Thesis Update: How Much is Too Much?

There is no denying that the thesis writing process is tough. Now that we are a quarter of the way through the semester, I feel that while I am on top of the deadlines and making progress writing a draft, there are still a million other things I need/want to do with this paper, that I am not sure I will have time for. It was already a struggle to find a place to start writing for my first draft last week, due to the fact that I had so many ideas I wanted to incorporate but was not fully sure where to put them or how to organize them. What I ended up writing was a basic description of the gallery spaces I will be analyzing in my thesis, just to get the ball rolling and to give the reader a sense of the space. But as I was writing, I realized that I still have a decent number of things I need to research/write about in order to give the reader all the context needed to understand the gallery spaces and the works on display in them. While my concern of adding historical context was alleviated with the confirmation from my first reader and Professor Brown that I should add historical context, I now come to the question of how much to write. I do not want to go fully art historical in this paper, and argue the meanings of the symbols of Guernica, but I do want to give the reader the proper background for this thesis. That is what I have been working on recently, trying to find this happy medium of historical context. But I do need to find sources to back up any information I cite, which is taking up a bit of time, and time is something of a luxury right now. I am trying my best with what little free time I have to get all this work done, but at the same time, this is my last semester in college, so I want to enjoy it.

Thesis Progress

Right after today's class, I am interviewing Diego Sandoval-Hernandez, an outreach librarian from the Brooklyn Public Library who deals with prison and library services. I am looking forward to talking to him and hearing about his work and experiences. I think these interviews will really contribute to my analysis of how prison libraries function today and if they are successful as libraries in the educational and recreational materials and programs they provide. My first thesis draft is pretty rough, but I am excited to continue to work on improving and further developing it. Maren, my second reader, has also provided really interesting sources on exhibiting the writings and experiences of incarcerated people and the potential issues that may arise from this, such as the exploitation of incarcerated people's trauma in promoting certain personal agendas/ideals.

So Many Books and So Little Time!

So after panicking in class last Tuesday that I did not have enough work done or things read, and I am not truly sure where my thesis is heading anymore, six of my inter library loan books came in by the end of the week! Now the books are pretty big and all written in Spanish, so it is going to take me some time to actually get any useful information from them, but at least I have somewhere to go with my research now. The only problem is the biggest book that came in, from the Yale library, is due back by the end of the month, which is definitely not enough time for me to read it all (thanks Yale). The book literally covers art made throughout all wars in Spain, so yeah I am going to have to start sifting through that now to be able to get it back in time.

Other than the update on new reading materials, I did get a response back from the Reina Sofia last week in regards to requesting documents/information on their collection. All they sent me was a research request form to fill out (which I am not sure why that wasn't on their website in the first place), and since sending that back last week I have not heard anything. It isn't the best feeling in the world that they haven't responded in over a week, but I am still holding out a little hope. If this doesn't pan out, I am thinking of a plan B research question that still uses everything I have done so far this semester. 

Continuing to Research and the Challenges of not Living in Spain

As I mentioned in our last class before break, I reached out to my art history professor from Spain, asking him if he knew of any resources I can look over in relation to my working thesis topic (which is how art made during the Spanish Civil War influenced the Reina Sofia's collection and how the museum used the collection to tell the story of the civil war). He was generous enough, not only to respond super quickly but with a large amount of resources, which was great initially, but I soon found it a challenge to find any of the articles/journals he references online. I followed up with him over break, asking if any of the sources were available online, and unfortunately he said that none of them were digitized, and I would have to contact the institutions and ask if they could do it for me and send over copies. So that threw a wrench in my plans, here I was thinking I had so many great resources but most of them I need to be in Spain to access. 😓 

I can't let that stop me however, so I am trying to see if the topics have been written about in English, in databases that I can access, and also going through the sources and seeing which ones I am most interested in so I can send some emails to the Spanish institutions in hopes that they will help me out. In the mean time, my intern library loan came in last week so I am excited to start reading that and see if it will lead me to any new sources. I also read the article my professor in Spain wrote when he worked at the Reina Sofia, and to my surprise it was a very critical article on how modern and contemporary art museums do a disservice to visitors by not providing proper historical contexts with their works. His main focus was the second floor permanent exhibit surrounding Guernica in the Reina Sofia, and how the museum does not properly explain the history of the The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris 1937) which Guernica was made for and first displayed at. It really has me rethinking my experience in that museum and how it would have meant so little if I did not already have a general understanding of the history and the artist.

Early Research Challenges

One of the ideas I had for my research project was to look into the history of my house, which has been inhabited by RIT students for many years, and analyze what it could tell us about RIT student culture or perhaps college house culture in general. The issues I've run into in my early research is that this house has not (to my knowledge) been afflicted with many of the problematic tendencies of greek life houses at large universities, which have seen extensive prior research. In searching for peer-reviewed articles similar to the type of research I'd planned to do, the vast majority of the articles I've encountered are studies on the culture of binge drinking, hazing, and sexual assault in frat houses. It is difficult to find research related to the less sinister sides of college house culture.

I contacted our COLA librarian Cami Goldowitz asking for help refining my search terms to find more relevant articles, and that has helped me start to tend more in the right direction. Cami recommended me some search term improvements to help me find some more relevant results, as well as directed me towards some articles she found that are closer to what I am searching for in terms of the social culture of student housing. These have all been helping to direct me closer to what I am searching for, though I am not sure I have yet found prior research that matches exactly what I am planning to do. I am thinking of expanding my search to look more broadly for research on specific houses, not necessarily related to college student housing, and more into general student culture research, not necessarily about housing. Perhaps by looking at these separately, I can get a better idea of how to effectively combine them in abscense of a exact prior example.

Introduction

Hello! I’m Noelle, I’m a third year museum studies major, but this is my sixth (and hopefully final) year at RIT.  I’m from Gloucester, Massachusetts, where this past summer I interned at a small museum called Maritime Gloucester.  Because of this, I would like my thesis topic to have something to do with Gloucester, especially the maritime history that I was surrounded by the last few months.  It may be tough to narrow it down, because Gloucester is home to a very deep, rich history, which offers no shortage of topics to explore.  Gloucester is also home to my three cats, Pippa (brown tabby), Louis (light orange), and Mina (gray).

Hello :)

 Hello, I'm Delaney a 4th-year museum studies major with a minor in Anthropology. I am from Macedon, a small town in Wayne county, about 30 minutes from Rit. I have 2 dogs, Penny and Gabby. As of right now, my topic idea involves voting rights for women of color, Idk if I wanna stay within Rochester or find my way out of the town and see if I can find information on a city with the least amount of women of color's votes is the 1960s ... if that makes sense 

 I thought I posted this sooner but it was sitting in the blog as a draft 

Starting to Research

So I am starting to do some research on the Spanish Civil War and the art created during that time period! After class last Tuesday, I went over to Ritter on Ice and took out one of the books that came up when Cami searched the Spanish Civil War. I haven't gotten too far into it, but based on the intro and a quick skimming of the chapters it seems to go in depth on how Surrealist art in Spain began to branch away from its origins in France, since Spanish artists wanted to move away from the dream like state of surrealism and instead use the movement to address the war. I have also been looking into some more articles about Dali in particular and his depictions of war despite his claim to be an "apolitical" painter. Speaking of Dali, my copy of one of his autobiographies finally came in the mail and I am excited to start reading it! While it may help with research, it was more of a personal interest purchase because I have been wanting to 'get inside' Dali's mind so to speak. So far all I know is that Dali hated spinach because of its "utterly amorphous character." :)