Well, the spring semester is upon us, and that means I'm one step closer to my graduation date of May 2011. So much to do before then, but I know that if I can just stay focused, I can get it done. I'll try to update my blog more often so I can keep track of my progress.
My plan for this semester is to dive into relevant readings on religious places. There is quite an extensive body of literature on religion and emotion, some of which I am already familiar with, but I certainly need to broaden my knowledge of the wider realm of these unique spaces. I also want to talk with several people who have completed case studies to get a sense of how such research is undertaken. Lastly, I'd like to explore several similar dissertations so I can become more familiar with the overall framework. If I know what is expected of me on an assignment, I generally (historically, anyway) do quite well. It's those open-ended assignments that always stump me! So hopefully, with the creation of some structured research questions and background along with regular meetings with my advisor, I can make some significant progress this semester.
This weekend, I'll be presenting research on religious hate crimes at the Florida Society of Geographers annual meeting. The research is, understandably, quite dark, and it was actually my original dissertation topic, building from research I completed as a undergraduate. It's certainly an area worthy of exploration - though not by me. (I can't even watch those crime dramas without having nightmares!)
So, until next week...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
Research Objectives
Well, today I firstly worked on getting organized. (Always good to start the week with a tidy workspace.) I also went through several grants I'd found and determined the requirements and submission dates.
I'm debating applying for NSF this year, especially now that my dissertation topic and moved even further into the "humanities" camp rather than the "scientific" realm. Not that there's any harm in applying, but I just don't feel that my research is particularly fund-able by their guidelines. It's sad, though, that descriptive science has been overshadowed by more "modern" quantitative techniques. One author, whose name escapes me, that I was reading this summer lamented the decline of descriptive research, and asked what would have happened if we had described the stars we saw through a telescope for the first time... and had simply stopped, content with our description.
At any rate, I figured I needed to start thinking about some research objectives, so today, I put together a preliminary set:
Research Objectives
1. How do houses of worship serve to reflect and reinforce religious ideas?
a. How does the site encourage various emotional affects?
b. What specific features of the site reflect the community’s religious identity?
i. How does the members’ conception of the site differ from my interpretation, or from a strictly architectural interpretation?
c. What features of the site reinforce the community’s religious identity and values?
d. To what extent is the design of the site intentional?
2. How do religious communities use space?
a. Discuss the significance of the site, situation, and layout of the house of worship
i. What other spaces are significant to the site? (e.g. meeting hall, classrooms, nursery, dining area, etc.)
ii. What role does the natural setting of the site play in the emotive experience of members?
3. How do members experience the site?
a. Poetics of experience
i. How do the members themselves characterize their own religious experiences during services, meditation, etc.
ii. How might my own experience, as an outsider, differ from the members’ description
b. Comparative examination of various types of sites
i. How does the experience of members differ depending on their religious beliefs?
ii. How does the experience of members differ depending on the site? (e.g. natural setting vs. city setting, small church vs. large church, etc.)
I'm debating applying for NSF this year, especially now that my dissertation topic and moved even further into the "humanities" camp rather than the "scientific" realm. Not that there's any harm in applying, but I just don't feel that my research is particularly fund-able by their guidelines. It's sad, though, that descriptive science has been overshadowed by more "modern" quantitative techniques. One author, whose name escapes me, that I was reading this summer lamented the decline of descriptive research, and asked what would have happened if we had described the stars we saw through a telescope for the first time... and had simply stopped, content with our description.
At any rate, I figured I needed to start thinking about some research objectives, so today, I put together a preliminary set:
Research Objectives
1. How do houses of worship serve to reflect and reinforce religious ideas?
a. How does the site encourage various emotional affects?
b. What specific features of the site reflect the community’s religious identity?
i. How does the members’ conception of the site differ from my interpretation, or from a strictly architectural interpretation?
c. What features of the site reinforce the community’s religious identity and values?
d. To what extent is the design of the site intentional?
2. How do religious communities use space?
a. Discuss the significance of the site, situation, and layout of the house of worship
i. What other spaces are significant to the site? (e.g. meeting hall, classrooms, nursery, dining area, etc.)
ii. What role does the natural setting of the site play in the emotive experience of members?
3. How do members experience the site?
a. Poetics of experience
i. How do the members themselves characterize their own religious experiences during services, meditation, etc.
ii. How might my own experience, as an outsider, differ from the members’ description
b. Comparative examination of various types of sites
i. How does the experience of members differ depending on their religious beliefs?
ii. How does the experience of members differ depending on the site? (e.g. natural setting vs. city setting, small church vs. large church, etc.)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Abstract Submission
Things are moving right along with my new topic. I crafted an abstract that is essentially a literature review, but taking that literature and showing how it could be used to as a framework for research on the geographies of affect and poetics as they pertain to sacred spaces. I'm also working on developing a session for the AAG that would look at similar topics.
