This course introduces archival and field methods to explore issues in research design for non-quantitative data.

As part of a community based learning experience, students use resources from their own community to describe and contextualize the idea of a "community". There will be hands-on experience with primary documents from the Mount Holyoke Archives, as well as interview material which students will collect, transcribe, and analyze themselves.

This semester, we focus on the related themes of

1. women, gender and science at Mount Holyoke,
2. the idea of Mount Holyoke as a scientific community,
3. and the understanding and narration of scientific expertise by and about Mount Holyoke faculty and students over time.

There will be hands-on experience with primary documents from the Mount Holyoke Archives, as well as interview material which students will collect, transcribe, and analyze themselves.