HUM 500: RESEARCH METHODS AND SCHOLARLY INQUIRY IN THE
HUMANITIES
FALL 2006
The Teacher:
Peter J. Kareithi, Ph.D.
Course description
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to graduate work in the Humanities in
general and to the Master's Program in Humanities in particular. Class work will focus on
questions about the nature of the disciplines in the Humanities and investigations of the
idea of interdisciplinary work. In order to do work in the Humanities today, especially
interdisciplinary work, it is necessary to come to terms with some of the important
critical theories that have developed in the last 30 years. To that end, we will be reading a
wide range of texts to help you develop an overview of developments of theory in literary
and inter-art studies. We will be working on important skills, such as close and careful
reading of texts, analysis and interpretation, and proper documentation of research.
In brief, our three objectives will be: 1) to explore the nature and practice of interdisciplinary
study in the humanities; (2) to examine current theories and methods of scholarly analysis in the
humanities; and (3) to assist students in developing advanced research skills and in presenting the
results of their research in a professional manner.
This course will have a number of different foci, and quite a range of different scholarly activities. In
the first part of the course, we will be reading about the field of interdisciplinarity in order to get some
sense of what the conversation is in this field. In the second part, we shall explore in greater detail
some of the important theories that have informed most of that conversation. In the later part of the
course, we will be focusing on the issue of race and representations of race in the 19th century and late
20th century to see how the discourse of race works in a number of different contexts. In addition, we
will be paying attention, throughout the course, to the methods of scholarly research, and the
production of correctly documented and formatted papers.
Because of one of the purposes of this course is to introduce students to work in the
Humanities Master's Program, we will have a number of sessions in which members of
the Humanities faculty will visit our class. These visits will serve the dual function of
introducing you to a number of faculty and of presenting different disciplines and
different approaches to the concept of interdisciplinary study.
By the end of this course, students should have gained competence in defining a research
problem; locating and using appropriate research resources; applying pertinent methodological
tools; and organizing and writing an extended research essay. Assignments in the texts for the
course, handouts, and directed research are intended to encourage intellectual rigor and to
stimulate informed discussion about the range and validity or interdisciplinary studies.
Graduate school is an intensification of what you experienced as an undergraduate. More
is demanded of you, both in terms of the effort you put into assignments and in term of
your class participation. This class offers challenging ideas to explore. I do not expect
anyone to master them completely, but I do expect open minds and willing participation
in discussion. You should be willing to challenge yourself, each other and me; and be
open to trying new ideas and approaches and to raising new questions.
Required Readings:
Reading assignments are given in the course schedule for each meeting. Please read these
before the week for which they are assigned, to provide a basis for class discussion. The
readings are from the texts for the course and from books and articles that have been
placed on reserve in the library. (See the library reserve list below.) For your
convenience, some of the readings outside the course texts will be provided by the
instructor in photocopy or electronic form, where possible.
Required Texts:
Literary Theory: An Introduction, 2nd. Ed., by Terry Eagleton
A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, by Michael Payne
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th Ed. (or most recent), by
Joseph Gibaldi
The Heart of Darkness, 4th Ed (Norton Critical Edition), by Joseph Conrad,
Robert Kimbrough (Editor)
Exterminate all brutes, by Sven Lindqvist
Devil on the Cross, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Additional Readings
The following essays from Interdisciplinarity: Essays From the Literature, by William
H. Newell, ed (on reserve at PSH Library)
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Nancy Cluck, "Reflections on the Interdisciplinary Approaches to the
Humanites" in Interdisciplinarity
Clifford Geertz, "Blurred Genres" in Interdisciplinarity
Giles Gunn,. "Interdisciplinary Studies" in Interdisciplinarity
Julia Klien,. "Blurring, Cracking, and Crossing ... " in
Interdisciplinarity
Isak Dinesen. “Farah” in Shadows on the Grass
Troy Thomas, "Interart Analogy: Practice and Theory in Comparing the Arts, Journal of
Aesthetic Education, 25 (2), 1991: 17-36
Peter Kareithi. “The White Man's Burden: How Global Media Empires Continue to
Construct Difference.” Rhodes Journalism Review 20 (2001):6-19.
