Cultural Studies Research Guide Module 2

Cultural Studies Research Guide Module 2. B.A. in Languages and Cultures Dr. Pagán.

Collecting Your Thoughts. What major themes or questions stand out in the film you chose?.

Choose and Watch the Film. Before you go any further, choose and watch the film you will study. Always start with the film (or the novel or other object of study). You want your ideas to come from the film, as opposed to trying to force some theory or idea onto a film. As you watch, think about both what is being told (the plot, the ideas) and how it is being represented (colors, camera angles, organization, tone, etc.)..

Brainstorming. On the worksheet, spend some time writing down your first impressions. Set a 10-minute timer and write freely about the ideas or questions or outstanding images that most spoke to you while watching your film. You don’t need to edit or revise this writing. It’s free writing to get the ideas flowing. It can be random words or phrases or rambling sentences. Just write!.

Key Words and Ideas. Leave the brainstorming exercise alone (ideally for a day, at least for an hour) before coming back to this step. Re-read your first impressions. Highlight 3 of your best or most interesting ideas..

Developing Your Best Ideas. For each idea, think back to the film. Locate 2-3 scenes in which you notice that idea being represented. Use the worksheet to start organizing these ideas, which will become your guiding notes as you work toward writing a research paper..

Rewatching. For now, you don’t need to rewatch the film. It will be necessary to do that later, after you’ve read through some of the scholarship. Once you’ve developed your ideas better, you’ll know what to focus on in the second (and possibly third) viewing..

Finding Sources. From Basic Ideas to Peer-Reviewed scholarship.

Types of sources. In this section, you’ll be locating some starter sources to compare what you brainstormed with what others had to say about the film. Eventually, you’ll start organizing this information into a dialogue in which you’ll take an active part. We’ll look at the three following types of sources: Reviews Interviews Peer-Reviewed Essays.

Reviews. Film reviews are a great place to start. Pros: they help you organize the big picture and collect some basic facts (director, plot, major characters or twists, some broad themes). Cons: they are brief, often written to persuade people who have not seen it either to see or not to see the film. For this reason, they are often too general to be worth citing in your essay..

Reviews. Find, read, and takes notes on one or two professional reviews of the film you chose. The Roger Ebert site, the New York Times, and the Guardian, tend to review almost any film that comes out. Try to locate at least one review from the country in which the film was made/produced/filmed. You’ll likely note the differences between what an American-based reviewer will think versus what a reviewer from the country of the film will think. Sometimes, you can really see the lack of expertise in the English-language reviews. Keep an eye on that as you read..

Interviews. These give you some insight into the director’s mind. Pros: they showcase what the director intended, and they can help contextualize the themes you noticed. Great place to discover something you didn’t catch. Great place to find a quote to use as an epigraph at the start of your essay. Cons: directors don’t always achieve what they intended. Don’t be afraid if you have different ideas. You don’t have to study what the director focused on..

Interviews. Find, read, and take notes on at least one interview. Google is your friend here. Interviews can be written or, especially for recent films, it's easy to find short videos with the directors (and actors). Type at least two quotes from the director to save for later. Note any new idea or topic you hadn't considered before..

Peer-Reviewed Sources. Scholarly articles that have been evaluated and approved by other experts before they get published. Pros: these essay are written by experts, and usually are the results of years of research. Because they have also been approved by other scholars, they tend to guarantee higher-quality, reliable ideas anchored in historical, political, and theoretical discussions. Cons: they are not always written for a broad audience. They can assume knowledge of other theories and of the context. There is a tendency to assume that these are total authorities, so don’t be afraid to disagree or to prefer a focus on a different topic or idea. Even great research can be built upon or contested..

Finding Peer-Reviewed Sources, Part 1.1. The WCU Library should be your first stop. From the Databases Tab, search at least the following three places: Academic Search Ultimate (general reference) JSTOR (collects essays from many major journals) ProjectMuse (collects essays and books from major publishers) These are a sort of one-stop shop. In other courses, your faculty can help you locate more specialized databases..

Finding Peer-Reviewed Sources, Part 1.2. In each of the three databases, search using key terms, and try different combinations of the terms. Director’s last name Title of film Or key words from your list of themes If you get no results, try something more generic or broad. If you get too many, use the advanced search bar to start filtering. For example, you might search “Villeneuve” and “aliens” or “Villeneuve” and “linguistics” if studying Arrival ..

Finding Peer-Reviewed Sources, Part 1.3.

Finding Peer-Reviewed Sources, Part 2. Three other sites can be useful as well, but these should never replace the Library Databases. Google Scholar Academia.edu Research Gate Since a lot of peer-reviewed scholarship is behind a paywall, many of us (myself included) post free copies of our research to sites like Academia that others can download. Be careful: plenty of people post work that was not peer-reviewed or published to these sites. Make sure you’re using these to find published, peer-reviewed work, not conference papers, M.A. or PhD theses, or notes..

Bibliography. Balancing Your Sources and Ideas.

Bibliography. On the worksheet, compile the list of all the sources you have found so far, in alphabetical order by the last name of the author. Use the Purdue OWL if you need help with formatting. In the Humanities, we generally use MLA or Chicago. Your professor is looking for you to be consistent and clear. For now, pick a style and stick with it for this course. Your faculty will let you know if they expect a specific style to be followed..

Finding Balance: Beyond Eurocentric Scholarship. Look at your compiled bibliography as it currently exists. This is just a starting point, and you will need to keep locating more articles and revising your list as you get closer to figuring out what you are going to be writing. We discussed Eurocentrism in the class. It also plays a role in research and the production of knowledge. Too often, scholars see Europe/U.S. as the home of high theory and research, and the rest of the world as an object of study. In this Eurocentric model, theory tells us what to think of a film from the Global South, for example. We don’t want to be critiquing Eurocentrism or racism, for example, and end up reproducing that form of inequality in our bibliography..

Finding Balance: Beyond Eurocentric Scholarship. In order to avoid research that, for example, silences women, let’s make sure our bibliographies are well-balanced. Use the worksheet to answer these questions: Are women, minorities, or people of color the authors of the scholarship you collected? Is there an equal balance of scholars from the country/region you are researching and from Europe/the U.S.? If you are researching a particular minority or community, make sure there are plenty of sources from members of that minority or community. We want to speak with others, not for others. We don’t want to silence others..

Finding Balance: Beyond Eurocentric Scholarship. On the worksheet, leave yourself some notes about where to go from here: Are there new ideas that are starting to surface for you to continue researching and thinking about now that you’ve begun locating sources? Do you need to better balance your bibliography? Most likely the answer is yes. What is missing?.

Summary. After completing these steps, you now have a list of topics and ideas to keep exploring, and you have located your starter sources. You’re making great progress! Start locating a broader set of sources to balance your bibliography. Also, plan time to read through the sources you have collected. As you read, collect a few key quotes from each that best summarize the author’s main argument. Your next Module will guide you through the work of evaluating sources and organizing an outline, so you’ll need to have read sources to complete the third module. Soon your professor will provide feedback and will likely have suggestions for additional sources and ideas..