I met up with Bea Ogden, a second year AAD student who is in the process of refining her terminal research project as a Masters Candidate. My ideas for research are a little ambitious; my eyes are larger than my stomach, so to speak. I found that discussing research with her was incredibly helpful. She had plenty of good advice for me and was frank with me about her own experiences.

“If there is one piece of advice I can give you, it’s: Do a small project.” I opened my mouth to talk about how I had a little longer in graduate school because I am doing two programs and might be able to do field work over a longer period of time. She interrupted me before I had a chance. “Do. A. Small. Project.” She repeated it twice. So on my list of Research Methods Objectives, that will have to go under Number #1.

AAD 630 Research Methods Objectives

1. “Do. A. Small. Project.”

Chatting with Bea about her research methods and methodologies created this list:

1. Methodology is Constructivist, Interpretist
   1. Postmodernism
   2. Likes Judith Butler, Said, Michel Foucault, Derrida
   3. Race and Power
2. Very interested in relational aesthetics (Nicholas Bourriaud)
   1. We are all networked in.
   2. Exhibition Design and Narratives
3. Methods include:
   1. Semi-structured interviews.
   2. Emergent trends towards research.
   3. Surveys–Bea is unfamiliar with crafting them but thinks it might be necessary.
4. Reciprocal Ethnography was discussed.
5. Bea’s Research: creating a general rubric to inform exhibition design. Testing the rubric by evaluating museums exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest.

We discussed my ideas and influences for research.

1. Likely methodology feminist, constructivist, and leaning more towards cultural/social relativism, informed by:
   1. Regina Bendix, Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu, (B-names everywhere!), Sherry Ortner, Stuart Hall, Ray Oldenberg, Antonio Gramsci, and Elaine Lawless
   2. Don’t tell everyone, but I have also been influenced by Adorno and Althusser
   3. Ideas/concepts/constructs of value, authenticity, authority, aesthetics.
2. Methods include ethnographic field work, both digital (online) and face-to-face
   1. I can do lots of fun library research too but prefer a component to my research where I am bouncing things off people or including the viewpoints of others.

So my large-scale project idea where I was thinking of working with refugee communities about the preservation of artistic traditions while being displaced might need some trimming. Bea suggested I broaden my concept of a refugee. It doesn’t have to be place-based. People can be displaced in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: socially displaced, displaced gender, etc.

My Learning Objectives, then, are:

• Narrow down my project and figure out how one idea can stretch across Folklore and Arts Administration, my two programs.
• Look at ethnographic research as a method.
• Include lots of fancy words but make sure I know what they mean.
• Don’t get so wrapped up in thinking about what to do that I fail to actually do things. (In terms of research.)