Week 3 – Initial Project Ideas
Welcome back everyone!
I’m starting out this blog post wondering where these past 3 weeks have gone. I think the intensive this past week and the intensive I have during week 4 have really captured my attention and I’ve had a hard time narrowing down my topic.
I feel as though I’m at a crossroads of going with something in my comfort zone and wandering into unknown territory.
My comfort zone:
- Housing (NGO housing, Indigenous housing, homelessness)
- Policy (sexual violence, NGOs, Ministry programs)
- Governance
- Combatting sexual violence (Post-secondary initiatives, federal policy, informed training for first responders)
Unknown (and exciting) territory
- Migration
- Law making and it’s consequences on low-income citizens.
- AI
Looking through the blogs, I feel inspired by everyone’s initial ideas, but I can’t help feeling incredibly behind in my efforts. I have many interests, yet I am too scared of failure to turn these into passions. This fear applies to both my academic life and my personal/professional life. I thought that by listing my comforts versus my interests, I would be able to demystify the topics and get down to business.
Needs assessment
- I will need to advance my data skills and understanding for my project. As I’ve previously stated, I am used to using qualitative data, and I am used to being in the realm of the social sciences. I applied for this program because I’ve wanted to branch out of that space and learn how to use data to communicate the needs of our society and the solutions to the wicked problems that we face today.
- Another skill that I would like to enhance for my project is my writing. I find that “good” writing is something that can be honed but is also easily lost, and I have found that my writing has suffered from taking a year off.
- I am looking forward to deep-diving into the recommended readings from my courses. I think more exposure to different concepts and more perspectives will help me in the long run. One of my favourite parts of writing papers in the past was writing literature reviews, so I think this part will be both informative and entertaining.
The anxiety of choosing a topic is starting to set in, so I am going to end my blog post here. I am hoping to learn more about which direction I would like to go in by the end of Week 4. I can’t help but leave this week with more questions than answers. How will I narrow my topic down enough to start working? How can I produce an interesting topic that isn’t too contextual to the point that it is irrelevant? What is the line between inspiration and imitation?
Hi Meghan! I relate to your comment about wanting to be somewhat in a comfort zone but at the same time eager to explore something new so much, and I’ve found that being in this environment of students with such varied backgrounds makes me constantly inspired by other fields in academia and their interest areas. Looking at your lists, it definitely seems like you would be able to combine the two with an interesting result. Are you considering doing a more traditional dissertation or partnering up with a partner? Looking forward to hearing more about your progress :).
I also wanted to thank you for your comment; I’ll definitely have to look into Data&Society!
Hi Meghan, having worked with you in the small group for our intensive, my first impression of you is that you are very capable and are not as rusty as you might think! Fear of failure is a tough thing to manage – I have a very supportive work environment in my immediate team that talks about failure as opportunity or learning – which I am trying as I have grown up in a culture of fear of failure both personally and professionally for years!
One thing I have started to be exposed to is “failing fast” or “failing forward” which sounds strange but has actually been helpful to me. Try out something small, test it out, and you know right away if it’s going to work or not – then you try the next idea. You might learn from that one little failure some important piece of information you can build on for the next try so eventually you get the point where it succeeds and its actually because of all the things you tried and failed at. The more you experience failure that is safe, you may find it gets less uncomfortable.
I would also be happy to do a mutual peer review of draft papers with you because I think my own writing skills are not up to what they once were – if you would find that helpful!
You are not alone! We have thrust everyone into a swirl of project thinking far before anyone is ready to do project thinking. 🙂 But the good news is that by starting early, you have loads of time and can afford to deliberate on a number of different project ideas, and test them out one by one as Darcie says. On that note, it’s great that you’ve already listed some bullet point topic possibilities. Maybe a good next step is to take each one and map out what specific issues are interesting about them, and how you might go about entering them research-wise. Or is there a topic that integrates many of them, as Cajsa suggests? For example, there’s an article on the Inclusive Society (aka Sandbox) reading list about border politics and migration management of refugees in Thailand, using blockchain-based identity technologies: Cheesman, Margie. 2020. Self-Sovereignty for Refugees? The Contested Horizons of Digital Identity. Geopolitics 27(1): 134-159. How do refugees articulate their rights and gain access to services like housing under these new digital identification regimes?
Another way to help narrow things down is to consider how and where you might be able to undertake this project. Will you want/be able to travel to collect empirical data? Do you want to work with partners or investigate something independently? What’s going to be the most fun and stimulating for you?