniquely Chilean. In other words, her art and political vision was specific to her time, place, and political circumstances. So, what is the relationship between the installation piece, “Autumn,” and Vicuna’s political vision?
Question/Topic #3
SABORAMI is not poetry-based research as defined by Leavy. Written before poetry was recognized as form of research, SABORAMI anticipated its development. In what ways would you say that it IS research? In what was is it NOT?
****
I have to admit, this book is a tough one. I thought that since Vicuna is a poet and visual artist, it would fit nicely with the chapter in Leavy’s book on poetry as research. In fact it does fit, but to see this requires extra effort to learn and understand the political situation Vicuna was living in at the time.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Flickr
All, I linked our blog to Flickr and transferred the photos over to it. Everyone in the class has permission to join the group. To access the photos, you need to sign in. You can do this using your gmail, yahoo or facebook username and password. Once you join the group, you should be able to share your photos and post comments. I hope this works!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Method Meets Art by Patricia Leavy, ch. 3 (pp. 63-99) Discussion questions & topics
This week we will read about research as poetry. Be sure to read all of chapter 3, pp. 63-99. It has appendices and an extended example that looks like it could be another chapter. I think that you will find the example very helpful.
I'd like to start with a warning. There are some excellent writers whose poetry enacts a form of qualitative research. They are considered poets, not researchers in the academic sense. As poets, they really know what they're doing. I would second Leavy that not everyone can write poetry. It is a form of writing that requires a great deal of serious preparation and study. For this reason, I would not recommend poetry as a form research unless one is already a poet. The book we will be reading next, Sabor a Mi, was written by an accomplished poet and international art star.
Still, Leavy shows us a way to organize research data from interviews and field notes into small nuggets of language that can be quite effective. This is not the way poets write poetry, but it's an interesting strategy that could strengthen one's research (by providing variety) if used sparsely.
It is crucial to include participants in the editing process. Poindexter highlights this in her piece (pp. 92-99). Much as we may think editing is innocuous, it isn't when we're working with other people's words. Without consulting the speakers, we could leave out the parts that are most meaningful to them. We could get caught up in crafting a "condensed, magnified, emotionally heightened" message or "third space" that has little to do with what the speakers were actually thinking and feeling when the words were spoken.
As you can see, I'm issuing a lot of warnings. That's because poetry is generally not well understood in our society. It should not be confused with song lyrics or the release of personal emotion. Poetry actually has more in common with calculous than any of those things (I'm serious about that).
This chapter mentions "coding" a number of times, so I want to make sure you know what that is. If you have collected a hundred pages of interview material (as the authors of The Quilters undoubtedly did), then you need some way to organize it. Cooper & Allen organized, categorized or CODED their material into phases of the life cycle: i.e., childhood, youth, middle years, etc. They organized their entire text into chapters based on these codes. (Post continued - click "comments").
I'd like to start with a warning. There are some excellent writers whose poetry enacts a form of qualitative research. They are considered poets, not researchers in the academic sense. As poets, they really know what they're doing. I would second Leavy that not everyone can write poetry. It is a form of writing that requires a great deal of serious preparation and study. For this reason, I would not recommend poetry as a form research unless one is already a poet. The book we will be reading next, Sabor a Mi, was written by an accomplished poet and international art star.
Still, Leavy shows us a way to organize research data from interviews and field notes into small nuggets of language that can be quite effective. This is not the way poets write poetry, but it's an interesting strategy that could strengthen one's research (by providing variety) if used sparsely.
It is crucial to include participants in the editing process. Poindexter highlights this in her piece (pp. 92-99). Much as we may think editing is innocuous, it isn't when we're working with other people's words. Without consulting the speakers, we could leave out the parts that are most meaningful to them. We could get caught up in crafting a "condensed, magnified, emotionally heightened" message or "third space" that has little to do with what the speakers were actually thinking and feeling when the words were spoken.
As you can see, I'm issuing a lot of warnings. That's because poetry is generally not well understood in our society. It should not be confused with song lyrics or the release of personal emotion. Poetry actually has more in common with calculous than any of those things (I'm serious about that).
This chapter mentions "coding" a number of times, so I want to make sure you know what that is. If you have collected a hundred pages of interview material (as the authors of The Quilters undoubtedly did), then you need some way to organize it. Cooper & Allen organized, categorized or CODED their material into phases of the life cycle: i.e., childhood, youth, middle years, etc. They organized their entire text into chapters based on these codes. (Post continued - click "comments").
