Graduate Research Methodology

Catalog description

The course's focus is to explore the process of interdisciplinary, comparative research. More specifically, the class will introduce students to the field of "New American Studies" and teach them how scholars working in an interdisciplinary and transitional context think, argue, research, and write. First, students will trace the changing definition of American Studies: Originating as a field of study with a focus primarily on the United States, the field has expanded to encompass research spanning all of the Americas, which include the disparate and often marginalized cultural zones within. Second, they will study the field relationship to twentieth-century social movements and related theoretical models and contemporary approaches to research, including Marxist theory, cultural studies, feminist theory, queer theory, post-colonial theory, and studies of ethnicities and race. Finally, the course will expose them to various research techniques necessary to conduct interdisciplinary research and produce graduate-level writing in their study of the Americas coursework. In readings and position papers, students will identify and consider methodologies across the disciplines. In the final assignment, students will implement the research methodologies discussed over the course of the semester. They will choose a topic, develop a research agenda, conduct interdisciplinary research, and write a final research proposal, with an annotated bibliography.