Part I: An Overview of Orthodoxy and Research Methods

5 Sep (Th): Introduction

Please carefully read the syllabus.

12 Sep (Th): Methods, Instruments, and Orthodoxy

• E-mail your answer to the weekly question to the instructor before class begins.
• Popper, Karl. (1963) Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul. (read only pp. 33-39, Science as Falsification) (on CTools)
• Pajares, Frank. (n.d.) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn: A Synopsis. The Philosopher's Magazine. (on CTools)
• Bird, Alexander. (2004). Thomas Kuhn. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford, California: Metaphysics Research Laboratory. (Web reading: read the section "Kuhn and Social Science") http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/#6.3
• de Solla Price, Derek J. (1986). Little Science, Big Science... and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press. (read the chapter: "Of Sealing Wax and String") (on CTools)
• Feyerabend, Paul. (1975). Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. Humanities Press. (on CTools)
• Ozaktas, Haldun M. (2005). The Optimal Number of Friends in the Information Age. Journal of Irreproducible Results 49(4): 32. [Skim only! This article was intended by the author as a joke!] (on CTools)

19 Sep (Th): Writing Method, Research as a Genre, More on Orthodoxy

• E-mail your answer to the weekly question to the instructor before class begins.
• Smith, John K. & Heshusius, Lous. (1986). Closing Down the Conversation: The End of the Quantitative-Qualitative Debate Among Educational Inquirers. Educational Researcher 15(1): 4-12. (on CTools)
• Swales, John M. (1990). Episodes in the History of the Research Article. From: John M. Swales, Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (selected excerpts) (on CTools)
• Pencil, Murdock. (1976). Salt Passage Research: The State of the Art. Journal of Communication 26 (4): 31-36. (on CTools)
• Zongker, Doug. (2006). Chicken Chicken Chicken: Chicken Chicken. Annals of Improbable Research 12(5): 16-21. (on CTools)
  
  • Optional: See also the conference presentation (YouTube) and the slides (.PPT) for this paper.
• McCloskey, D. N. (1985). From Methodology to Rhetoric. From: D. N. McCloskey, The Rhetoric of Economics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. (on CTools)
• Harding, Sandra. (1987). Is There a Feminist Method? From: S. Harding, Feminism and Methodology. Buckingham: Open University Press. (selected excerpts) (on CTools)
• Maynard, Mary (1994). Methods, Practice, and Epistemology: The Debate About Feminism and Research. From: M. Maynard & J. Purvis (eds.), Researching Women's Lives from a Feminist Perspective. London: Taylor and Francis. (selected excerpts) (on CTools)
• Roth, Julius A. (1966). Hired Hand Research. American Sociologist 1(4): 190-196. (on CTools)

26 Sep (Th): Quantification and Probability: The Life Cycle of a Method
(a.k.a.: How Exciting Methods Become Boring and Vice Versa)

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Davis, Murray S. (1971). That's Interesting! Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology. Philosophy of Social Science 1: 309-344. (on CTools)
• Hacking, Ian. (1990). The Taming of Chance. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Read Ch. 1, The Argument [pp. 1-7]). (on CTools) (This PDF is intentionally truncated.)
• Hacking, Ian. (1990). The Taming of Chance. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Read Outline of Other Chapters). (on CTools)
• McCloskey, Donald N. (1986). Why Economic Historians Should Stop Relying on Statistical Tests of Significance, and Lead Economists and Historians Into the Promised Land. Newsletter of the Cliometrics Society 2(2). http://www.deirdremccloskey.org/docs/pdf/Article_180.pdf
• Jackman, Simon. (2009). Bayesian Analysis for the Social Sciences. Wiley-Blackwell: New York. (Excerpts.) (on CTools)
• Forscher, Bernard K. (1963). Chaos in the Brickyard. Science 142(3590): 339. (on CTools)
• Optional:
  • LaLoudouanna, Doudou & Tarare, Mambobo B. (2003). Data Set Selection. Journal of Machine Learning Gossip 1: 11-19 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=41081C5E8486C751A2B1402EF9A9AE0B?doi=10.1.1.59.8077&rep=rep1&type=pdf
    (Note that this paper is not real, sort of.)
  • Sterne, Jonathan A. C. & Smith, George Davey. (2001). Sifting the Evidence: What's Wrong with Significance Tests? British Medical Journal 322: 226-231. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119478/pdf/226.pdf (assumes some familiarity with statistical methods.)
  • Ioannidis, John P. A. (2005). Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS Medicine 2(8): 696-701. http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=inf... (assumes more familiarity with statistical methods.)

