Research Methods check-in

After reading the work of other scholars, I have learned more about ways of structuring a thesis. Although it may seem superficial at first, I never realized there were so many different approaches used to begin a paper. For example, in the article "What We Talk About When We Talk About Food: Using Food to Teach History at the Tenement Museum," Adam Steinberg opens with an abstract, then jumps right into the narrative.(1) There are no subheadings to segment the piece, or otherwise interrupt the narrative work he presents. I believe this was done to preserve the format he wanted to present, but there were also requirements and expectations set by the publication, The Public Historian. Fortunately, we have some flexibility and can tailor the structure to our topic, research methods, and writing style.

For the same publication, Richard Rabinowitz uses an abstract and a preface before presenting the first part of his paper.(2) The abstract is a broad scope of the content, while the preface serves to tell the reader specifically what his goals are. In stating the goals so clearly, one would think the paper would be easier to follow, however, his use of subheadings, sub-subheadings, and sub-sub-subheadings does not have the kind of flow Steinberg's article had. While I have not yet determined the structure for my own paper, I hope to use the best methods from each; I will state my goals clearly and use subheadings judiciously. I can see how it might be easy to use subheadings as a crutch, or a poor substitute for proper transitions. In Rabinowitz case, however, his use of subheadings appears to reflect a step-by-step process (vs. a narrative structure).

In addition to examining the structure of various articles, it also became apparent how important it is to document processes, especially if a paper is project-based like Rabinowitz's article. This will go a long way toward establishing credibility and answering questions a skeptical reader may have before they even ask them.


1. Adam Steinberg, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Food: Using Food to Teach at the Tenement Museum,” The Public Historian (2012): 79.

2. Richard Rabinowitz, "Eavesdropping at the Well: Interpretive Media in the Slavery in New York Exhibition," The Public Historian (2013): 8-9.

Kellie, Introduction!

I'm posting this for Kellie, who was having problems accessing the blog:) Dr. Decker

HI!

In the beginning, I was not sure what I want to do concerning a major before I first came here at RIT as a freshmen, but thanks to my travel experiences, I thought Museums Studies was a good choice for me to study, which, in turn, was the wise move as well. Because I truly enjoyed to learn many things in various courses, and although I am still undecided on what kind of career I want for my future, my internship helped me to narrow down to a few potential careers. For those don’t know, I interned under Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University in DC last summer, and I worked on digital transcriptions — I transcribed all of the given documents of Prospects of Mankind into Word on computer — and I enjoyed it. Not only that, but I like to travel around. I want to visit several museums and write blogs about those, but I will work on that later when I am able to travel. :)

So that’s who I am! 

Kellie at the National Mall

Jenna Bossert's Introduction

     Cultural institutions have long been of interest to me, but it was not until halfway through college, I realized that this line of work was my calling. I have visited many museums in my lifetime across the country. However in all that time, I had not thought about how the museum was run or who was in charge of different aspects of the museum.

     When I began college, I was a New Media Interactive Development student. While I still have a love of new media and technology, I realized my passions were more aligned with the following: history, art, fashion, education, information sciences, and other cultural institutions. I joined the Museum Studies major officially in Fall 2014 though I had already taken nearly 1/2 of my course requirements for the program. Interning in the summer of 2014 at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) in Syracuse, NY solidified my decision to switch my major. 

     While I worked at the MOST, I was a Marketing and Public Relations intern and I had a variety of tasks. I am going to focus on my main project throughout my internship. I coordinated event programming for the MOST's July and August Science Socials through organizing volunteers, vendors, and concepts for the event. I led the July Science Social and I worked with the Education department to create scientific demonstrations for attendees at the MOST's Science Social. I worked with the Marketing and PR department to advertise and brand the Science Socials.

