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.)

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!