Introduction to Graduate Research (Fall 2021)

Introduction to Graduate Research (in TSB and MTS)

Media, Technology & Society (MTS) 501

Wednesdays 9am-11:50am CT

Frances Searle Building, Room 2-378

Fall 2021

Northwestern University

Course websites

Canvas for announcements, submitting assignments, and some files.

Zoom for any remote, synchronous course meetings and guest speaker visits.

This wiki page for nearly everything else.

Instructor: Aaron Shaw (aaronshaw@northwestern.edu)

Office Hours: Wednesday afternoons (details TBA) and by appointment

Please use office hours signups (with remote and f2f location information)

Taking a broad view on research careers (Image: NASA, 1968, Public domain)

Course information

Overview and learning objectives

The goal of this seminar is to introduce first-year students in the MTS and TSB Ph.D. programs to (1) current research in these fields, and (2) key challenges involved in pursuing a productive, responsible, and fulfilling research career.

Throughout the quarter, participants in the seminar will:

• Engage with program faculty and their research.
• Discuss and assess various aspects of research career practices and strategies.
• Develop and apply your own effective research career development strategies.

We will do this through a combination of readings, writings, activities, in-class discussions, and guest visits from TSB and MTS program faculty.

Format and structure

The course has two main components that will be woven together in weekly class sessions: a survey of current research conducted by TSB and MTS program faculty and an instructional seminar focused on challenges related to professional development. The class sessions will all be structured around one research domain and one professional development challenge. Every week, we will host 1-2 faculty guest speakers working in the research domain and engage with one piece of their recent research. We will also pursue readings, discussions, and written assignments related to the professional development challenge. The course will proceed through a combination of weekly in-person seminar meetings and activities/assignments conducted outside of class time.

Assignments

Assignments fall into one of two categories: weekly and final (details for both below). In general, I will ask you to submit any written assignments as a PDF via Canvas. There are no specific style guidelines or formatting requirements for written assignments. I recommend a clear, professional, and conversational tone in your writing. I also recommend you familiarize yourself with salient principles on academic integrity, including the appropriate attribution of sources. Please submit written work in a readable (size 11 or greater) font. Please include your name somewhere (prominent) in the document that you submit as well as your last name at the beginning of the filename (e.g., "Shaw-mts501-week1-assignment.pdf").

Weekly assignments

The course schedule (below) provides details of all weekly assignments as well as links to materials and Canvas pages required to complete them. In general, weekly assignments are due Mondays at 6pm U.S. central time in order to allow time for review of (and sometimes feedback on) your submitted materials ahead of our class session. Weekly assignments will consist of readings, written materials, and occasional activities related to the class topic that week. For activities that involve collaboration or conversation with colleagues, it is up to you to coordinate any meeting times, places, or communication channels as needed.

Final assignment

Final projects are due via Canvas at 12pm (Central time) on December 8, 2021. The final project for the course will be a 3000-5000 word written document consisting of two parts: (1) a strategic plan for your graduate school career and (2) a research plan for an empirical and/or design project you aim to conduct in the coming year+. Additional details of the final project requirements and expectations will arrive a few weeks into the quarter.

Grading and assessment

I will assign grades (usually a numeric integer between 0-10) for each of the following aspects of your performance in the course. For each aspect, grades start with the maximum possible value (10) and only decrease in the event of a specific failure to meet some aspect of the relevant assessment rubric (more on those below). The percentage values are weights that will be applied to calculate your overall grade for the course.

• Weekly participation: 40%
• Weekly assignments: 40%
• Final assignment (including all intermediate assignments): 20%

For participation, please consult my holistic participation rubric (link coming).

For written work, please consult my general writing assessment rubric (link coming).

Policies

General course policies

General policies on a wide variety of topics including classroom equity, attendance, academic integrity, accommodations, late assignments, and more are provided on Aaron's class policies page. Below are some policy statements specific to this course and quarter.

COVID-19 Policies

My COVID-19 policies page provides specific COVID-19 policies mandated by Northwestern University.