So, now that I have my abstract, I can set to work gathering books and articles on my topic. Last week, I read Methods in Human Geography (ed. by Flowerdew) as well as a book called Judgment Calls in Research that my outside committee member lent me. It presented decision making as a "garbage can model," rather than the scientific, rational models that are usually presented. Basically, the author argued that when we're crafting a research topic, we have all of these other outside influences, perhaps people or funding opportunities, and they all get thrown into this "garbage can." Further, the people who are involved in the decision-making likely don't really care about your research per se, but rather, are trying to get their own ideas and goals into the mix. It was certainly an interesting theory!
Next week, I plan on reading a few books I picked up from the library. One is Religion and Emotion, which I'm sure will be terrific. The other is a two-volume work on architecture and sacred space. I think both of these texts will be beneficial.
Additionally, I've been trying to be a bit better about making connections and networking. I e-mailed a colleague of my undergraduate professor who happens to study the geography of religion. No answer back, yet, but that's alright. I also e-mailed a couple of people in GORABS, one of whom is in charge of the newsletter e-mail list (which I've never been on) and is an author I'm very familiar with, and the other to see if GORABS can sponsor our proposed session topic. It's a bit scary e-mailing authors of works with which you're very familiar, but I need to get over my aprehension if I'm ever going to be able to carry on a conversation with them at AAG.
Overall, it's been a pretty good week!
So, now that I have my abstract, I can set to work gathering books and articles on my topic. Last week, I read Methods in Human Geography (ed. by Flowerdew) as well as a book called Judgment Calls in Research that my outside committee member lent me. It presented decision making as a "garbage can model," rather than the scientific, rational models that are usually presented. Basically, the author argued that when we're crafting a research topic, we have all of these other outside influences, perhaps people or funding opportunities, and they all get thrown into this "garbage can." Further, the people who are involved in the decision-making likely don't really care about your research per se, but rather, are trying to get their own ideas and goals into the mix. It was certainly an interesting theory!
Next week, I plan on reading a few books I picked up from the library. One is Religion and Emotion, which I'm sure will be terrific. The other is a two-volume work on architecture and sacred space. I think both of these texts will be beneficial.
Additionally, I've been trying to be a bit better about making connections and networking. I e-mailed a colleague of my undergraduate professor who happens to study the geography of religion. No answer back, yet, but that's alright. I also e-mailed a couple of people in GORABS, one of whom is in charge of the newsletter e-mail list (which I've never been on) and is an author I'm very familiar with, and the other to see if GORABS can sponsor our proposed session topic. It's a bit scary e-mailing authors of works with which you're very familiar, but I need to get over my aprehension if I'm ever going to be able to carry on a conversation with them at AAG.
Overall, it's been a pretty good week!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Current Topic Explorations
This week's been quite busy with classes starting, but I've made some headway on settling in on a topic. The idea of starting with a blank canvas on which to craft a dissertation was initially daunting, but the more I thought about it, it's exciting to consider what I really want to study for the next two years. I loved the Hawaii topic, but it was much more designed around the GIS course than my actual research interests (although my interests are admittedly quite broad), and while the Lake Jackson idea was a nice extension of the Hawaii project, a key element that was missing was the comparative element. So, thinking about the basic framework of the "perfect" research project, I'd like a comparative study of a modern religious topic, preferably one that engages with issues of poetics, which has continued to be a neglected area in the geography of religion.
I've been ruminating on a number of possibilities, and I realized that while I feel confident in my knowledge of geographical theory, I have a hard time extending those theories to research ideas. As such, I'm currently reading Methods in Human Geography (edited by Flowerdew) to get an idea of how research projects are crafted and designed, and the various methodologies those projects can employ.
I'm also off to the library to pick up a few books on religion and emotion, to broaden my understanding of the poetics of religious experience.
After talking with one of my colleagues, and from my own brainstorming of what my research strengths and interests are, I've come up with a neat idea. What if I examine three different religious communities (one conservative, one moderate, and one more liberal) and explore how they use space. That is, how does the space, both inside and outside, of their house of worship reinforce religious ideas and ecourage emotional affects? How do the followers interact with and use the space? I think this has some real potential, but I certainly need to explore it further.
