epistemic practices:

(a new course in research methods)

 

 

Through a team-based and participatory teaching and learning process the researcher is presented with the opportunity to:

  • Acquire a specific set of core research competencies
  • Critically contextualise and comparatively analyse different research undertakings
  • Reflexively deploy critical research competencies in framing and planning the major research project
  • Acquire practical experience in research writing competencies
  • Develop practical applications of competency in communicating research undertakings to specialist and non-specialist audiences
  • Apply critical reflection skills in communicating key aspects of their major research project

 

 

autumn semester 2008

 

 

  • Thurs 11/9/08

    ‘On Research Ethos and Ethics’ 9:30-11:00
    (a) the standard research ethics paradigm
    (b) the ethics apparatus
    (c) the ethos of research
    slideshow
    There were some questions raised about the literature review. Elaine's slides from last semester are here. There are some supplementary slides here also

  • Thurs 18/9/08

    ‘Research Events and Communications.’ 9:30-11:00
    (a) The politics of conferencing
    (b) Form and Expectation: From Symposium to Roundtable
    Workshop: How to construct an abstract; the art of compression: writing and rewriting research for an abstract; identifying keywords
    Martin McCabe & Dr. Elaine Sisson
    slides
    Writing an abstract: Writing Workshop 11:30-13:00
    Martin McCabe & Dr. Elaine Sisson

  • Thurs 25/9/08

    Induction of new researchers.
    induction slides

  • Thurs 2/10/08

    Academic Conventions 9:30-11:00
    (a) Textual authority and the Academy: the requirements of form
    (b) APA, MLA, Harvard? – standards and conventions
    Workshop: “How do I...?” A Guide to Effective Quoting and Referencing. 11:30-13:00
    Elaine Sisson, Martin McCabe
    Slides

  • Thurs 9/10/08

    Text as Research 9:30-11:00
    (a) Textual Styles
    (b) Form, Content and Interpretation
    Workshop: VL: Reflections on Research Methods 11:30-13:00
    Elaine Sisson, Nora Donnelly
    Elaine's slides.


  • Thurs 16/10/08

    The Politics of the Archive 9:30-11:00
    (a) What is an archive?
    (b) The currency of the concept of the archive in contemporary culture
    (c) Constructing knowledge
    Workshop: Thinking Through the Archive
    Mick Wilson
    micks slides



  • Thurs 13/11/08

    Textuality and Orality 9:30-11:00
    (a) Orality and Literacy
    (b) The privileging of the text
    VL Workshop: How to Interview 11:30-13:00
    Mick Wilson, Annie Doona
    Mick's slides
    Annie's slides.

    Review of Walter J. Ong's book
    Discussion of Plato
    Phaedrus


  • Thurs 20/11/08

    Image and Text 9:30-11:00
    (a) The problem of image and text
    (b) Reading images and writing about them
    VL: What is the Ph.D by Publication? 11:30-13:00
    (Martin McCabe, Anthony Haughey)


  • Thurs 27/11/08

    Visual Research
    (a) Visual Methodologies in Research 9:30-11:00
    VL Workshop: Thinking about Images: On Visual Thinking, Methods and Writing 11:30-13:00
    Martin McCabe, Sherra Murphy


  • Thurs 4/12/08

    Methodologies in Design Research 9:30-11:00
    (a) Conceptual thinking and design methodologies
    Workshop: Design Thinking 11:30-13:00
    Gearoid O’Chunchubhair
    Gearoid's Slides part 1 here.
    Gearoid's Slides part 2 here.


  • Thurs 11/12/08

    Sound as Object: The Object of Sound
    (a) Audio culture and research
    (b) How to devise a methodology for sound work
    VL: Workshop: Doing Audio Research
    Martin McCabe and Luke Clancy


  • Thurs 18/12/08

    ‘Discursive Practices’ 9:30-11:00 and 11:30-13:00
    (a) concepts of discourse, dialogism and dialectics
    (b) reflection in action and the disclosure of doing
    (c) resistances of discourse and constructions of the aesthetic
    Mick Wilson
    Mick's slides
    Briefing notes for researcher's review and assessment presentations.

