This National Archives worksheet provides some great strategies for "close reading" an image or photograph.

Finding an artifact

Archival research involves collecting and assessing artifacts. Artifacts are generally produced by individuals or groups directly involved in the event or topic under consideration. Research on artifacts involves mining and creating archives which may include eyewitness accounts, diaries, speeches, works of art, films, photographs, songs, cartoons, illustrations, advertisements, recordings, government documents… Often artifacts are referred to as "primary sources."

Depending on your research area, you might search for U.S. or international news, government documents (U.S., international, foreign national governments), agency reports from non-profit or advocacy groups, more interviews, ads, images, music, historical archives, other? You're looking for something or someone with a direct, immediate relationship to your topic area.

“Artifact” really just means “made thing,” and we use that term to emphasize that anything someone has made may be used as a primary or archival resource. By “archive” we mean some set or collection of artifacts that are related in some way. (Remember that archives are also created by people and institutions, so the collector’s intentions and/or goals may affect the archival collection as far as what they’ve chosen to include or omit from the collection.)

1. Newspaper or magazine articles

The UW Libraries Music Subject Guide has lots of useful info. Amazon has browsable archives, with mini sound bites/samples.

• Where is the source from? Who "published" it? When? Where? What was the perspective/intention/ bias of the source's producer(s)? These questions can be easy, difficult, or impossible to answer depending on the source.

• How do you read the source? Look closely at it. Examine and isolate details. How do those details add to/contradict the source's overall argument(s)? How does the source support and/or complicate what you've learned from your scholarly and other secondary sources materials?

• What is the historical and/or cultural context in which the source was produced and "read"? Who was the intended audience? How might the source have been interpreted when it first appeared, why might it be read differently today? How might it have been interpreted by those for whom it was produced, in contrast to other potential audiences (including yourself.)

• Are there other primary/archival sources to compare against this one? Do all of your sources tell the same story? If not, why might this be?

• What questions does the author pose and answer? How do these questions contribute to an ongoing conversation about the materials at hand?

• What evidence does the author use to support his or her argument or claim?

The U.S. National Archives has some primary source worksheets that you might find useful:

Final Presentations and Portfolios (12/3 and 12/5)
Your final presentations will be take place on Monday, December 3. Each research cluster will have approximately 20 minutes of class time in order to discuss with the class the knowledge travels that have led you from Kincaid's "small place," through various (inter)disciplinary archives and methods of inquiry, and to wherever your travels may lead you next. You can most usefully think of your presentation as a travelogue, a slide show, or picture album. But remember how difficult it is to make one's own travels interesting to others. You will need to edit the documentation of your experiences, and use your time well. As you edit, focus on three points of interest: 1) How and why the original question/problem posed by your group may have changed during the course of your travels; 2) How Kincaid's "small place" may look different on your second visit there than it did on your first; 3) Where you (individually or collectively) are headed next. As always in good presentations, try to balance the information and ideas you will present to the class with opportunities for open discussion.

Your final portfolios will be due to my office during the regular class time on Wednesday, December 6. They should include all of the items from your first portfolio, along with your work from the second half of the course: 3 e-responses, 2 worksheets, and 1 essay and postcard. In addition, you will submit two new pieces of writing:

A) A collaborative (or individual) research proposal that responds to the following call:

The Burgett-Leadley Foundation is soliciting proposals for research projects developed by and for new and emerging interdisciplinary scholars, with special interest in projects related to "knowledge travels." The foundation has $500,000 dollars to give away during this funding cycle and is able to support projects that range from one quarter to one year in length. Here are the guidelines for submission:

Proposals to the Foundation should be no more than 6 double-spaced pages and should address the following six topics:

1) A description and justification of the problem or problems you will be posing (the question or questions you will be asking);

2) A discussion and rationalization of the types of scholarly sources you will be reading in order to orient your inquiry (the scholarly conversation/s you will be entering into). Please include the bibliographic citations for 3-5 scholarly articles that seem especially promising. (You do not need to have read these articles, but you should be able to discuss in your proposal the problems/questions they are posing, the methods they are using to address them, and any arguments they might be making);

3) A discussion and justification of the methods of inquiry you will be using (and not using). Be specific;

4) A description and justification of the archive(s) that you will be mining and assembling/collecting. Again, be specific;

5) A discussion of the intended audience for your research findings and a description of how and where you will publish your findings (a scholarly article in a specific journal, a documentary film screened at a specific location, a site-specific performance project, a series of workshops developed for specific locations, etc.). The Foundation welcomes scholarly articles, but is also interested in developing other innovative and effective modes of publication, performance, and intervention;

6) A detailed project budget and schedule of research activities (this may be an additional page).

Feel free to end your proposal with a tentative hypothesis concerning what you think you will find at the "end" of your research and what the significance of those findings will be. Finally, be sure to let the Foundation know the time frame for the completion of your project (between one quarter and one year) since proposals will be reviewed, in part, on how likely they are to be completed within that time frame and with the resources available to the project team.

B) A final "airmail letter" to me in which you have provide a self-assessment of your work in the course as a whole as it relates to the learning objectives listed on the course syllabus. (This is an opportunity to draw my attention to the high (and low) points within and across the assignments that make up your final portfolio, as well as what you've learned about diverse methods of inquiry and research strategies). I'll list the learning objectives here as well: 1) Understand and appreciate the interdisciplinary production of knowledge and the ways in which it underwrites different aspects of the IAS program; 2) Gain a critical understanding of the IAS program?s diverse and inter-related (inter)disciplinary fields and methods of inquiry; 3) Become better critical thinkers and writers, ones who are capable of posing, answering, and reposing a variety of complex questions; 4) Become better researchers, ones who are able to use the resources at UWB and elsewhere in order to identify existing and complementary scholarly work while producing original knowledge through data gathering and interpretation; 5) Become better speakers, ones who are able to communicate clearly and engagingly about complicated topics, arguments, and issues; 6) Learn to work well collaboratively, as learners, researchers, and teachers.

In order to retrieve your final portfolio, either provide me with a self-addressed and adequately stamped envelope, or come by my office next quarter.