Louis Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards and
Investigation), in L. Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy, (Trans. Ben Brewster), New York:
Monthly Review Press, 2001, pp. 127-186
Raymond Williams, Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory, in R. Williams,
Problems in Materialism and Culture, Verso, London:1980, pp.30-49
Stuart Hall, Rethinking the ‘Base and Superstructure’ Metaphor, in J. Bloomfield et. al.
(eds) Class, Hegemony and Party, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1977
Stuart Hall, “Encoding/Decoding," in Culture, Media and Language, London,
Hutchinsons, 1980
Cultural Studies: “Two Paradigms,” in Media, Culture and Society, no. 2, 1989, pp. 5772
Richard Johnson, “What is Cultural Studies Anyway?”, in Social Text, no. 16, 1986-87,
pp. 38-80
Raymie McKerrow, “Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis”, Communication Monograms,
Vol. 56, June 1989
Books on Reserve at PSH Library
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Bal (ed), The Practice of Cultural Analysis
Brannigan, New Historicism and Cultural Materialis
Dinesen. Out of Africa
Dinesen. Shadows on the Grass
During (ed), The Cultural Studies Reader
Geertz, Local Knowledge
Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures
Gibaldi, Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures
Messer-Davidow, Knowledges: Historical and Critical Studies in
Disciplinarity
Newell (ed), Interdisciplinarity: Essays from the Literature
Ngugi. Writers in Politics
Ngugi. Decolonizing the Mind
Rosaldo, Culture and Truth
Course Policies
Attendance and class participation
This is a graduate seminar, and an exploration on both our parts. You will need to be an active partner
in an on-going conversation, both with me and with your fellow classmates. Not only must you be in
class regularly, but you must also participate regularly. I'm primarily interested in your willingness to
engage and be engaged in our discussions, rather than in the "correctness" of your contributions. In
assessing your class participation, I will not be evaluating the quality of your participation, but rather
the quantity - your willingness to seriously venture and explore the issues of interdisciplinarity and
race. Since discussion will be the primary mode of instruction, significant silence (and significant
absence) will lower your final grade.
Workload
This will be a student-centered course. As members of a graduate-level seminar, we will
all be a part of a learning community. Classes will be run on a discussion basis, with
group work and sharing of work a regular feature. Individual workload will be composed of the
following activities:
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2 personal statements ( not graded)
Angel postings
2 essays - 30%
2 bibliographies (one annotated)
1 reading presentation
1 group project/presentation
1 portfolio
Personal Statements
In the first week of the course, each student will be required to submit a personal statement setting out
his/her reasons for seeking an interdisciplinary graduate degree in the humanities, and his/her
expectations for this course. Two weeks to the end of the course, each student will be required to
submit a second statement evaluating the outcomes of this course for him or herself and detailing how
those outcomes are expected to influence the his or her work or plans for the remainder of his or her
studies in the graduate Humanities program. Each of the statements should be two pages, typed
double-spaced. The first statement will be used to assist the instructor in directing the course to the
maximum benefit for the course participants. The second statement will be used to guide the
Humanities graduate faculty in designing appropriate individual study plans for each of you. These
statements will not be graded, but they must be written in professional memo format and must adhere
to the MLA style in every aspect.
Posting to Angel
You are required to write and post on the Angel discussion board a response to the readings for
every class. The response should be posted before class, so I can have a chance to read your
postings before I come to class. You are not to summarize the readings. I want you to discuss the
issues raised by the readings, and to explore your own reactions to those issues. In classes where
there are no readings (say, for instance, in the classes where we have faculty panels or visual
presentations such as movies), you are to post your responses after class. Your audience for these
responses is all of us who are in the room. Not only will you need to read all of your classmates'
postings, but you will be required to respond to at least one of your classmates' postings every
week. I will be reading along with you, and will be selectively responding to your postings, but I
will not be evaluating them. The objective of this exercise is to create a discussion forum outside
the walls of the classroom.
