This course familiarises students with methods of pursuing and presenting research across the humanities and social sciences, and provides an opportunity to explore these methods in their own research. The initial part of the course comprises specific training exercises, whilst the later stages of the course require the student to present their research in progress and benefit from feedback and discussion.
Term One: Research Skills and Methods
Students are presented with the information and expertise necessary to find their way around the increasingly diverse and specialised fields of knowledge and information in contemporary culture, and to communicate their arguments and findings to academic and other audiences. Students will be both familiarised with the intellectual conditions under which interdisciplinary research in culture is undertaken, and encouraged in critical analysis of those conditions.
Autumn Term 2008 Schedule:
Time: 10am - 1pm
Tuesday 30th September [Mal B30] - The Practice of Interdisciplinary Research/Searching Assignment
Tuesday 7th October [Mal B30] - Arguing (1)
Tuesday 14th October [Mal B30] - Searching Assigment (report back)
Tuesday 21st October [Mal B30] - Arguing (2)
(Week of 3rd November - Reading Week)
Friday 14th November [Room 101] - Visual Resources
Friday 21st November [Room 101] - Thinking Through Things
Friday 28th November [Room 101] - People - Interviewing
Friday 5th December [Room 101] - Presentation Skills
Useful resources for research - a page of links and resources for researching >>, which is divided into the following sections:
Calls for papers
Archives and information sources - general guides
Archives and information sources - UK
Archives and information sources - outside the UK
Archives and information sources - subject-specific guides
Guides to citation
Guides to interviewing
Guides to research methodologies - general
Guides to research methodologies - subject-specific
Catalogues and indexes for searching
Artworks and photographs - guides and resources
Film and moving images - guides and resources
Sound and music - guides and resources
Professional academic societies
Term Two: Research Development Workshops
In these workshops, students give individual presentations of the research they are undertaking for their dissertations and theses. The workshops are informal sessions, and offer an opportunity for students to explore their thoughts about how to coduct their research or in which direction to take it. Students gain experience both in presenting their own ideas and arguments and in providing constructive criticism on the work of their peers.
Term Three: Research Juries
The Research Juries allow students to showcase and measure the progress they have made with their individual research projects, whether for PhD or MRes dissertation. Each student gives a presentation to an audience made up of London Consortium students and faculty, along with invited experts. Each presentation is followed by discussion in which the presenters answer questions and defend their arguments. Written versions of the Jury presentations must subsequently be submitted, following a period to allow the incorporation of revisions arising from the discussion. Performance in the Research Juries will contribute significantly to the student’s mark for the Research Methods in the Humanities course.
Students are presented with the information and expertise necessary to find their way around the increasingly diverse and specialised fields of knowledge and information in contemporary culture, and to communicate their arguments and findings to academic and other audiences. Students will be both familiarised with the intellectual conditions under which interdisciplinary research in culture is undertaken, and encouraged in critical analysis of those conditions.