Part II: Case Studies of Unorthodox Research Methods

3 Oct (Th): Archives and Visual Argument
(includes: The Case of Michael Lesy)

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Read Wisconsin Death Trip. (all of it).
• Please browse The Charles Van Schaick Archive of the Wisconsin Historical Society: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whsimages/sets/72157602476458793/
• Optional / also discussed in class:
  • An Interview with Michael Lesy -- http://www.identitytheory.com/michael-lesy/
  • Berger, John & Mohr, Jean. (1997). A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor. New York: Vintage.
  • Berger, John & Mohr, Jean. (2010). A Seventh Man: A Book of Images and Words about the Experience of Migrant Workers in Europe (new ed.) New York: Verso.

10 Oct (Th): Unobtrusive Methods (I)

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Read Webb et al. book Ch. 1-5 (Approximations to Knowledge, Physical Traces: Erosion and Accretion, Archives I: The Running Record, Archives II: The Episodic and Private Record, and Simple Observation).
• Skim the editorial information for the Journal of Universal Rejection.

17 Oct (Th): Unobtrusive Methods (II)

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Read Webb et al. book Ch. 6-9 (Contrived Observation, A Final Note, A Statistician on Method, and Cardinal Newman's Epitaph.)
• Humphreys, Laud. (1970). Tearoom trade: a study of homosexual encounters in public places. New York: Duckworth. (read excerpts: Ch. 2, Hoffman, Glazer, and Retrospect.)
• Skim/play with: Trevor Paglen's Unmarked Planes and Hidden Geographies

24 Oct (Th): Social Justice, Activism and Method
(includes: The Case of Eric Michaels)

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Michaels, Eric. & Warlpiri Media Association. (1985). The Aboriginal Invention of TV. Video recording. PAW Media: Yuendumu, Australia. (~13 mins.)
• Michaels, Eric. (1994). Bad Aboriginal Art: Tradition, Media, and Technological Horizons. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. (excerpts:)
  • Langton, M. "Introduction" (1994)
  • Hebdige, D. "Foreward" (excerpts: pp. ii-xxi, xxiii-xxv) (1994)
  • Michaels, E. "For a Cultural Future: Francis Jupurrurla Makes TV at Yuendumu" (1986)
• Michaels, Eric. (1990). Unbecoming. Durham: Duke University Press. (various excerpts as marked) (Note that this is Michaels's AIDS diary.)
• Rowse, T. (1990). Enlisting the Warlpiri. Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture 3(2).
• Hodge, R. (1990). Aboriginal Truth and White Media: Eric Michaels meets the Spirit of Aboriginalism. Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture 3(2).
• Hinkson, M. (2002). New Media Projects at Yuendumu: Inter-cultural engagement and self-determination in an era of accelerated globalization. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 16(2): 201-220.
• Optional / also discussed in class:
  • Michaels, Eric. (1982). TV Tribes. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. Austin, TX.
  • Deger, Jennifer. (2006). Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Srinivasan, R. (2012). Rethinking Digital Cultures and Divides: The Case for Reflective Media. The Information Society 28: 24-36.

31 Oct (Th): Visualization as Method

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Tufte book (all of it.)
• Kosara, Robert. (2008). Visualization Criticism - The Missing Link Between Information Visualization and Art. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications (CG&A), Visualization Viewpoints, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 13-15. http://kosara.net/papers/Kosara_IV_2007.pdf
• Wattenberg, Marc. (n.d.) Arc Diagrams: Visualizing Structure in Strings
  http://hint.fm/papers/arc-diagrams.pdf (just skim this.)
• Jason Salavon, Every Playboy Centerfold
  http://salavon.com/PlayboyDecades/PlayboyDecades.shtml
• Golan Levin's The Dumpster
  http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/thedumpster/ (play with.)
• We Feel Fine by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar
  http://www.wefeelfine.org/ (play with.)
• Peoplemovin by Carlo Zapponi
  http://www.peoplemov.in/ (play with.)
• Christian Behrens Information Design Patterns, v. 2.0
  http://www.niceone.org/infodesignpatterns/index.php5#/patterns.php5 (click "patterns" and skim them)
• Also discussed in class:
  • the blog Beautiful Data (recommended)
  • Georgi Grechko's cyclogram of the Salyut-6.
  • Minard's portrait of Napoleon's March

7 Nov (Th): Internet Research / Digital Methods

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Rogers book (all of it.)
• Rieder, Bernhard, and Theo Rhöle. "Digital Methods: Five Challenges." In David M. Berry, Understanding Digital Humanities, 67-84. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. https://sites.google.com/site/dmberry/home/pdf-papers/tct2010_submission_14.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
• Drucker, Johanna. "Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display." Digital Humanities Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2011). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/5/1/000091/000091.html
• Optional:
  • boyd, danah, and Kate Crawford. "Six Provocations for Big Data." Oxford Internet Institute, 2011. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1926431.

