Assessment
1(Semester A): Research foundations
This
assessment is designed to:(a) evaluate
your understanding of the different theoretical traditions
and ideas explored in weeks 1-5;and
(b) assess your ability to apply a critical geographical
understanding to your own research
interests.
Q:
Discuss how an issue related to your own research
might be framed as a problem of geographical
knowledge.
A suggested structure:
First,
introduce the research problem or issue you wish to
address
Second,discuss
the relevant theoretical and methodological approaches
within geographical knowledge that help
you to frame and explore this research
Third,
suggest some ways in which your research issue might extend/or
contribute to existing geographical knowledge (or,
contest it)
To
answer this, you will want to draw upon the work undertaken
in the four Thinking Geographically seminars, which
will also provide you with some of the references you will need.
You might want to explore your chosen issue from the different
angles presented by a variety of different traditions, for
example. Or focus in greater depth on what one
particular approach or tradition offers (or perhaps even fails to
offer) the process of intellectual inquiry in your chosen areas.
The purpose of the essay is twofold. Firstly, it is
to encourage you to think of intellectual
problems through a specifically geographical lens (as a problem of space, place,
scale, context, and so on). Secondly, it is to
sharpen your appreciation of the ways that the choice of guiding assumptions
or theoretical framework (whether implicitly or explicitly)
shapes the manner in which you actually go about creating new
knowledge and understanding. Every approach has its strengths and
weaknesses, but how are these shaped by the context in which a
piece of research is undertaken? Please pay attention
to correct referencing and the word length.
