979508 Research in International Studies

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular semester, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject level:

Postgraduate

Handbook description

The subject is designed to equip students for independent, creative research through the development of the critical, analytical and methodological skills required to complete the planning and proposal stages for a small-scale piece of original research within an international context. It introduces students to qualitative and quantitative social science and cultural studies research data-gathering methods appropriate to international studies research, how they work in combination, and the analysis and validity of the data they produce. An information literacy seminar will provide archive skills, information on the ethics of doing research with human beings and on the management of data, online research, and bibliographical and referencing skills through the UTS library.

Subject objectives/outcomes

The overall goal of this subject is for students to develop international studies research skills. At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

1. Critically assess research scenarios used to learn about societies and cultures other than one’s own.
2. Review research literature on data gathering methods including: qualitative, quantitative, humanities and social science methods.
3. Plan research methods suitable for building knowledge about international studies.
4. Independently design, manage, and present a qualitative research project.
5. Describe the outcomes of original humanities and social science research within an international context.
6. Reflect on their contribution to the research planning process.

Contribution to course aims and graduate attributes

Intellectual
A Capacity for analysing and evaluating processes of social and cultural change in another country.
B Critically reflect on the role and responsibility of a researcher.
C Problem solving skills.

Professional
D Knowledge of contemporary issues and trends relating to processes of internationalisation and the capacity to draw on the knowledge while living, studying and working in international settings.
E Ethical behaviour.

Personal
F Sensitivity to intercultural differences and a respect for other cultures.
G Engagement with people from other social and cultural backgrounds.
H Preparedness for lifelong learning about other societies and cultures.

Teaching and learning strategies

‘Research in International Studies’ consists of one 2-hour weekly seminar on campus. The pedagogical approach to this subject is Problem Based Learning (PBL). This implies a 3-steps approach to teaching and learning:

1. Presentation of a problem to be solved (a learning stimulus), in the form of a real-life research scenario. In trying to solve the problem (e.g. designing a research project to answer the questions asked in the scenario), students will assess the tools that they already have, and outline what they still require (need to learn) in order to accomplish the task.
2. This will lead to a series of self-learning activities (e.g. bibliographical research, studying of set readings, further ground work based on the scenario, etc.) and structured learning (e.g. lectures, guest lectures, up-skilling training, etc.). The goal is to give students the chance to fill their knowledge gap in order to solve the problem.
3. After the learning experience, the students will go back to the scenario, develop and finalise a comprehensive and structured answer to the questions.

In this sense, as a student, you will have the opportunity to:

1. Have an active part in the negotiation of the learning program, according to shared specific learning/teaching objectives;
2. Target your learning efforts towards your own specific needs;
3. Learn through a practical, hands-on approach to research, in which methodology and theory are introduced in context;
4. Expand your procedural skills (e.g. team work, independent learning, time management, project management etc.) in context.

This approach implies flexibility in the teaching/learning program, as reflected in the subject outline. The coordinator provides a ‘pool’ of learning tools (required weekly readings, further references, audio-visual material, internet links, real-life situations and case studies, etc.), and facilitates the definition of learning priorities. In this sense, not all the items will be used and other material can be added according to the specificities emerging in each class.

Face-to-face classes will be run as a workshop, with group work, individual work and plenary moments (e.g. guest lectures). As per assessments, there will be short group presentations by students.

As a student in this subject you are expected to attend lectures, do the required readings and preparation, actively participate in all seminars, and complete your assignments by their due dates.

This subject is worth 8 credit points. This means that throughout the semester you should be spending an average of 12-14 hours per week on the subject ‘Research in International Studies’ (RIS), including the class time, reading time, and time for preparing assignments.

Students are expected to read each week’s material in advance.

Content

International Studies is an articulation of language, culture and comparative studies in an international context. It crosses national and discipline boundaries and allows people to think outside the squares of the nation-state and ethno-nationalism. Students focus on the critical, analytical and methodological skills required to complete original humanities and social science research within an international context. To this end, a range of qualitative and quantitative, cultural studies and social sciences research methodologies are presented. Research methodologies and issues will focus on current aspects of research that are being undertaken within International Studies, also reflecting on the role of experience while conducted research in a different culture.