The poster for the Science Socials @ the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technoly (MOST)

      Another pivotal position that inspired me to change my major is my job as an archival assistant at the RIT Archives. I began in Fall 2014 and fell in love with many aspects that come with the job. Since working there, I have gained a wealth of knowledge about RIT. However my favorite objects that the RIT Archives has are not at all related to RIT or Rochester. These objects would have to be the artist books and the plethora of older issues of magazines such as Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. A potential proposal for my senior thesis is researching how 20^th century women’s fashions are depicted in various mediums, such as these magazines, films, books, social media, and of course, the museum. In addition to researching the different depictions, I plan to research the styles of clothing and trends, as well as why they came about and how they are tied to historical happenings of the same time period. An example of this would be the loose flapper dresses that were all the rage in the 1920’s. This freeing fashion came about during a time of revolution for women’s rights. Clothes and trends with fashion may have more of a historical meaning than an aesthetic meaning, or at least more than meets the eye.

Introductions

As a first blog post we have been asked to give introductions and potential thoughts about thesis topics. 

I started in museums during high school through the Capstone program, internships benefiting students who are highly motivated in their career fields, where I spent half of my school day volunteering at the Oliver Archive Center on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution. There I worked with the Thomas Edison and Lewis Miller family photograph collections and managed all incoming inquires for other facets of the photograph collection. My work primarily focused on receiving, analyzing, documenting, digitizing, and caring for the Thomas Edison/Lewis Miller family photographs and its corresponding family genealogy. I then went on to write and submit my first contract to the Chautauqua Institution Board of Trustees, purposing a paid position for the rehousing and digitization of the Chautauqua post card collection. The proposal was accepted and the project was completed before the 2013 Chautauqua season began.

From there I moved to Rochester, NY to start my college education where I immediately began volunteering at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. I spent six months volunteering in the Technology collection, labeling and helping to identify cameras. Simultaneously, I also volunteered in the Department of Moving Image during their Monday screenings in the Dryden Theater. These experiences lead me to becoming close friends with Ania Michas, former conservator of the Polish National Archives, and beginning my first contract with the Kay R. Whitmore Conservation Center. The six-month contract was through the Saving America’s Treasures grant for the rehousing of the famous Southworth and Hawes Daguerreotype collection. After completing my portion of the contract, I was asked back by the conservation center, six months later, to complete a second contract in digitization and deterioration identification of the daguerreotypes. I would later go on to be accepted into the museum’s, highly competitive, Department of Photography Undergraduate Internship.

Currently, I have been assigned to work on rehousing, identifying, and cataloging the Colorama collection, also at the George Eastman House, which I may potentially use towards a project-based thesis. However, there is another potential proposal that I may accept and use instead.

I look forward to hearing about what everyone else is considering on over these next two semesters!

Kenzie Mencer in the Kay R. Whitmore Conservation Center after helping to complete the Save America's Treasures Project 

A New Year, New Research

On Thursday, August 27, students in the Research Methods began their course with Prof. Tamar Carroll, MUSE faculty member from RIT's History Department. The purpose of the Methods course is to introduce students to the methodologies of research appropriate for the field of Museum Studies. This course provides a strong foundation for students as they undertake the thesis in the following semester.

For the thesis, students are asked to conduct research and produce a paper. The research paper takes one of two forms, generally. The paper may combine research with an experiential-based project. Or, the paper may be based entirely upon research. In addition to conducting research and writing a supporting paper, students are required to disseminate their work publicly. This is done usually through the college-wide poster session held in May (pictures below in May's post).

As another form of facilitation and dissemination, students are asked to make periodic posts to this blog throughout this semester. Posts will continue in the spring, as well, as they bring their projects to a strong finish.

To facilitate thinking about which type of project each student will pursue, Prof. Tina Lent and I joined the Methods class last week to talk with the students about potential projects that might be interesting to pursue as part of senior thesis work. In addition to one of the dozen or so projects that we introduced—many of which are offered in conjunction with area institutions—students have the option of pursuing a project of their own design, after consulting with MUSE faculty.

To give inspiration for the students, I am attaching a photograph from the university-wide poster session that was held earlier this month. There, two of our class of 2015 seniors presented their thesis work. Be sure to click here for a pic of most of last year's class at graduation!

Best wishes, seniors! 

University-wide Poster Session, August 7, 2015. Photo T. Lent