Below there are descriptions for TWO options for your submissions. You will choose either a RESEARCH PROPOSAL or RESULTS OF RESEARCH, for those of you who were able to engage in the actual research.
>> Either option should be within the range of 1500-2500 words.
You must give it a title! (Why? If it’s a proposal, a good title is more likely to attract support, including funding; if it’s a written or otherwise creatively produced result of research, it’s the first thing to draw a reader/viewer in.)
Option 1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL.
This option is for those who will not be able to engage in their actual planned research.
Research Proposal
Note: recall our discussions about writing. As we have discussed, it is ok and in many cases advisable (motivated by feminist practice) to use “I”/ “we” statements!
Elements to cover
Pts
Notes
Topic description and question formulation
2 pts
Now that you have seriously examined this question, use more precise wording as this section should reflect a much greater degree of advancement of your framing of the project. Important here to check for inappropriate generalizations! You can also include here the ways your research question has developed from an earlier version: what pitfalls or problems did you encounter and how does the revised question improve on them?
What is known about the topic?
(for social scientists, this is often referred to as a “lit review”; for humanists it’s more loosely considered a review of existing literature/research/knowledge productions).
3 pts
Review the secondary sources you have located, including at least some of the works included in your annotated bibliography. In discussing what is known, you can arrive at what is not yet known, effectively identifying what your own research project would contribute. For instance: “These works’ single-issue approaches can yield skewed findings that our current project, with its intersectional focus, is uniquely capable of addressing.”
Plan – Methods/Approaches:
What is the plan for a careful approach to your inquiry?
5 pts
Identify the information you need, explaining how the approach provides a specific portion of that information you need.
Also – and this is critical! – describe how you will analyze the information you gather, and why this is appropriate to your research goals.
Uses for this knowledge:
Audiences and specific uses
3 pts
Intended publication type(s) (be specific), distribution to a relevant community, or descriptions of other uses. This should matter to you – who is your audience, and why do they count as your audience? Ultimately, if your research culminates in a communicative act, why that communication is important has to do with where it is destined.
How this is feminist research:
Give an account of the feminist aspects of your approach
2 pts
Consider questions of ethics, feminist angles on your topic, feminist theories, and questions of process in your discussion.
Addenda/appendix/extra materials
3 pts
Include a discussion of how each of you found ways to contribute to this project, including not just the nuts and bolts of the plan, but also writeup, dreaming, other forms of support. Include here drafts of questions or other research “tools”, and other materials that constitute essential parts of, or be necessary to execute, the research plan, such as a budget and estimated time scope. For example, if it is a survey, include the detail of that survey here. If it is an interview, give more information about how that interview will be conducted. Also include a list of works actually cited.
Presentation:
Please spend 5 minutes as a team sharing your research project.
3 pts
You can be informal! Please consider using slides or images (be judicious) or interactivity, such as asking questions of your audience (if you are taking 10 minutes, probably not if shorter). You should minimally discuss the inquiry and your approach to it; the rest of the presentation can address each aspect of the research, or focus on one or another aspect of the project. Do feel welcome to share what was surprising about investigating or doing research in this project.
Option 2. RESULTS OF RESEARCH.
This option is for those writing up their completed research as an academic paper or other form, such as a creative form. These will vary much more radically than in Option 1. If an academic paper, the more social science/empirical the project was, the more likely you will be to use elements from the sections above.
Results of Research
Note: recall our discussions about writing. As before, it is ok and in many cases advisable (motivated by feminist practice) to use “I”/ “we” statements!
Elements to cover
Pts
Notes
Main composition of writing or creative work
6 pts
This will be the main work itself, understood in terms of clarity, comprehensiveness, cohesion, form. You may choose a traditional form of academic writing, unique forms of creative writing or cultural production; however, I recommend aiming for more transparency rather than less, and providing guidelines for the reception of the work unless it is obvious.
Rationale
6 pts
If aspects of the research have been obscured by the creative form you have used, you should include an “artist’s statement” of sorts that connects the realization of the work to your approaches in detail. For instance, your research question, if not explained in the work itself, should be shared here.
Addenda/appendix/extra materials, including how this is feminist research
5 pts
· Include a discussion of how each of you found ways to contribute to this project, including not just the nuts and bolts of the plan, but also writeup, dreaming, other forms of support. Include also:
· Drafts of questions or other research tools, and other materials that constitute essential parts of, or be necessary to execute, the research plan, such as a budget and estimated time scope. For example, if it is a survey, include the detail of that survey here. If it is an interview, give more information about how that interview will be conducted.
· A list of works actually cited
· A discussion of how this is feminist research: Consider questions of ethics, feminist angles on your topic, feminist theories, and questions of process.
Presentation:
Please spend 5 minutes as a team sharing your research project.
3 pts
You can be informal! Please consider using slides or images (be judicious) or interactivity, such as asking questions of your audience (if you are taking 10 minutes, probably not if shorter). You should minimally discuss the inquiry and your approach to it; the rest of the presentation can address each aspect of the research, or focus on one or another aspect of the project. Do feel welcome to share what was surprising about investigating or doing research in this project.
Total: 20 points
