Course
In graduate studies, students are learning to conduct original research in a field of their choosing. But how is it possible to learn a field when it contains over 130,000 documents in an article indexing service like Scopus or Web of Science when keywords like "climate change" are used? Or how does one become an expert in even a relatively small field like cultural geography when a similar literature search returns nearly 35,000 references?
Like actual cartographers, those of us who are not already experts in the terrain of a given field are thrown into the middle of things. Just like cartographers we have to find some ways to orient ourselves without full knowledge of how the terrain of our given field of study is laid out or who all the participants in the field are. If these uncertainties were known in advance, we would already know our field. This seminar teaches students a variety of techniques for mapping their field of study, regardless of their chosen specialization.
The course is grounded in the metaphors of mapping and cooking. From the former, the course derives inspiration from controversy mapping, but focuses on one particular aspect of it: assessment of scientific and technical literature. From the latter, the course approaches contemporary scholarship as a set of craft skills that, with implements, knowledge, and practice, can be combined together into a satisfying meal.
In contrast to many other graduate courses, assigned readings make up a small component of the material. Instead, the majority of the course is devoted to learning and practicing mostly software based skills that can be used to map out each student’s individual field of study. Students will, however, need to read deeply and broadly within their chosen field of study to complete the major assignment for the course.
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