I've been ruminating on a number of possibilities, and I realized that while I feel confident in my knowledge of geographical theory, I have a hard time extending those theories to research ideas. As such, I'm currently reading Methods in Human Geography (edited by Flowerdew) to get an idea of how research projects are crafted and designed, and the various methodologies those projects can employ.
I'm also off to the library to pick up a few books on religion and emotion, to broaden my understanding of the poetics of religious experience.
After talking with one of my colleagues, and from my own brainstorming of what my research strengths and interests are, I've come up with a neat idea. What if I examine three different religious communities (one conservative, one moderate, and one more liberal) and explore how they use space. That is, how does the space, both inside and outside, of their house of worship reinforce religious ideas and ecourage emotional affects? How do the followers interact with and use the space? I think this has some real potential, but I certainly need to explore it further.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Last Week Before Fall Semester
I can't believe it, but the summer is almost over. In my attempt to get organized and to get started on my dissertation research, I thought I'd start a Blog to help keep track of my progress.
I'm broadly interested in the geography of religion, and while most of my previous research had focused on more modern comparative analysis, the (tentative) topic of my dissertation will be an in-depth case study of the Lake Jackson mounds. I'm excited that the site is in Tallahassee, which will allow me to do a great deal of fieldwork, but at the same time, I have a few concerns. Namely, I don't really know anything about Native American religion. Most of my undergraduate research was on more modern religious practices including Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity (with a focus on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) So, the prospect of examining ancient Native American religious practices is a bit out of my comfort zone. Additionally, I know of at least one student who examined a similar topic, but who focused much more on issues of preservation and maintenance, so I want to avoid overlapping as much as possible.
This brings me to my next issue: what is it exactly that I want to examine? There's been a continued call for examining the politics of management and maintenance of sacred sites, but to be honest I don't find such examinations particularly interesting. Obviously, I'll have to engage this discussion to be able to paint a complete picture of the site, but I'm much more interested in the poetics of religious experience as well as the culture/landscape dialectic. Plus, I don't want to see my project get so broad that it becomes unmanageable, so I feel I really need to hone in on a few good research questions.
As far as the issue of poetics, I want to examine both the historical and modern day affective quality of the site. On the culture/landscape issue, I want to uncover how the Lake Jackson mounds reflected Native American views on landscape (both physical and cultural), how the creation of the site was influenced by the natural environment, and how it reinforced Native American geomentality.
It's daunting trying to set out on an entirely new topic, but I think that ultimately it's a do-able project, and it's something that's never been examined before from a geographic perspective. My long-term goal for the semester is to draft a dissertation proposal, and to do that, I need to create some research questions. To do that, however, I need to really understand the basic historical background of the site so I can determine what questions even need to be asked. So, I've picked up about a dozen books from the library on Native American spirituality and archaeology and I'm going to dive right in!
I'm broadly interested in the geography of religion, and while most of my previous research had focused on more modern comparative analysis, the (tentative) topic of my dissertation will be an in-depth case study of the Lake Jackson mounds. I'm excited that the site is in Tallahassee, which will allow me to do a great deal of fieldwork, but at the same time, I have a few concerns. Namely, I don't really know anything about Native American religion. Most of my undergraduate research was on more modern religious practices including Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity (with a focus on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) So, the prospect of examining ancient Native American religious practices is a bit out of my comfort zone. Additionally, I know of at least one student who examined a similar topic, but who focused much more on issues of preservation and maintenance, so I want to avoid overlapping as much as possible.
This brings me to my next issue: what is it exactly that I want to examine? There's been a continued call for examining the politics of management and maintenance of sacred sites, but to be honest I don't find such examinations particularly interesting. Obviously, I'll have to engage this discussion to be able to paint a complete picture of the site, but I'm much more interested in the poetics of religious experience as well as the culture/landscape dialectic. Plus, I don't want to see my project get so broad that it becomes unmanageable, so I feel I really need to hone in on a few good research questions.
As far as the issue of poetics, I want to examine both the historical and modern day affective quality of the site. On the culture/landscape issue, I want to uncover how the Lake Jackson mounds reflected Native American views on landscape (both physical and cultural), how the creation of the site was influenced by the natural environment, and how it reinforced Native American geomentality.
It's daunting trying to set out on an entirely new topic, but I think that ultimately it's a do-able project, and it's something that's never been examined before from a geographic perspective. My long-term goal for the semester is to draft a dissertation proposal, and to do that, I need to create some research questions. To do that, however, I need to really understand the basic historical background of the site so I can determine what questions even need to be asked. So, I've picked up about a dozen books from the library on Native American spirituality and archaeology and I'm going to dive right in!
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