One of your assignments this week is to create a MindMap to present to the rest of us in class on Thursday (please note that we are your audience, and that this is a text that needs to be created with an audience in mind!). Your MindMap is to be centered on your fieldsite or a focal point at your fieldsite (OR a prevalent theme or topic you're gravitating toward exploring). The purpose of the MindMap is to create a visual representation of your thinking and your findings vis a vis your fieldstudy. It is a natural scholarly progression from the work we've been doing, namely, collecting preliminary data, examining our own subjectivities, and searching the literature. Think of your MindMap as a work-in-progress, something you'll need to add "branches" to over the course of the next few weeks, especially after conducting your interviews, but also something that you can create now as a map of where your thinking is and where you'd like it to go, a map of the COMPLEXITY of the issues you're exploring.
After watching this video (don't fall asleep!), please don't mess about with rough drafts, just grab a large sheet of paper or a piece of poster paper and dive in (you can even use a brown paper bag and a sharpie! my favorite! don't spend money!).
Begin with a vision of your subculture or fieldsite--an image that represents what you're exploring--like the clover I drew on the whiteboard in class on Monday to represent Shannon's fieldsite of Sullivan's on Castle Island in South Boston. As it turns out, Shannon's research is taking her into an exploration of the restaurant as an Irish-American "hot spot" for entertainment, good food, recreation, family outings, and political schmoozing. So, I drew a clover. Symbolism...remember that from high school English class? J. Gatsby and the green light? Piggy's glasses from Lord of the Flies? The forest in The Scarlet Letter?
Please think symbolically, iconically, representationally, visually as you create this MindMap.
Your goal should be to create as many relevant branches as possible, leading to as many engaging or surprising or intriguing ideas as you can think of. Please push yourself to use all the tools available to you to make this MindMap a representation of what your fine brain--with its use of digital tools and analysis of data-- is capable of.
- What is interesting to you here (in your fieldstudy)?
- What possible avenues can you explore?
- How many connections can you make?
[have fun! use colors! use images!]
[make it presentable and understandable to an audience!]
- When your MindMap is complete and ready for class on Thursday, take a photo of it and upload it to your fieldworking blog, so that you have a snapshot of your thinking for safe keeping there and so that your international audience can stay up-to-date on the latest developments in your study.
- See you in class on Thursday for your MindMap presentations (and other stuff, too!).
- Please bring your Fieldworking texts to class on Thursday, Nov 7
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