IRB;; take three

So I feel like I've done a really good job with taking into consideration everything asked of me for this (hopefully) final revision of my IRB form. I'm all set to start interviews as soon as I hear back from them. I've made so much progress in terms of making contacts and having conversations with helpful individuals. It's been a frustrating but rewarding experience so far. I'm finding that much of what's written about in the Emerson book is completely applicable in my own work;; it's so much more involved than I anticipated. I'm enjoying it though! Hope everyone is well, and thanks for your time.

IRB and an Interview

I have submitted my IRB!! Hopefully I won't come across any problems!

Also, today I completed my first interview with Gene Davenport the executive director of The Georgetown Project! He provided me with a lot of useful information and he also gave me the contact information of several people within the community that are involved with the issue of homelessness. I finally feel like I am getting somewhere! :)

Home visit from the IRB

Hi all, two members of the SU IRB have agreed to come to our class and have a conversation about the specifics of IRB approval. I encourage you to ask specific and good questions, also thinking about future interactions you might have with them (for other projects, capstone or study abroad research, etc). I think it will be most interesting to figure out how ethnographic research specifically fits into the IRB scheme.

Dr. Adrian and Dr. Desmond will come on March 8, at 3:00. Be there or else.

things are looking up :)

Well, I have to admit I was a little discouraged yesterday. However, any doubt I had then has been negated by this morning... I completed my first interview! And it went really, really well.

I spoke with the preacher of the church I attend here in Georgetown, and he was more than happy to help, and gave me some incredible insights. I had been starting to think that my initial idea, how modern religious movements are affecting the church of Christ, was less valid than I thought. However, he knew exactly what I was talking about and was able to clarify a lot of issues and give me background info that I hadn't had access to yet. He also lent me three theology textbooks of his to do a little more research, and they've been fascinating reads from what little I've been able to read so far. AND he invited me to dinner with he and his wife (I've known both of them a long time, so it's not as awkward as it may seem...) to talk with her because she could give me a different perspective than he can.

All in all, things are going well. :) Now comes the daunting task of transcribing an hour and a half long interview....

My Cat

So,
In terms of reflecting about how I perceive pregnancy of others I was wondering if it would be possible to examine the treatment of my pregnant cat - she had babies about a week ago. I don't know if this is at all relevant or if involving the treatment of animals can say as much about culture and pregnancy as I think it can. Should I just record what I saw/what I felt and enacted? Thoughts?

IRB and Conference

Okay,
So I got my IRB back and it pretty much is along the same lines as the complaints that everryone else recieved.

1). Type of research not indicated.2). Concern over the extremely sensitive nature of the question (c) as written.3). Concern for coercion in the recruitment process for participants. We appreciate the three avenues to seeking participants but want more recognition that friends and family participants require more thought.3). The storage of e-mails from people who contact you to express interest, storage of consent forms. Also, storage of any materials should not remain on a personal computer regardless of whether it is locked in a home. Research materials should be stored in a professor's locked cabinet/office. In the situation where a professor is not tenured or is part-time, these materials should be stored in the department chair's office.4). The location of the interviews needs to be explained. The consent form provides more clarity of questions so move to the proposal, too. Also, need consent form for observation.5). You need to clarify how confidentiality will be protected, including storing identities and interview notes.6). Need to be more thoughtful about potential harm/risk to the participant for discussing medical care and current level of functioning as a pregnant body.7). Use the format of consent form on website for ease in reading.8). The time span for the interviews of 2.5 hours would be excessive in one interview session.10). The stated benefits are poorly articulated.11). Professor signature/name is not included suggesting a lack of review/approval.

These are the concerns: In regards to the first two, what the hell? Type of research not indicated? I'm not quite sure what that even means. And if 2.5 is too extensive, it says at a minimum. Why do I need to give details about things that I can not possibly anticipate - like interview time. Where do they think I'm going to conduct interviews? Some shady alley? It says wherever the informant wants to and I feel as though that gives them not only freedom, but affords the informant a greater level of comfort. I am still confused as to why I can't just be me representing myself versus representing SU.

BUTTTT....my abstract got accepted into the SWAA conference so that's exciting. I'm going to meet with Claudia on Friday to go over my abstract to go over my IRB. Can I go ahead and start anway? If not, are our portfolios submitted to the IRB once they're completed?

with friends like these, who needs the IRB?