Teaching and learning in a pandemic

Even beyond my COVID-19 policies, the ongoing pandemic will impact this course in various ways, some of them obvious and tangible and others harder to pin down. On the obvious and tangible front, we have things like the fact that we will be wearing masks when we meet on campus (assuming we're able to meet on campus all quarter!) and that some of our guest speakers will likely participate remotely. These will reshape our collective experience in major ways.

On the "harder to pin down" side, even though (or maybe especially because) we've been doing this pandemic thing for a while now, many of us may experience elevated levels of exhaustion, stress, uncertainty and/or distraction. We may need to provide unexpected support to family, friends, or others in our communities. I have some personal experiences with this and I expect that many (all?) of you do too. It can be a difficult time.

I believe it is important to acknowledge these realities of the situation and create the space to discuss and process them in the context of our class throughout the quarter. As your instructor and colleague, I commit to do my best to approach the course in an adaptive, generous, and empathetic way. I will try to be transparent and direct with you throughout—both with respect to the course material as well as the pandemic and the university's ongoing response to it. I ask that you try to extend a similar attitude towards everyone in the course. When you have questions, feedback, or concerns, please try to share them in an appropriate, empathetic way. If you require accommodations of any kind at any time (directly related to the pandemic or not), please contact me.

Expectations for in-person sessions

Please present a green [Symptom Tracker] "badge" at the beginning of each class session and plan to wear a face covering over your nose and mouth for the duration of our in-person class sessions.

I ask everyone to come to our in-person class sessions prepared to comply with all applicable university COVID-19 policies and guidelines. We will be following Northwestern's [guidelines for instructional spaces], including the use of face coverings, consistent seating, and health monitoring using the Symptom Tracker app (either the mobile or web-based version is fine).

Our classes are long and we will aim to take a break from 10:10am-10:30am, during which time you are very much encouraged to leave the room, stretch your legs, walk around outside, etc. Please return a few minutes prior to 10:30am as we will host guest speakers during the second half of class and it's important that we respect their time.

Expectations for synchronous remote sessions (if needed)

At the time I'm creating this syllabus, Northwestern expects that we will be able to hold all synchronous course sessions in-person on campus. In the event that we are unable to maintain this arrangement throughout the entire quarter and need to fall back on remote course meetings, the following are some baseline expectations for synchronous remote class sessions. I expect that these can and will evolve. Please feel free to ask questions, suggest changes, or raise concerns during the quarter. I welcome all input.

• All members of the class are expected to create a supportive and welcoming environment that is respectful of the conditions under which we are participating in this class.
• All members of the class are expected to take reasonable steps to create an effective teaching/learning environment for themselves and others.

And here are suggested protocols for any video/audio portions of our class:

• Please mute your microphone whenever you're not speaking and learn to use "push-to-talk" if/when possible.
• Video is optional for all students at all times, although if you're willing/able to keep the instructor company in the video channel that would be nice.
• If you need to excuse yourself at any time and for any reason you may do so.
• Children, family, pets, roommates, and others with whom you may share your workspace are welcome to join our class as needed, but please do your best to minimize distractions and disruptions to the course.

Syllabus revisions

This syllabus will be a dynamic document that will evolve throughout the quarter. Although the core expectations are fixed, the details will shift. As a result, please keep in mind the following:

1. Assignments and readings are frozen 1 week before they are due. I will not add readings or assignments less than one week before they are due. If I forget to add something or fill in a "To Be Determined" less than one week before it's due, it is dropped. If you plan to read or work more than one week ahead, contact me first.
2. Substantial changes to the syllabus or course materials will be announced. Please closely monitor your email and/or the announcements section on the course website on Canvas. When I make changes, these changes will be recorded in the edit history of this page so that you can track what has changed. I will also do my best to summarize these changes in announcements on Canvas that will be emailed to everybody in the class.
3. The course design may adapt throughout the quarter. As usual (for me at least), I may iterate and prototype course design elements rapidly along the way. To this end, I will ask you for voluntary feedback — especially toward the beginning of the quarter. Please let me know what is working and what can be improved. In the past, I have made many adjustments based on this feedback and I expect to do so again.