 

spring semester 2008

 

  • Weds 13/2/08

    introduction: “research fundamentals”
    11:00-13:00 (John's Street West)
    (a) “methodos”: epistemology, methodology, method, episteme etc.
    (b) constructions of “research” – the emergence of the category and current debates
    (c) contested knowledge: authorship, ownership and legitimation
    lecture slides.

  • Thurs 21/2/08

    discipline:
    9:45-11:15 (DIT Mountjoy Square)
    (a) the organisation of knowledge, domain-specificity, field and disciplinarity
    (b) professionalisation, the construction of “expertise”,
    (c) knowledge cultures and cultural pedagogies
    A chapter on the question: what is a discipline?
    slides

  • Weds 27/2/08

    research lexicons and modalities: 11:00-13:00
    (a) quantitative, qualitative, hermeneutic, experiment-based, case-study
    (b) practice-based, practice-led, art research, design research,
    (c) real-world research, collaborative research, action-research, grounded theory…
    Online glossary of research terms (New Zealand)
    List of online resources providing information on qualitative research (US)

  • Thurs 6/3/08

    the specification of a research project: 9:30-11:00
    (a) pro-forma research proposal
    (b) case-study examples of the proposal and project development process
    Examples
    An Australian example of typical proposal guidelines.
    A Finnish example of proposal guidelines.
    Design research thesis advice.
    Computer Science research proposal- see diagrammatic outline of work tasks.

  • Thurs 13/3/08

    the state of the art and the literature review: 9:30-11:00
    (a) the apparatus and citational practices
    (b) “what is to be done?” the horizon of the already given
    (c) description and evaluation
    Dr. Elaine Sisson's powerpoint here.

  • Thurs 10/4/08

    qualitative research methods: 9:30-11:00
    (a) social science research traditions
    (b) ethnography and “thick description”
    (c) grounded theory
    Dr. Annie Doona's slides here posted shortly.

  • Thurs 17/4/08

    Practice based PhD: some examples, to help focus and inform revising the research proposals
    the practice-based research debate: 9:30-11:00
    (a) computer science, engineering and PBR
    (b) the AVPHD model
    (c) the PBR debate in fine art

    Matts Leiderstam
    2006
    Malmo
    “See and Seen: LAndscape.”
    www.seeandseen.net

    Miya Yoshida
    2006
    Malmo
    “The Invisible Landscape”
    http://invisible-landscapes.net/

    Sopawan Boonnimitra
    2006
    Malmo
    “Lak-na-pid lak-ka-perd”
    http://www.khm.lu.se/pdf/3-4_seminar.pdf


    lecture slides
    supplementary material here "on disciplinary ambivalence"


  • Thurs 24/4/08

    cultural studies and questions of method: 9:30-11:00
    (a) the emergence of cultural studies
    (b) the method debate in cultural studies
    Martin McCabe's slides.

  • Thurs 1/5/08

    case study method: 9:30-11:00
    (a) intrinsic and instrumental case study
    (b) generalisation and exemplarity
    (c) the question of “the research question”
    See:
    Gomm, Roger et al. (eds.) (2006) Case Study Method, London: Sage.
    Stake, Robert E. (2003) 'Case Studies', in Denzin, Norman K. & Lincoln, Yvonna S. (eds.) Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry, London: Sage.
    * Yin, Robert K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 5, London: Sage.
    slides.


  • Thurs 15/5/08

    the problem of mastery: coping with confusion: 9:30-11:00
    (a) the hermeneutics of suspicion and the pragmatics of action
    (b) the recurrence of the theory/practice divide


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For additional information on the collaborating institutions consult www.dit.ie, www.ncad.ie, www.iadt.ie and www.ulster.ac.uk.