RIS is divided into 4 parts, offering 2 PBL-based case scenarios and a series of further units to cover the most used methods and data gathering techniques in the field of socio-cultural studies research in an international context.

1. What is research? What is research in International Studies? Here we will discuss definitions of research. We will further contextualise research inside the field of International Studies, and in particular its Cultural Studies-based version.
2. Research, Power, Others and Minorities. This section will develop around the first case scenario, and it will involve designing research in indigenous communities of a foreign (fictional) country. This will introduce a series of data-gathering methods (semi-structured interviews, oral history, surveys, focus groups, observation) and a series of methodological and theoretical problems (ethics, self-reflexivity, dialogism, power dynamics in research, grouping and ‘othering’, politics of research)
3. Space and Place. This section is based around a second case scenario, based on the analysis of place. It will focus mainly on methods such as observation, mapping and strategies of representation of cultural landscapes. The themes of this section are linked with human geography, global and local sense of place, affect and imagined histories.
4. Visual, Media and Textual analysis. This last section, not based on a scenario (during the final weeks, students will be already working on their own final assignment, based on a real life-like situation) will conclude the subject by presenting a series of approaches to ‘critical reading’, based on different media, thus covering: visual, media, textual and, in general, critical discourse analysis.

Points 1-4 cover what is required in terms of knowledge of research methods and approaches for students who are planning to spend six months in In-Country Study (Master), and provide a coherent and applicable set of knowledges for students who have RIS as an exit point (Diploma).

Assessment

Assessment Item 1: Scenario Analysis

Assessment Item 2: Literature Review

Assessment Item 3: Essay

Minimum requirements

Attendance at tutorials is important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach, which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas with other students and the tutor. An attendance roll will be taken at each class. Students who fail to attend 85% of classes may be refused to have their final assessment marked.

References

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Bank, L. (2006), ‘Beyond the Verandah: Fieldwork, Locality and Understanding Urbanism in a South African City’, in S. Michale Coleman and P.Collins (eds.) Locating the Field: Space, Place and Context in Anthropology, Oxford, Ney York: Berg: 43-66.
Bell, P. (2001), 'Content Analysis of Visual Images', in C. Jewitt & T. Van Leeuwen (eds), Handbook of Visual Analysis, Sage Publications, London: 10-34.
Bennett, A. and Kahn-Harris, K. (2004) 'Introduction', to After Subculture: Critical Studies in Contemporary Youth Culture, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan: 1-18.
Benton, Tim (1999) ‘From the Arengario to the Lictor's Axe: Memories of Italian Fascism.’ In Material Memories, Marius Kwint, Christopher Breward and Jeremy Aynsley,Oxford (eds.) New York: Berg: 199-218.
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Coulthard, M. (1985) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, London: Longman.
Crapanzano, V. (1980) Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
De Certeau, M. 1988 ‘Walking in the City’, in The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkley, Los Angels and London: University of California Press: 91-110.
Fowler, E. 1996, ‘Interviewing: Memory as Oral History’, in San’ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo, Cornell University Press, Ithaca: 231-238.
Liamputtong, P. and Ezzy, D. (2006) ‘In-Depth Interviews’ in P. Liamputtong and D. Ezzy, Qualitative Research Methods, QUP.
Lister, M. & Wells, L. (2001), 'Seeing Beyond Belief: Cultural Studies as an approach to analysing the visual', in C. Jewitt & T. Van Leeuwen (eds), Handbook of Visual Analysis, Sage Publications, London: 61-91.
Massey, D. (1994) ‘A Global Sense of Place’ in Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
Perks, R. and Thomson, A. (2006) The Oral History Reader, New York: Routledge.
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Schlunke, K. (2009) ‘Home’, South Atlantic Quarterly 108(1):1-26
Scollon, R. and Scollon., S.W. (2003). Discourse in Place: Language in the Material World. London and New York: Routledge.
Smith, L.T. (1999) Decolonizing Methodologies, Dundedin: University of Otago Press. Chapter 1: 19-41.
Stewart, D and Rook, D (2006) Focus Groups: Theory and Practice, London: Sage.
Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2009) Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture, New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 10.
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