Syllabus: GEOG 696, S/06, Dr. Rodrigue

Geography 696-01

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH

Seminar in Geographical Research Methods

Spring 2006

(ticket # 6099
W 7-9:45 p.m. in LA4-204)

Instructor Information

: Instructor: Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue
: E-Mail: rodrigue@csulb.edu
: Instructor's Home Page: http://www.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/
: Course Home Page: http://www.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geog696/
: Office: LA4-105
: Telephones: (562) 985-4895 or -8432
: Mail Drop Box: LA4-106 counter
: Office Hours: Tuesday 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.; Wednesday 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Course Description

: Prerequisites: GEOG 596, graduate status in geography, and consent of instructor. Critical survey of contemporary methodologies available for framing research questions in geography, emphasizing the connection between research models, research questions, and the selections and limitations of particular methods, techniques, and data. Letter grade only (A-F).

Course Materials

Required text: Nicholas Clifford and Gill Valentine (eds.), Key Methods in Geography, paperback edition (available through Amazon (2 day shipping available) or Barnes & Noble (3 day shipping available) or eCampus (5-7 business days) or a1Books (ships in 1 day, receipt in ? days).
Other readings will be assigned and made available online or in LA4-207.

Course Objectives

to discuss how a research question is framed within the various geographical traditions and methodologies
to examine a number of research methods and models useful in a variety of specific subfields in geography
to read and discuss applications of these research methods and models in contemporary (and sometimes classical) literature, in order to analyze and critique how the authors went about their purposes and whether they were successful
to become acquainted with a variety of ways to obtain and analyze data
to develop a graduate student's general area of interest into a feasible thesis proposal
to learn to do professional peer reviews/critiques for your colleagues

Course Format and Project

the course will be conducted as a graduate discussion seminar
between 3 and 5 readings will be assigned most weeks: students are responsible for doing all of the readings each and every week, thinking about them, and preparing notes on the main points of the articles and questions they raise
the principal seminar product will be a formal proposal for your thesis or project
- this proposal will probably be around 10-20 pages long
- it will include the following elements:
  - the very specific purpose of the thesis or project (the purpose statement is very important: every word in it has implications for methodology and scope)
  - the context of the problem, justifying it in terms of prior literature, or, in some cases, legislation, and/or social need
  - the data to be used to address the problem and how you plan to acquire them (e.g., original fieldwork, surveying and interviewing, Census material, historical maps or documents, digital elevation models, satellite or airborne imagery, physical processing of materials in a lab)
  - likely problems in acquiring or using the data (e.g., inherent biases) and how you plan to address them so your use of them is legitimate for your purpose
  - methods you plan to use to analyze your data, why they are appropriate, any shortcomings in your methods, and how you plan to deal with such shortcomings, so that your use of the methods and techniques will be legitimate within the research framework/model/methodology in which you situate your work
  - a tentative outline of the structure of your thesis, with each chapter broken down to at least four levels of organization (e.g., I, A, 1, a)
  - an initial annotated bibliography of at least 20 sources, including 10 refereed research articles
  - an understandably tentative timeline for each of the major tasks implied by your data search, analysis, and writing
  - a signed statement by a faculty member indicating that s/he has accepted the responsibility of chairing your committee
- for those of you who may have already written a thesis proposal, which has been approved by your chair:
  - if the proposal does not address all of these points, you are welcome to revise and rewrite your proposal to suit these guidelines
  - otherwise, you are to write the literature review chapter of your thesis or project, in which you develop the justification for your research problem and specify the original contribution it will make to that literature
- participants are ACTIVELY to help one another develop their proposals (or review chapters): serve as sounding boards, vicious critics, and shoulders-to-cry-on

