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(Urban) Research Methods
Course Meeting: T/TH 9:30-10:45, Monroe 211 and Friday Afternoons (1:00-3:00 scheduled, but we will talk about it), Monroe 319
Course Description: This class is listed as GEOG 365 (Field Methods) and IDIS 400 (Urban Studies Capstone) and the goal for both classes is to enable students to work to develop a research question or problem, determine what data is necessary to answer or evaluate that question or problem, and to work through the best methods to collect and analyze the data. The class is small, so we will work together to define the class. We will meet to discuss readings about urban questions and problems and fill focus on how authors gather and analyze data. In addition we will work as a class, in groups, and individually to design and execute our own research project.
Course Aims and Objectives: The central goal of this class is to help students develop confidence in their own skills as researchers, particularly as urban researchers. This requires reading and reflecting on existing literature and getting into the field ourselves. “Field work” generally refers to research that is conducted not in a lab or office, but in a natural setting. For this class the field or “natural setting” is the city, specifically the cities of Fredericksburg, Washington DC, and Richmond. Field work suggests that we will be observing how cities operate, how people move through cities, how the built environment shapes experience. We can decide to look at a particular part of urban life (parks, schools, residential neighborhoods, greenways, riverfronts, bike lanes and paths, farmers markets, grocery stores, pedestrian malls) and the ways that different groups (women, children, men, old people, whites, Blacks, immigrants, the wealthy, the homeless, etc) have access (or don’t) to use (or not) these spaces in different ways.
Course Requirements: On the first day of class we are going to determine the expectations for the class in terms of attendance and participation in class, engagement and participation with research, what the assignments and final projects will be, and how students will earn grades.
One way to think about this is to think about the skills we decide to focus on and how you will demonstrate that you have acquired them:
| Field Work Skill | In-Class | Lab Time | Field Work | Evidence | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observation | Discussing readings; presenting and comparing field notes from lab and field work | Watching movies and taking field notes; going to field site in Fredericksburg and taking field notes | Going to chosen field site and taking field notes | A field notebook that includes examples of some or all of your field notes, perhaps annotated | |
Then we can think about the usual pieces of a final grade and what you want to include. Between these two ways of thinking about assessment and grades, we can decide if we are doing one group project, a number of group projects, or all individual projects. Will these projects be traditional papers of X pages or digital projects. What kinds of data is better for a traditional paper or a digital project?
| % of final grade (or total points) | Assessment | |
|---|---|---|
| Participation | ||
| Exams or Quizzes? | ||
| Presentations? | ||
| Drafts of papers? | ||
| Portfolio showing research process? | ||
| Final Project |
My job in the class will be to figure out appropriate readings for the topic(s) we choose and to think through how to help you, the students, get the skills you need to be better urban researchers, and to grade you all at the end.