14 Nov (Th): Digital Humanities
Special Guest Star: Dr. Jean-Christophe Plantin

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Kirschenbaum, Matthew. "What is digital humanities and what's it doing in english department", ADH Bulletin, 2010, pp. 1-7: http://mkirschenbaum.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/kirschenbaum_ade150.pdf
• "This Is Why We Fight": Defining the Values of the Digital Humanities" Lisa Spiro, in Gold, Matthew K., ed. Debates in the Digital Humanities, 2012, University of Minnesota Press: http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/13
• Hermeneutics of screwing around; or what to do with one million books, Stephen Ramsay, 2010, p. 1-9: http://www.playingwithhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/hermeneutics.pdf
• Developing Things: Notes toward an Epistemology of Building in the Digital Humanities: Stephen Ramsay, Geoffrey Rockwell, in Gold, Matthew K., ed. Debates in the Digital Humanities. 2012, University of Minnesota Press: http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/11
• Manovich, Lev. "Computational Humanities Vs. Digital Humanities," March 16, 2012: http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2012/03/computational-humanities-vs-digital.html
• Browse / skim:
  • "Mapping the Republic of Letters" : http://republicofletters.stanford.edu/casestudies/index.html
  • Software study initiative: http://lab.softwarestudies.com/p/research_14.html
• Skim / glance at:
  • Burdick, Anne, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner, and Jeffrey Schnapp. "Emerging methods and genres", in Digital_Humanities. The MIT Press, 2012, pp. 27-60. URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262018470_Open_Access_Edition.pdf

21 Nov (Th): Cartography and Geospatial Analysis

• Post your answer to the weekly question to the CTools forum before class begins.
• Monmonier, Mark. (1996). How to Lie With Maps (2nd. ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Read pp. 1-23 and pp. 139-162)
• de Smith, Michael; Goodchild, Michael F.; & Longley, Paul A. (2008). Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques, and Software Tools. (2nd ed.) Leicester: Matador Press. (various excerpts.)
• Borges, Jorge Luis & Casares, Adolfo Bioy. (1946/1975). On Exactitude in Science. In: J. L. Borges, A Universal History of Infamy. (Norman Thomas de Giovanni, tr.) London: Penguin.
• Dodge, M. (2005). "The Role of Maps in Virtual Research Methods." In Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, pp. 113-128. C. Hine (ed.). Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cv_files/virtual_methods_chapter.pdf
• Please look at:
  • Strange Maps -- http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps (this is easier to browse randomly than chronologically, please click around through past posts and be sure you skim a handful)
  • Denis Wood and The Narrative Atlas of Boylan Heights (note the famed Jack-o-Lantern Map [scroll down to see it]).
• Also discussed in class:
  • Schrage and Staple of TeleGeography and the Circadian geography of communications networks (no online version available that I can find).
  • Roland Vilett and over-time "satellite" maps of GZ City (a virtual world)
  • The Tactical Technology Collective: Information Activism -- https://informationactivism.org/en
  • The Los Angeles Water Cycle by Jane Tsong
  • An Atlas of Radical Cartography by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat -- http://www.an-atlas.com/
  • The Institute for Applied Autonomy: The iSee Project
  • W20JW Radio Activity by Decade by Danny Gregory and Paul Sahre

28 Nov (Th): Thanksgiving Break

(NO CLASS)

5 Dec (Th): Teaching Research Methods; Conclusion

• In deference to your seminar paper, no substantial readings are due today. However, please read the short excerpt linked below and answer the weekly question.
• Eison, J. (2002). Teaching Strategies for the Twenty-First Century. In: R. M. Diamond (ed.), Field Guide to Academic Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (read this excerpt)
• Optional but recommended:
  • subscribe to Tomorrow's Professor if you have not already done so and you are interested in teaching in the future.
  • The Tomorrow's Professor Archive is also interesting to browse.

16 Dec (M): Final paper due at 1:30 p.m.

(This is the scheduled final exam period for this course according to the registrar's office.)