Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity
Term Paper for GWS 220, Fall 2020
In Dr. Yalda Hamidi’s GWS 220 – Sex and Gender Worldwide course, we were required to produce a 4-5-page research paper related to a transnational feminist issue. After Dr. Hamidi pushed me to choose a more complex topic, I chose to write about apartheid in Palestine. Language is important, so I will not be referring to this issue as the “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” That implies power dynamics are equal, which is simply not the case. Dr. Hamidi also knew that I was interested in LGBTQ+ studies, so she encouraged me to incorporate a brief analysis of Israeli pinkwashing in the paper. I knew that this assignment was going to be challenging, especially considering that I knew literally nothing about the topic. I accepted the challenge, despite being anxious about my ability to produce quality writing while accurately representing both Israelis and Palestinians.
After talking with Dr. Hamidi, one of the most notable things I learned was that part of being a feminist was taking a side to an issue. This is something that I struggled with because isn’t research supposed to be neutral? Was I supposed to be looking for sources that supported my stance on the issue? Well, after spending a week in the library researching and reading about the history of Palestine, I learned that a lot of the sources were already biased. Nearly all sources were in favor of Israel, so I had to do some more in-depth thinking about the issue. In other words, why are all these Western media outlets supporting Israel? A friend of mine from Palestine also helped me find sources that accurately described what was happening there. At the time, I had also listened to their story and what life was like under the Israeli government. After I gathered sources from my friend, I made a list of what each source was saying. It was really important to pay attention to the language that was being used in each of the sources, especially the language from Western media outlets. This was sort of a long process for me, but essentially, I had to compare and contrast each of the sources and come to my own conclusions for the paper. For me, this was more difficult than actually writing the paper. Here is an example of how the West waters down violence against Palestinians:
After weeks of teaching myself about this issue and sifting through biased sources, I was ready to write the paper from a perspective that challenges settler-colonialism. I began the paper with a historical overview of the issue and how tension started to grow. Then, I delved into the subject of governmental violence, including apartheid walls, military checkpoints, and the harassment of Palestinians endure from Israeli soldiers. Finally, I incorporated the issue of Israeli pinkwashing. Pinkwashing is essentially supporting queer communities in an attempt to cover something else up. When governments or corporations engage in pinkwashing, they don’t actually care about LGBTQ+ rights. Their support is solely performative, and their goal is to generate support for the nation. In Israel’s case, it gains the support of Western liberals while simultaneously covering up war crimes.
I learned a lot from writing this term paper and I believe that this experience really helped me grow in the competency area. It taught me how to effectively evaluate information despite clear bias. Most importantly though, this research project really stressed the importance of thinking critically about issues that are presented in the media. Typically, media outlets have an ulterior motive. That said, I also feel more confident in my ability to teach myself about global issues that weren’t really covered in my teacher preparation program. Since social studies has so much to cover, it is impossible for teacher candidates to get learn everything they might need to teach about in the future. I feel confident in my ability to correctly teach myself about issues. I also developed a passion for global issues because, clearly, things are certainly not always as the appear. This experience will make me a better teacher because I will be able to use this as an example in front of my students, and I have also further developed my stance on anti-racist education because of the stance I took on this issue.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Term Paper for SOC 301W
In Dr. Luis Posas’s SOC 301W – Social Research I course, we were required to produce a 20+ page proposal document that outlined a research project on a social issue of our choice. Dr. Posas encouraged us to choose a topic that we were passionate about because we would be spending the entire semester on it. At the time, I was spending a lot of time talking with an economics faculty member learning about markets and what would happen if education were to be privatized completely. The faculty member had very convincing arguments. I wanted to learn more, so my initial proposal was to see if society would be better off with private schools. I was unsure of how to do this and Dr. Posas told me that this was probably not a good topic to research because it was too big. I would have to look at all of the econometric studies and we only had a semester to complete the project. He suggested that I research the survival mechanisms that low income students employ on their way to high school graduation. This topic sparked my interest and was relevant to my career, so I decided to pursue it. This project was essentially an opportunity for me to build off of the skills that I learned in Dr. Yalda Hamidi’s class. It was more formal because it asked for all of the elements of a study: question formulation, a review of literature, methodology, expected findings, and references.
The first step was the question formulation and the explanation for why the study was worth considering. I learned that all research must begin with asking the right questions. This was when I realized that my initial question about privatizing education was too much to take on. I also learned that formulating the right questions for a research project can be pretty difficult because they have to be specific and they also have to continue to spark the interest of the researcher. These are not small projects, so if a boring question is posed, then the researcher is going to be run out of steam early on in the project. My purpose for the proposal was twofold: describing barriers that low-income students face in secondary schools and explaining the way that these barriers are linked to one another, producing disadvantages to those involved. My study was going to describe the everyday interactions of students with parents and other community members. We also had to select a targeted audience for our project, and I chose school administrators in Mankato Area Public Schools since research has the ability to influence policy.
The second step is the review of literature. This was the most daunting task of them all because Dr. Posas was very specific on the requirements. I am sort of grateful that he was so picky because I learned a lot from this process, but I remember wanting to pull my hair out at this point in the semester. We essentially needed five peer-reviewed articles that were empirical and were published in the last five years. It took me hours to find these articles. After I found the articles in library databases, I read through the articles and drafted the review of literature. Dr. Posas required a two page summary for each article explaining the methodology and the results of the studies we read through. I learned that the point of this step in the research process is to become familiar with the existing studies so I can fill in the gaps of knowledge. It would be a waste of time to conduct a study that has already been done.
The third step was the methodology. This was where we had to describe the process of data collection and how the study would ultimately be conducted. This was the most difficult part for me because of the nature of my project. I remember wanting to change my topic at this point in the semester because I was so overwhelmed by the data collection process. I learned that researchers have to be very careful in this part of a project otherwise the entire project could be skewed or inaccurate. I essentially chose to do a quantitative survey questionnaire because I knew I needed to collect large amounts of data and I knew that it would limit the amount of emotional damage that might come from a face-to-face interviews with low income students. After the methodology, we were expected to draft a couple page describing our expected findings. I thought that this part of the project was helpful because it is important for researchers to have an idea of what the results may yield (especially after the review of literature).
The project concluded by a formal presentation to the entire class. We were only given eight minutes to present each element of the project and most people ran out of time. It was supposed to simulate what it would be like to present the proposal in front of a committee. When I think about all of the papers that I have written over my undergraduate years, this document was one of the most impactful because it really showed me how much time is needed to complete a strong research proposal. It boggles my mind that this is only the proposal and not the actual study. This project gave me a taste of what writing a dissertation may be like and I finished this project with a lot more confidence in my ability to do that in the future.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Research Project on Indigenous Education, Fall 2023
During the summer and the Fall 2023 semester, I completed a research project with a faculty member on teacher preparation programs across Minnesota and Wisconsin, social studies standards relating to Indigenous education, and teaching strategies for pre-service social studies teachers. We prepared formal papers for a panel discussion and presented at the Northern Great Plains History Conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