I just got my first response from the IRB. Need I say more? Apparently my project lacks any purpose, direction, and clarity, and I am basically worthless as a human being.

That being said, my interview yesterday was bumped-- again-- to this morning and was subsequently snowed out until tomorrow morning.

Today is not a good day for me in the realm of ethnographic research.

IRB and Progress

So things are going half way decent thus far with my research project. I'm having issues with the IRB, however after the brief venting and complaining in class just now I feel confident that I'll be able to move forward and call this process a success. My work initially involved observation on site at the rehabilitation center in a South Austin Hospital. After struggling for the past few weeks in order to get a site letter for the IRB, I've decided equally beneficial observations can be made at outside events held by this program. I'm contemplating moving away from the organization and focusing more on various people and their experiences with disability. I haven't kept up with the blog as much as I should, but I always enjoy reading others entries and learning from their processes of research. It's always helpful and informative. Thanks everyone!

Scheduling

So, I was supposed to complete my fist interview of the weekend, but my interviewee made a scheduling mistake, so my little brother bumped me back in favor of a soccer game. I'm trying to reschedule a trip mid-week to make up some lost ground, but I'm not sure if it will work out.

But I have been researching the literature on my topic and there is a good bit more than I expected, which is really helpful, but I'm still waiting for them to come into the library.

Questions on Gossip

I've been working on a list of questions/topics to talk about in my interviews and was hoping that I could get some feed back on how they looked? I know that they need to be put in more simple language and be worked in rather than asked in order, but these are the things I'm interested in. Does it look like this is going to be too broad? Is there a way to make it more focussed? Thanks!

-What is gossip? Define what consitutes gossip and what isn't (I'm thinking of trying to get a small group together for this to discuss it and see different opinions and what people agree on when they're together. I'm just not sure how to pick the people to be in the small group... If it's people who know each other they'll probably be friends and think alike, if I chose people who don't know each other they may feel uncomfortable...)
-What is gossip used for? (Bonding, entertainment, etc. This will probably be more broad since there's no way to lead them to chose a word without feeding them a work as an example)
-Why gossip? (another just like the above)
-What are the situations in which people gossip?
-Why do people enjoy gossip?
-Who is talked about and who does the talking? Is it everyone on campus or only certain groups? Who gossips? explain why/example (In talking to some people in class I realized that pretty much everything I hear is about a member of Greek life as I am, so I was wondering if there was a distinct difference in who hears gossip on who based on what they're involved in... seems pretty obvious but I'd never really thought about it)
-Where do you hear the most gossip? Is it private or public?
-When is the most common time to hear gossip? When do people want to talk about other people? ( I know most of the time when you get together with friends you will pretty much always bring up some form of gossip and I want to know why, but I honestly can't explain why I do it so I think this would be really hard to get an answer to... it also relates to "why gossip" from earlier)
-How is gossip spread? How does thsi affect people and the community? (How it changes people's views on ideas, people, etc)
-What is the correlations between rumours and gossip? (the game "telephone" is a good example of how I think it works because the truth can get mangled by gossip, but that's a personal opinion) Do you think there's a difference between spreading rumours and gossip? What is the difference and does it matter or are the affects the same? Is gossip typically accurate or is it distorted information? What is the danger of gossip?
-Southwestern has a "Mouthwestern" shirt, does this encourage or just condone the spread of gossip? Why do we think that gossip is unique enough to Southwestern to name it?

I didn't realize how much that was until I wrote it out so I'm thinking that I may need to cut a bit, and if you could give me any help, that would be amazing because I have an interview lined up for tomorrow afternoon after class so I'd like a pretty strong base for what I'd like to say. Thanks!

Visual Culture

The readings were very interesting. It struck me how often visual metaphors were unintentionally evoked in the reading and even in my mind as I read. The isolation of visual aspects of "reality", culture, and other aspects of or issues addressed by ethnography does indeed some problematic.

For my project, I do not see (no pun intended) the analysis of visual culture playing a prominent part. While the images produced and used by the staff and their bosses have entered my observations, taking photographs or videos would not be appropriate and probably not very helpful given my focus.

The idea to "shar[e]...agency" between the researcher and "the researched" (a problematically structured sentence, I realize) struck me as at once novel and then as a incredibly obvious. (Such a consideration delves into the purpose of anthropology, which seems even more nebulous than the definition of "ethnography", "culture" or "visual culture". In any case, I do hope to include the wishes and needs of my subjects. I feel as if I am working for them, telling their story. I hope that is not an improper angle.