Schedule (with all the details)

Week 1: 9.22

Challenge: What is a Ph.D. program for and what do I do with one? (or a University for that matter)

Guests: TSB and MTS Directors of Graduate Studies

• Nick Diakopoulos (CV)
• Claudio Benzecry (CV on Canvas).

Reading

• Benzecry, Claudio. (Forthcoming). The Perfect Fit. University of Chicago Press. Preface and Chapter 1 (on Canvas).
• Diakopoulos, N., D. Trielli, and G. Lee. Towards Understanding and Supporting Journalistic Practices Using Semi-Automated News Discovery Tools. Proceedings of the ACM (PACM): Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW). 2021.
• Stevens, Mitchell. 2021. Harvard-Riverside, Round Trip. Public Books, August 11.

Week 2: 9.29

Challenge: What do you work on? Finding research questions, puzzles, problems, and challenges

Guests: Global culture and media (part I)

• Larissa Buchholz
• Jim Schwoch

Readings

• Buchholz, Larissa. "Preface" (Forthcoming). The Global Rules of Art. The Emergence of a Dual Cultural World Economy. Princeton University Press (5 pages).
• Buchholz, Larissa. (2018). "Rethinking the center-periphery model: Dimensions and temporalities of macro-structure in a Global Cultural Field." Poetics, 71, 18-32.
• Schwoch, James. 2018. Wired Into Nature: The Telegraph and the North American Frontier. University of Illinois Press. Introduction, Conclusion, and one other chapter (of your choosing).

Week 3: 10.06

Challenge: Who do you work with? Cultivating effective mentoring relationships and collaborations

Guests: Health communication

• Courtney Scherr
• Nathan Walter

Readings

• Walter, N., Demetriades, S. Z., & Nabi, R. L. (2021). Seeing red through rose-colored glasses: Subjective hope as a moderator of the persuasive influence of anger. Journal of Communication, 71(1), 79-103.

Week 4: 10.13

Challenge: Where does the money come from? Finding funding and support for your work

Guests: HCI and Design

• Nabil Alshurafa
• Josiah Hester (CV)

Readings

• Jasper de Winkel, Vito Kortbeek, Josiah Hester, and Przemysław Pawełczak. 2020. Battery-Free Game Boy. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies. 4, 3, Article 111 (September 2020), 34 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411839. (alternate PDF via Professor Hester's personal site). Also, please check out the project website.

Week 5: 10.20

Challenge: How do you get things done? Creating and practicing sustainable work routines

Guests: New media, advocacy, and networked public culture

• TJ Billard
• AJ Christian

Readings

• Christian, A. J., Day, F., Díaz, M., & Peterson-Salahuddin, C. (2020). Platforming Intersectionality: Networked Solidarity and the Limits of Corporate Social Media. Social Media+ Society, 6(3), 2056305120933301. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120933301

Week 6: 10.27

Challenge: What fields are you in? Building professional communities

Guests: Global media and culture (part II)

• Pablo Boczkowski

Week 7: 11.03

Challenge: How do others see you? Crafting a professional identity

Guests: Media effects and policy

• Eric Nisbet
• Ellen Wartella (CV via CMHD website)

Week 8: 11.10

Challenge: How do you communicate your work? (Part I) Writing, publishing, and reviewing

Guests: Digital media use

• Moya Bailey
• Jeremy Birnholtz

Readings:

• Birnholtz, J., Rawat, S., Vashista, R., Baruah, D., Dange, A., & Boyer, A. M. (2020). Layers of marginality: an exploration of visibility, impressions, and cultural context on geospatial apps for men who have sex with men in Mumbai, India. Social Media+ Society, 6(2), 2056305120913995. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2056305120913995

Week 9: 11.17

Challenge: How do you communicate your work? (Part II) Presentations and other means of dissemination

Guests: HCI and Design

• Matthew Kay

Week 10: 11.24

No class meeting this week

Week 11: 12.1

Challenge: Where to from here? Surviving graduate school, job markets, and beyond

Guests: Distinguished Alumni Panel

• TBA

Credit and notes

This course design and syllabus builds from prior iterations offered by Pablo Boczkowski, Darren Gergle, Eszter Hargittai, and me. It has also been shaped by input from the current faculty affiliated with the MTS and TSB Ph.D. programs.