Grading

40 percent of your grade is based on the quality and completeness of your proposal or review chapter
30 percent is based on your participation in seminar discussions:
- have you maintained excellent attendance?
- is it evident from your comments that you have really done all the readings each and every week?
- is it evident from the quality of your comments that you have thought about the readings in depth -- thoroughly digested them?
- do you support and encourage others in their attempts to express themselves? do you notice when someone is shy and having a difficult time breaking into the discussion and help draw him or her in?
- while you must actively participate, do you go overboard and harm discussion by domineering others and "showing off" for the sake of hearing yourself talk?
30 percent is based on your frankness, thoroughness, and professional courtesy in critiquing your colleagues' proposals and review chapters
at the graduate level, I feel no obligation to grade on a curve: Helping others improve their work will NOT hurt your position in the seminar. It will help both you and them in a truly win-win situation (except for the bruised feelings to be expected along the way!)
I will assign all grades from A through F, but, since you are graduate students, I fully expect most of you to earn "A's" and "B's." PLEASE do not disappoint me.

Deadlines

: initial statement of probable thesis/project topic: 2/15; critiques of all colleagues' initial statements: 2/22; AAG meeting: 3/8; first draft: 3/29; critiques of select colleagues' first drafts: 4/5; spring break: 4/12; identification of potential thesis chairs: 4/19; final draft: 5/3; "adoption papers" signed: 5/10

Tentative Topics (not in any particular order)

what constitutes a good thesis design? (situating thesis within a larger conversation, originality of contribution, validity, generalizability, richness, primary and high quality data, methodological design, scope and feasibility)
Library boot camp
the Human Subjects protocol on this campus and in the law
theoretical and non-theoretical approaches; the use of hypotheses
quality of data and sampling
interviews, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups
literature content analysis
field mapping, surveying, GPS
Census data and archival materials
Internet
maps, air photos, remote sensing imagery, GIS
physical data, proxies, and methods
statistical methods: descriptive, inferential, data-mining

University Withdrawal Policy

It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from classes. Instructors have no obligation to undertake the extra work needed to withdraw students who do not attend classes and may choose not to do so. Withdrawal from a course after the first two weeks of instruction requires the signature of the instructor and department chair, and is permissible only for serious and compelling reasons. During the final three weeks of instruction, withdrawals are not permitted except in cases, such as accident or serious illness, where the circumstances causing withdrawal are clearly beyond the student's control and the assignment of an incomplete is not practical. Ordinarily, withdrawals in this category involve total withdrawal from the university. The College of Liberal Arts adheres to this policy strictly, and does NOT sign withdrawal forms in the final three weeks of class for other reasons. Be it noted that "I have to drop because I'm getting a bad grade" is not considered a serious and compelling reason.

Accessibility

It is the student's responsibility to let me know at the beginning of the semester if s/he has a disability that will require accommodation. I am personally committed to making my classes accessible and providing accommodations that will help everyone compete on an even keel. I need to know about the issue at the beginning of the semester, though, so that we can work out a mutually reasonable and satisfying accommodation.
Related to accessibility, this course will be set up on BeachBoard to enable convenient contact. You will need to have a CSULB e-mail account to use BeachBoard, however. Announcements and messages from me to the class may come by e-mail. If you do not check your CSULB e-mail account regularly, but use another account instead, please set your CSULB account so that it will forward messages to your other account. The CSULB Technology Help Desk is now available for students, by the way. The URL for the Help Desk is http://helpdesk.csulb.edu. Their telephone number is (562) 985-4959.

Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism

Written work that you hand in is assumed to be original unless your source material is documented appropriately. Using the ideas or words of another person, even a peer, or a web site, as if it were your own, is plagiarism. Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses. Students should brush up their understanding by consulting the discussion of cheating and plagiarism in the CSULB catalogue. The Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Project student workshops on scientific ethics contain a section on plagiarism that may be a useful review: http://www.csulb.edu/geography/gdep/ethics.html. Furthermore, students should be aware that faculty members have a range of academic actions available to them in cases of cheating and plagiarism, including failing a student on that particular work, failing a student in the course, and referring the case to Judicial Affairs.