Week 5: Positioning Histories
5.0 Positioning Histories
Objective(s): to review historical representations of subjects; to apply anti-racism as a storytelling analytic to historical representations
Orientation
Research occurs from a particular time and place; it is a historical act. As a term, “research” often obscures the complex process it entails. Our approach foregrounds its various aspects and steps in order to open up entry points for students to practice its skills and participate confidently in the process. We approach research historically, by employing historical (what people have said) and contemporary (what people are saying) categories to help students situate their interests and interventions among a humanist tradition. Research entails processes; it is as much about how we find information as what we find. Research also historicizes cultural forms of knowledge-making. Our second valence asks students to observe how research has occurred and occurs. Here the attention focuses on the positionality of writers, data collectors, scientists, publishers, and other cultural gatekeepers and their methods of representing life qualitatively or quantitatively. In other words, we position “research” as part of the storytelling process.
Activities
Premise
The lit review summarizes salient conversations within a field or discourse; a lit review might also reveal the genres of stories and modes of storytelling valued by a field. We propose a recursive trajectory for literature reviews instead of a linear or contiguous one.
Purpose
The purpose of this activity is for students to familiarize themselves with 3-5 historical documents that construct narratives about their subject-matter, where instructors designate parameters for “historical.” instructors may specify publishing genres (e.g., academic presses; social media; etc.) or leave them open for students to populate; either way, the goal is for students to review documents from the same historical era (e.g., the 1920s-1940s).
Preparation
Students gather 3-5 historical representations of their subject-matter. Once gathered and read, students, review how each narrative represents the subject-matter, whom it identifies as stakeholders, whom it omits, how it constructs its representations, and whether there are any obvious misrepresentations visible. In other words, this activity expands the scope of a conventional lit review (which centers on what has been said) to include how representation has worked historically.
Protocol
Once completed, students present their findings to their project groups by addressing the following questions: what stories have been told about these subjects historically? How have they been told? How have they engaged with anti-racism (or not)?
Premise
Annotated bibliographies record key arguments relevant to a writer’s current project. We seek to expand this definition by suggesting that Annotated Bibliographies might also include rebuttals against “key arguments” or rhetorical analysis of how writers have constructed their arguments or their function within a disciplinary discourse. In other words, it is to think of the annotated bibliography as a space for anti-racism: to register dissent and rebuttal with the historical representations of subjects.
Purpose
The purpose of an annotated bibliography is for students to specify how each story is relevant to the narrative they’re constructing for their project.
Preparation
Students generate an annotated bibliography featuring 3-5 sources from their lit reviews by identifying key arguments, rebuttals to featured representations, and/or rhetorical analyses of each essay.
Protocol
ABs are shared with project groups.