“Research Methods, Representation, and Sustainability”
Instructor: Dr. Danika Brown
Email – danika@utpa.edu
Phone – 381-3447 (office); 381-3421 (department/message)
Class Meets:
Section 37: Tuesday/Thursdays, 9:10 am - 10:25 am CAS 185
Section 42: Tuesdays/Thursdays 10:35-11:50am CAS 248
Instructor’s Office: CAS 263
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30 -3:30, Wednesdays 2:30-4:00pm
And by appointment.
Required Texts:
The texts for this class will be made available online, on reserve in the library and in class.
Technology Requirements/Resources
I don’t use BlackBoard for a number of reasons. We will be working with 3 platforms that are available through the web and as free apps for your various phones/ipods etc. I use these technologies because they have more functionality and will be useful for you beyond just your courses (I hope).
Assignments:
Goals:
To become familiar with a variety of academic research methods, writing, and documentation.
Focus:
“Sustainability”
We will broadly focus our area of interest for this semester around the notion, theories, and practices of “sustainability.” While your worksheets will have you practicing and identifying hands on research methodologies and resources, you will be working toward a “publication” that explores the idea of sustainability – your individual contributions to this project will depend on your interests and strengths. However, I suspect some of you may look at specific community-based projects or proposals that promote ideas of sustainability (such as environmental, cultural, heritage, language, community development, etc.). Others of you may look at the idea from a more global level – such as defining sustainable development, or the role of technology in sustainability, etc. (These are all just ideas – you will be honing the topics/issues/approaches throughout the semester.)
I have chosen this focus because it is very interdisciplinary and of general interest (which is broad enough that anyone should be able to find a particular way to focus). Whether you approach sustainability as concern for cultural preservation or environmental conservation, you will necessarily have to employ research to have anything to say about these topics, and that research will require you to:
Find context and resources
Collect, generate, and analyze data
Synthesize other people’s research and data
Draw conclusions and solve problems based on your analyses
Report, represent, and act on your conclusions.
Tentative Schedule
Introduction and course overview; Signing up for the technology components
Academic Writing
You will need to be very clear on what constitutes academic writing and some of the specific types of writing that you will likely need to do throughout your academic career (as well as in your professional lives).
Summary; Synthesis; Analysis; Position (argument)
For class Tuesday, January 25:
Write a paragraph that describes how the city of Edinburg came to be called Edinburg. This will require you to do research, so you need to cite your source(s). Bring the paragraph to class so we can begin discussing research methods and source citations.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Tuesday, Feb 8 we will meet in the library for your library tour! At class time, please convene at the circulation desk lobby area in the library.
Research Worksheet 1 is due Tuesday, Feb. 22 by 5 pm
Please save your final draft of worksheet 1 as RW1NameFinal (so, if you are Jane Smith, you would save your document as: RW1JSmithFinal.doc).
The answers to all four questions should be saved as ONE document and put in the subfolder, RW1 Final Drafts on our dropbox.
The header of your document should include your email address so I can email your final comments and points back to you (I will not post those on dropbox). So, before your responses, you should have a header of:
Name
Email address
Date
Section Number
If you have any questions, please bring them to class on the 22nd. You have till 5pm to post your final drafts.