Course requirements and grading
Required Texts
Class Schedule

Course requirements and grading  <top>

Regular attendance and timely completion of all assignments is required.

30%	Read the assigned material, do homework, participate in class discussions
30%	Group Projects
20%	Essay 1
20%	Essay 2 (or alternative artifact)

Required Texts <top>

Bruce L. Berg. 2001. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. 4th ed.,Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon (available at the Odyssey).

A short selection on e-reserve at the library

Class Schedule <top>

Week 1. Introduction: the idea of community

Tuesday 01/31

• Check out the website. Suggetions gratefully accepted.

Thursday 02/02

• Berg Ch. 1; Hobsbawm, "Inventing Traditions"; Durkheim "The Elementary Forms..."
• Also of interest: Baumann “Preface” & “The Agony of Tantalus”.

Week 2. Scientific communities and science at Mount Holyoke

Tuesday 02/07

• Introduction to the archives: Grace Gray letter
• H1 (due 02/17): Is Mount Holyoke College a community or not? Reference readings from class in your answer. Keep it brief and to the point (no more than a page).

Thursday 02/09

• Geiryn, “The cultural space of science”; Porterfield, “Mary Lyon and the Mount Holyoke Missionaries”, Levin “Defining Women’s Scientific Enterprise” Berg Ch. 8
• Also of interest: Rossiter Women Scientists in America (2 vols) on reserve, these are really important basic histories.

Week 3. Women and science – a gendered scientific community?

Tuesday 02/14

• Introduction to other archival sources and the archives website.
• H2 (due 2/24): Do the archives represent Mount Holyoke as a community? Remember: Keep it brief and to the point (no more than a page).

Thursday 02/16

• HAND OUT ESSAY 1 (DUE 03/10).
• GROUP PROJECT 1: Mapping and indexing the scientific community at MHC (and/or representations of the scientific community)

Friday 02/17

• H1 due.

Week 4. Narrating expertise and asserting scientific authority

Tuesday 02/21

• Alford "Designing a Research Project"
• http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/library/changingthefaceofmedicine/
• Warner “Curriculum, plus”; Berg Ch. 2
• Research Prep (Essay 1): Go and look in the folders in the archives about the individuals on the Women in Medicine list. Some have been pulled and you've seen them. For others there will be very little material, so you might want to start with a richer folder.
  
  Look for different ways of talking about science. What are the different voices? How are different accounts related to Mount Holyoke or the Mount Holyoke community? (Authority? Expertise? Truth? Gender? The wider world of science?) Take some notes to report back.
• Also of interest: Schwarz “Two Faces of Collective Memory”; Halbwachs “The Social Frameworks of Memory”; Coser “Introduction to Halbwachs”

Thursday 02/23

• Nice in Conway “ Research is passion with me”
• http://www.mtholyoke.edu/cic/sciences/programs.shtml; what else can you find?

Friday 02/24

• H2 due.

Week 5. Introduction to interviewing

Tuesday 02/28

• Berg Ch. 4; Spradley "Interviewing an Informant"
• H3 (due 3/10): Tell me who you have identified to interview and why. Explain how you have or will make contact, and what the arrangements are for interview.

Thursday 03/02

• Berg Ch. 3; Shea "Don’t Talk to the Humans"

Week 6. Begin interviewing

Tuesday 03/07

• No class

Thursday 03/09

• Jackson "Interviewing"; Spradley, "Asking Descriptive Questions"; Berg Ch. 9
• Group project 1 check in.

Friday 03/10

• H3 due.

Week 7. Collective interview preparation

Monday 03/15

• Essay 1 due.

Tuesday 03/14

• Check in on mapping group project 1
• GROUP PROJECT 2: organizing collective interview; date? Invitation? Design?
• Recommended: Hoopes, pp. 33-58, 61-120

Thursday 03/16

• More on scientist narratives

MIDTERM BREAK March 18-26

Week 8. Collective interview preparation

Monday 03/27

• H4 due.

Tuesday 03/28

• Berg Ch. 5

Thursday 03/30

• Preparing to meet field group.
• HAND OUT ESSAY 2 ( DUE END OF SEMESTER)

Week 9. Collective interview preparation…..continued

Tuesday 04/04

• Berg Ch. 10

Thursday 04/06

• Collective Interview

Week 10. Collective meeting

Tuesday 04/11

• Berg Ch. 12, De-briefing on collective meeting. Assessing resources. Any followup?

Thursday 04/13

• Report back to field group?

Week 11. Processing

Tuesday 04/18

• GROUP PROJECT 3: Artifact/transcription of field group meeting? Watching video/transcription?

Thursday 04/20

Week 12. CBL review. Representing our own history

Tuesday 04/25

• Review with the archives.

Thursday 04/27

• Commitments: research artifacts?
• Mapping Project Due.

Week 13. CBL review. Representing our own history

Tuesday 05/02

• Organize final assignments.
• The System of Professions, by Andrew Abbott

Thursday 05/04

• Presenting our final projects

Week 14. Taking care of details

Tuesday 05/09

• Taking care of details