Gee, isn't technolgy wonderful- the divide between students and educators
gets expressed in ways that no one would dream of using if they saw people
rather than a screen.
As a recently graduated MA in Public HIstory, I agree that professors (who
are limited by their own research interests and concept of the field, as
well as overwork) and librarians (who have huge research libraries to run,
full of questioning undergraduates)are only the first step in a student's
search for a research topic. Everyone who writes to this list is asking a
question, hoping that someone else has more experience than they do. It's
the purpose of lists like these, and any student who doesn't take advantage
of them is like a student who doesn't use the library catalog.
Part of the reason for graduate studies (in history, at least) is to learn
research skills. Particularly in limited fields such as ours, an
undergraduate degree does not prepare one for coming up with a useful,
unique research topic. Graduate and undergraduate studies require very
different types of thought. A student who asks "does anyone have any
suggestions about topics that combine politics and art?" isn't asking for
you to write the paper- she's asking for some places to start looking, or
perhaps even the name of a book of essays that adresses the topic. Then,
she can read a few books, get some idea, ask how it can be fine- tuned,
continue to read, get some primary documents or interviews or whatever, and
write. From my own experience, it took me a full (completely useless)
thesis before I learned how to pursue a topic, much less find one.
Now, Jennifer, for my suggestion: One of my classmates did a project on
political response(electoral, community activism, political graffitti) to
public monuments and public art. It was fascinating.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
