Attendance is expected on a regular basis. Missed classes will hinder rapport and impede the analytical and discussion skills of the class. The final grade will be based on three class assignments (15 points each for a total of 45), class participation (10 points), and the final project for 45 points.
Class Assignments:
Choice of three out of four.
1. Fly on the Wall" or "Going Native" Observation
2. Critical/Reflexive Observation
3. Critique of Theoretical Article or Debate on an Issue
4. Critique/Evaluation of an Example of Research
Final Projects/Papers
All final projects or research conducted for final papers should accompany the final paper, including raw data, interview transcripts, and field notes, etc. All stages of your project will be discussed and given constructive feedback from classmates and instructor.
The Objective of the final project/paper is to extend and refine your present research skills. The analysis should show how you learned from mistakes and took into account the ethical, methodological, and power-related issues. The methodology of your project shall be chosen from one of the research methods discussed in the course or a methodology from WMST 322 that has been approved in discussion with this instructor in advance of its submission. The completed project will be a major paper suitable for submission to a feminist journal. Length should be 20-25 pages maximum, double-spaced. Each student will be expected to present a 15-30 minute proposal of their intended research project or ongoing dilemmas and emrgent themes. All students doing research with Human Subjects will be expected to obtain ethical consent to observe, interview, or carry out their assignment before the research commences).
Suggested Topics
1. Critical Literature Review in a Focussed Area of Research. This project consists of a thorough review and critique of the limitations of both theoretical and empirical research on a particular topic of interest that you might wish to investigate later through some form of primary feminist research of your own. It must critically assess the assumptions, evidence, ethics, and findings of previous work in the area and be linked to a research question.
2. Interviews.
This project involves the collection of primary data through personal interviews with participants (choosing among types of interviewing including, life history, oral history, open-ended ethnographic interviewing, critical ethnographic interviewing etc.). You will be expected to conduct at least three interviews (either three interviews with the same person for the purposes of following-up emergent questions and themes, correcting mistakes such as your interruptions, missed questions, leading questions, etc. or confirming hunches or three separate interviews with different people who belong to the same group and whose practices you wish to investigate and critically reflect upon). Your analysis will include a brief literature review on the topic in order to help you develop research skills. You will be expected to use selected data in the context of your analysis which may reflect on the process of the interview and your tentative findings in a reflexive way.
3. Participant Observation
This project involves the collection of primary data through ethnographic observation, providing a view of the world which explains why the participants see things the ways they do, but which is careful not to slip into either "going native" or "fly-on-the-wall" ways of describing them or the researcher's findings. Your analysis should specify what the limitations of knowledge are without interviewing the participants. As with interviewing, your analysis will include a brief literature review on the topic in order to help you develop research skills. You will be expected to use selected data in the context of your analysis which may reflect on the process of participant observation and taking field notes. This way your tentative findings can be discussed in a reflexive way.
4. Action, Participatory or Testimonial Research
This project involves the researcher/s in collaborating in a critical study of a political, community, service or professional group with whom they are involved or have the permission to research. The goal is to help the participants understand and change oppressive dimensions of the institutional or social policy context in which they work and live. Action and participatory research may or may not involve interviews. They do involve critical discussion, often analyzing and reflecting on political activism in the context of social struggles. The researcher/s should describe how they came to be a part of this group and discuss at length the problems and possibilities attendant in such methods. Critique of the obstacles to effective coalition-building or community action should be at the heart of this project. Evidence for one's claims can be presented in a variety of forms, video-taped interviews, group discussion, video or photo-essays of political actions and analysis of group de-briefings. Analysis should concentrate on how the situations or conditions of the group, including those of the researcher have been effected by the action or participatory research. The researcher/s analysis is generally made accessible to the participants and is critiqued by them in order to create a more dialogical interchange. Please note that careful selection of group is required. (Don't expect progressive consequences from studying conservative groups, such as the Klan, anti-abortionists, etc.as K. Blee's work on oral history with the Klan demonstrates). As with all other human subject research, you must obtain informed consent in written form ahead of the research.
6. Other projects may be approved by instructor in advance.
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