1) What are some of the ethical issues that you are grappling with in your research? What are some of the ways in which you are responding to these questions?
My research is focused on taking qualitative data—newspaper articles, book excerpts, journal articles—and trying to craft a narrative about the events of 1968-72, specifically at Vermont politics. This means I am looking at a huge number of sources, many of which are biased in their own ways, and of course, this is hotly debated time historically speaking. Different newspapers have different partisan or regional angles, for instance. My job as a researcher is to consolidate the facts from these sources into an unbiased and accurate narrative that also excludes my own bias. This means I am really trying to scrutinize each fact, assertion, or summary that I produce with the hope that my research will be able to stand up by itself. It also means that analysis takes longer, since often the subtext of an article or excerpt says more than the piece of text itself.
2) As you continue your research, have you considered alternative viewpoints in your investigation? If so, how have these alternative viewpoints enriched or changed your project?
I think a lot of my research is inherently focused considering multiple viewpoints and trying to tie them all together. The viewpoint that my professor is espousing in his research is one narrative of the history of political polarization, and that often agrees with my findings but then there are instances where there are clear disagreements, and so it is important to bring those contradictions to him so that the overall research can be stronger and more nuanced. It is also important to read other, contradicting scholarship, so that my own understanding of the field of political science can grow and become more detailed.
3)Where does your research take place? Take a photo of the place where your ideas and investigations are taking place, and post it to the Network!
Most of my research takes place in Columbia’s great network of libraries—most often in Butler library.