[Air-L] conference discussion

[Terri Senft]

I'm about to get cranky so just one more from my end.

Just so we are all clear on this point: nobody is arguing, or has argued,
that there isn't value to the type of 'straight' research Nicole is talking
about. I can and have produced that sort of work myself.  In fact, smelling
trouble with this new proposal format, I even submitted a 'straight'
proposal for a panel, and it was accepted. I can do that work. I *do* do
that work. I can deliver that work. And I also do other sorts of things.

What I am asking is if we have space anymore for other things beyond the
sort of research Nicole describes. I'm asking selfishly. Sorry to be crude,
but as I said to a friend, Denver is a long way for me to fly just to find
out I'll be  handing out Kleenex at Communication Annual publication circle
jerk.

Please understand that for me at least, this isn't about sour grapes, but
what happens when an organization valorizes 'straight' (note
adjective)research as the most legitimate trajectory of inquiry. If people
submitted rigorous proposals with detailed findings and were rejected for
boring the living crap out of the reader, they'd go up the wall. I feel the
same way when someone looks at a project designed to be truly
interdisciplinary*  and says, 'Where's your sample?"

My sample? I teach research methods. I value discussions on methodology.
But that's not a question about method. That's just someone who doesn't
understand a project spouting the language of method. And it's as
dismissive as if I called someone's straight research boring.

 There are political affects to these types of dismissals that make the
conference subtitle of Resistance and Appropriation a bitter pill to
swallow.

I would say more, but I've decided this is better laid out as a piece of
writing. Which I will then submit for publication, because like all of you,
that's what I do. Maybe when it's done, I'll submit it to  AoiR to read on
a podium, as per what appears to be manifesting as the new regime.

Party On,
T

(**and by "interdisciplinary," I don't mean introduce communication
scholars to interface designers--I mean getting sex workers who use mobile
phones to talk with teen sexual health advocates, and then getting those
two to talk to theorists of race and gender, all about, um INTERNET USE)




On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 3:29 PM, Nicole Ellison <enicole at umich.edu> wrote:

> Heya,
> I agree with Terri that there should be a space for the kinds of work she
> describes, but I also want to point out that for the kind of work that at
> least some of us do, it is quite difficult to adequately assess a paper
> that is based on proposed research that hasn't been conducted yet. If I'm
> reviewing a paper, I'd like to see findings and I'd like to see
> conclusions. If an author doesn't have them yet, maybe the paper should be
> submitted the following year.
> Since I know this is likely to be misunderstood, let me say it again: I
> think there should be a place for work in progress,
> performance, activist collaborations, etc. But there is also good,
> interesting, empirical work that can be written up in January and presented
> months later, and which can't really be assessed until this is done. For
> instance, suppose you propose an experiment and your manipulation doesn't
> work? I don't personally do experiments, but I'd like AOIR to be a place
> where this kind of work is welcome along with everything else. That was
> kind of the genesis for the organization in the first place, if I recall
> correctly.
> I think different formats for different kinds of work is the ticket here.
>
> Nicole
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Dr. Theresa M. Senft
Global Liberal Studies Program
School of Arts & Sciences
New York University
726 Broadway  NY NY 10003

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