Trying to pin-down visual culture may prove problematic to the point of being unproductive. As with any other source of information about this grander, truer reality (which seems the aim of all academic study to elucidate without suffering the blindness of the man that became wise in Plato's Allegory of the Cave). While reflexivity and ethical issues must be addressed, the author made a great point: the utility of image-capturing tools depends on everything from the projected identity of the researcher to the culture that is being studied.

More on this later after some mulling.

Updates

I have emailed the director of The Georgetown Project and am now just awaiting his reply so I can set up times for an interview and observations. Thanks to Matt Kamas, I now will be able to get in contact with a member of Project Sarah. I plan to call her tomorrow to see if she would be interested in being interviewed.

In the meantime I have been working on my IRB which I plan to submit this Tuesday as well as the interview questions for my first interview.

It seems that things are coming along and I think I have decided to see how different organizations in Georgetown approach homelessness instead of specifically The Georgetown Project. I think it would be interesting to compare the different methods they use. What do you guys think?

Interviews

I have told both of my Spanish professors about my project and they have ok'd it. I will let both classes know about my project this week and begin to observe. I've kind of already started observing and taking notes, but I don't know if it counts because I haven't disclosed anything to my classes. Maybe I can just use that as practice for future observations?

I also know who I want to interview and have confirmed with two (one native Spanish speaker and one non-native Spanish speaker) of four people. I'm off to a slow start because I have been busy with other things, but I will definitely get this going at a much faster pace this week!

One down....

Hello friends.

While I would say that on the whole I feel comfortable with my progress with the project, I am a bit worried about some details of my research.

I feel relatively on schedule when it comes to what I am doing to cover the bases: I am conducting weekly participant observation, I am emailing those I would like to interview, and I have announced my research intentions to most of my subjects (the ones who escaped my grasp were in and out). I conducted my first interview this Saturday morning with the clinic manager from the clinic where I worked. I hope to receive a word back from the front desk manager soon. I will try to ascertain a third interview as well, hopefully with the general practitioner at this clinic. I finally caught up with my field notes as well this weekend, which feels great and did bring up some more questions and ideas for me to address in the coming weeks.

But the devil is in the details. I wonder if I am allowing myself enough exposure and access to be able to obtain a truly deep understanding in a very specific question. My question is still in the works of being defined, but I am not sure if it will come together given my work so far. Also, the transcription process is more tedious and frustrating than I realized. As much as I would like it ready for tomorrow, this will be an impossibility if quality is a concern. I would also like some more time to think about the interview before I return to it and listen to the specific contents of our talk. I expect my mind to draw out important elements as time passes, and I would like to see how those compare to a second hearing.

Please forgive the minutia of this report. Urgh.

Talk of the readings will soon follow...and I should have some visual documents to talk about!

First interview

So I completed my first interview. I found a person to interview in the Austin area which will be nice to compare to my phone interviews. The interview itself went very well. The girl that I interviewed was so open and honest, she genuinely wanted me to know everything I possibly could about the situation. After the interview was over she called her parents (who currently live in Juarez) to see if she missed anything or if there was any new news from this week. I am currently working on transcribing the interview. I also had the idea of interviewing people that had grown up in El Paso, the reason for this is because I have encountered more recently former El Paso residents in the Austin area and many of them have been effected by the violence in Juarez. I would really like thoughts on that but that would allow me to do several more interviews in person which would really be nice.

lemons

As much as I love my interviewees, their scheduling skills are a little sketchy. I have had to reschedule my formal interviews for early March, so I don't have anything recorded just yet. However, while I am behind schedule in that, I am increasingly determined to get them accomplished in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I am working on doing somewhat of a self-interview to turn in with the rest of my materials tomorrow. I think we've talked a little about reflexivity in class - as Pink says - "ethnography is a process of creating and representing ethnographers' own experiences" (Pink, Ch. 1, p. 2).

As a skater myself, it's hard to make my account of roller derby an objective one so I want to further explore my own personal feelings about this sport as well. I think that will help me with my other interviews - I will hopefully be more aware of my own personal viewpoints and opinions - hopefully this will prevent me from trying to steer the questions in a particular fashion, etc.