Sunday, February 19, 2012
New photos in class Picasa Web Album
After Liz' story about the boy in her class, I thought I'd add a few photos to our Picasa Web Album. These photos were popular postcards in their time, printed in the thousands and sent all over the country to friends and family members for the purpose of sharing the "excitement" of a town lynching. I think these images go a long way to help people without a sense of American history understand the extent of the terror and cruelty that at one time was considered socially acceptable, at least in some communities.
Monday, February 13, 2012
The Quilters: Women & Domestic Art, An Oral History, by Cooper & Allen, pp. 88-157, Discussion Topic
We're now far enough into the course that I feel comfortable asking one of you to write the discussion questions. Each person in the class will have a chance to do this at least in the semester. We do this on a voluntary basis. Volunteers must have the reading done by Thursday at the latest, and their discussion topics/questions posted to the blog no later than Friday. The topic should be based squarely on the reading, of course. However, bear in mind that the topic or question is also a starting point for a more wide-ranging discussion that each person can take in their own direction.
The upside of writing the discussion topic/question is that once you have posted it, you are not obligated to participate any further that week. Now, you may choose to participate, but it's up to you.
With that said, do we have a volunteer to write this week's discussion topic based on the second half of The Quilters? Your participation is much appreciated!
Thank you ~~
carolyn
The upside of writing the discussion topic/question is that once you have posted it, you are not obligated to participate any further that week. Now, you may choose to participate, but it's up to you.
With that said, do we have a volunteer to write this week's discussion topic based on the second half of The Quilters? Your participation is much appreciated!
Thank you ~~
carolyn
Monday, February 6, 2012
The Quilters: Women & Domestic Art, An Oral History, by Cooper & Allen, pp. 1-85 Discussion Topic
I have a feeling you are going to like this book. If you are not from West Texas, it will help you understand and appreciate the region a bit more; if you are from West Texas, it will make you feel proud.
This week's reading covers the first half of the book, pp. 1-85. That sounds like a lot until you see that half the pages are pictures. The text is made up primarily of oral histories, which also makes for quick (but not superficial) reading. I think you will find that the photographs and oral histories work together to effectively "establish resonances, depths that neither words nor photos have separately" (Cooper & Allen, 1999, p. 15).
The Quilters is a great example of a certain kind of feminist research, somewhat more in keeping with second-wave '70s feminism than third-wave feminism, which tends to be more theoretical. You will notice that the research was conducted in the 1970s but the book was not published until 1999. Doc students, be warned: it's not easy to publish qualitative research in book form (notice that I didn't even say "feminist" or "narrative" or "auto-ethnographic" research. Tack on those modifiers and your problems increase exponentially).
Pay close attention to how the Introduction is structured. In the first paragraph, the authors establish a first-person ("we" language) presence by speaking directly to readers. This is a strategy to connect with readers and minimize the academic feel of the scholarship. Realize, though, that the book was published by a university press, which automatically renders it academic. I would not be surprised if the TTU press editors made the authors add an introduction explaining their research methods (second paragraph), statement of purpose and limitations of the study (third paragraph), specific information about the participants in the study (pp. 16-7), research questions (top paragraph, p. 18), fieldwork (second para., p. 18) and so on. These are the staples of scholarly research. For anyone who plans on writing a dissertation or traditional thesis, these elements will appear in the first chapter of your document.
Make sure to read the Author's Note on page 10. This information should absolutely be in the Introduction. When working with oral histories and representational photographs that purport to portray people's lives as they "really" are, researchers must critically examine their role as editors. The power to edit is the power to shape, manipulate and stage what is taken for reality. As student researchers, you need to know that representing other people's lives is a very big deal. I am sure that the Author's Note was added after some of the women whose stories and quilts appear in the book complained of being inaccurately represented.
Always be as open and fair as possible with the participants in your study. Many researchers today collaborate with participants in the editing process. This minimizes the chance of misrepresentation. Let the barrier between "us" and "them" fall away as much as possible. At the same time, be real with yourself and others that a barrier does exist. The fact is that you are getting a Master's or Doctorate degree and your participants are not.
****
If you have never studied quilts before, this book is going to be a treat. There are so many directions we could take the discussion this week. I'm going to pick two topics to get things started. You may want to discuss other aspects of the text, and I welcome you to do so, once you have responded to the topics below.
Question/Topic #1:
In their Introduction, Cooper & Allen quote a participant whose philosophy of life and quilting is beautifully enmeshed. The participant, Mary, reflects, "Sometimes you don't have no control over the way things go. (....) And then you're just given so much to work with in a life and you have to do the best you can with what you got. That's what piecing is. The materials is passed on to you or is all you can afford to buy...that's just what's given to you. Your fate. But the way you put them together is your business. You can put them together in any order you want. Piecing is orderly" (italics added) (p. 20).
