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.