After reading the first 85 pages of The Quilters, tells me what this statement means to you.
Question/Topic #2:
In the Introduction and the first two chapters, we are often shown how quilts traditionally functioned as containers of personal memory and records of social history in the lives of women. What is your favorite example?
People of our generation(s) are more accustomed to recording memories with cameras and storage devices such as photo albums, shoe boxes, cell phones, websites and CD/DVDs. We look at a picture of something and we have a memory (or think we have a memory) of a person, place or thing. So how does this quilt-memory thing work? It's a different process, isn't it? Memory is encoded differently. What do you think is the main difference between quilts and cameras as encoders/transmitters of memory?
Put your thinking caps on! Email me if you have questions or want clarification. Best of luck & happy reading.
carolyn
This week's reading covers the first half of the book, pp. 1-85. That sounds like a lot until you see that half the pages are pictures. The text is made up primarily of oral histories, which also makes for quick (but not superficial) reading. I think you will find that the photographs and oral histories work together to effectively "establish resonances, depths that neither words nor photos have separately" (Cooper & Allen, 1999, p. 15).
The Quilters is a great example of a certain kind of feminist research, somewhat more in keeping with second-wave '70s feminism than third-wave feminism, which tends to be more theoretical. You will notice that the research was conducted in the 1970s but the book was not published until 1999. Doc students, be warned: it's not easy to publish qualitative research in book form (notice that I didn't even say "feminist" or "narrative" or "auto-ethnographic" research. Tack on those modifiers and your problems increase exponentially).
Pay close attention to how the Introduction is structured. In the first paragraph, the authors establish a first-person ("we" language) presence by speaking directly to readers. This is a strategy to connect with readers and minimize the academic feel of the scholarship. Realize, though, that the book was published by a university press, which automatically renders it academic. I would not be surprised if the TTU press editors made the authors add an introduction explaining their research methods (second paragraph), statement of purpose and limitations of the study (third paragraph), specific information about the participants in the study (pp. 16-7), research questions (top paragraph, p. 18), fieldwork (second para., p. 18) and so on. These are the staples of scholarly research. For anyone who plans on writing a dissertation or traditional thesis, these elements will appear in the first chapter of your document.
Make sure to read the Author's Note on page 10. This information should absolutely be in the Introduction. When working with oral histories and representational photographs that purport to portray people's lives as they "really" are, researchers must critically examine their role as editors. The power to edit is the power to shape, manipulate and stage what is taken for reality. As student researchers, you need to know that representing other people's lives is a very big deal. I am sure that the Author's Note was added after some of the women whose stories and quilts appear in the book complained of being inaccurately represented.
Always be as open and fair as possible with the participants in your study. Many researchers today collaborate with participants in the editing process. This minimizes the chance of misrepresentation. Let the barrier between "us" and "them" fall away as much as possible. At the same time, be real with yourself and others that a barrier does exist. The fact is that you are getting a Master's or Doctorate degree and your participants are not.
****
If you have never studied quilts before, this book is going to be a treat. There are so many directions we could take the discussion this week. I'm going to pick two topics to get things started. You may want to discuss other aspects of the text, and I welcome you to do so, once you have responded to the topics below.
Question/Topic #1:
In their Introduction, Cooper & Allen quote a participant whose philosophy of life and quilting is beautifully enmeshed. The participant, Mary, reflects, "Sometimes you don't have no control over the way things go. (....) And then you're just given so much to work with in a life and you have to do the best you can with what you got. That's what piecing is. The materials is passed on to you or is all you can afford to buy...that's just what's given to you. Your fate. But the way you put them together is your business. You can put them together in any order you want. Piecing is orderly" (italics added) (p. 20).
After reading the first 85 pages of The Quilters, tells me what this statement means to you.
Question/Topic #2:
In the Introduction and the first two chapters, we are often shown how quilts traditionally functioned as containers of personal memory and records of social history in the lives of women. What is your favorite example?
People of our generation(s) are more accustomed to recording memories with cameras and storage devices such as photo albums, shoe boxes, cell phones, websites and CD/DVDs. We look at a picture of something and we have a memory (or think we have a memory) of a person, place or thing. So how does this quilt-memory thing work? It's a different process, isn't it? Memory is encoded differently. What do you think is the main difference between quilts and cameras as encoders/transmitters of memory?
Put your thinking caps on! Email me if you have questions or want clarification. Best of luck & happy reading.
carolyn
Sunday, February 5, 2012
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