Write all the responses and you will get an "A" for this requirement. For each posting you miss or
for each that isn't substantial enough, your grade on this requirement will be lowered one letter
grade.
Two essays:
Each of these essays should be preceded by a memo addressed to me (in correct memo format)
in which you discuss your paper and its strengths and weaknesses. The essays will be revised
for the final portfolio. If you wish, I will give you a provisional grade on each essay. That
grade will be an evaluation of what the essay would receive were it to be submitted in the same
state at the end of the semester (it is your responsibility to indicate when you hand the paper in
that you want a provisional grade). I will not record this grade, nor will I give any provisional
grade lower than a C minus.
There first essay will be an analysis of some aspect of your educational experience
relevant to the content of this course by using some of the concepts discussed in the
readings on interdisciplinarity that are assigned in the first two weeks of class. Your
essay should contain at least eight citations for the assigned readings. – including two
citations each from three different texts. This essay should be five to seven pages long.
(A five-page paper does not include the references). This paper is due Thursday October 5.
Your second essay will be in the form of an interdisciplinary research paper of 10 to 12 pages (not less
than 10 and not more than twelve pages) on a particular topic comparing/contrasting some aspect(s) of
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with one or more of the following texts: “Out of Africa”, “Amandla”, and
“Devil on the Cross.” The paper should bring out or utilize methods of interart analysis as applied to
one or more works or areas of the humanities. You should foreground critical methods of interart
analysis through the particular topic chosen as well as analyze in detail the work(s) selected from any
two of the areas of concentration in our graduate program art history, history, literature, music history,
philosophy and communications. This paper is due Thursday November 16.
I will work with each of you to determine a focus and a topic that engages your interest and that
fulfills the methodological requirements of the course and critical analysis.
Late papers will not be accepted.
During the last three weeks of the course, each of you will be asked to present a brief
twenty-minute oral report to the class on your research project.
Two bibliographies
The first of these is to be a print bibliography which should consist of at least 10 items, the majority
of them being journal articles. We shall brainstorm a list of possible areas in class. The second
bibliography will be annotated and will consist entirely of web-based material.
Readings Presentation
Students will be assigned, individually or in teams, lead class discussion on assigned
texts by making a close-reading presentation of the weekly assigned texts in this course.
Guideline on these presentations will be provided once class starts.
Group project
You will be divided into teams of two or three for this assignment. In this project you
are to present some other aspect of race in the nineteenth-century colonial Africa that
we haven't discussed in class. I've appended a list of possible topics below, but I will
approve others if I think they're feasible.
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Christianity and Colonialism
The South African mines
The Voyages of exploration/discovery
Adventure and Travel
Painting and sculpture
Music and empire – Rule
Literature and Journalism
Photography, Art and Advertising
The South African Gold Rush
Your goals will be to practice research skills; reflect on the research process
and its vicissitudes as you proceed; help one another hone your scholarly
writing abilities; and apply your skills in a brief presentation to the class on
the topic of your research. The final project report should be submitted at an
appendix to your portfolio at the end of the semester and should be
accompanied by an annotated list of works cited and a summary reflection
on your research experience.
On the night of the group presentation, each group member must present me with a
memo (in correct memo format) in which s/he describes how the group process
worked and whether there were any problems in the course of that work. A copy of
the memo and a copy of the group’s presentation report should be submitted as an
appendix to the final portfolio. Where the group presentation’s report is in the form
of PowerPoint presentation or other multimedia format, it should be submitted
separately in the appropriate media.
Formatting and Style
Since this is a course in Research Methods, I will be paying close attention to matters of
formatting and documentation. In writing these essays, you should keep in mind that the class
is your audience, and you should use MLA Works Cited format.
Final Portfolio
On Monday, December 18th by noon at the latest, you will submit your portfolio into the relevant
folder in Angel. The portfolio will include
 a title page [listing your name, the name of the course, semester, and year]
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a table of contents
an introduction [your revised statement of expectations]
two revised essays with titles
two revised posting from Angel
one group presentation memo [referencing your appendix]
A conclusion [your revised outcomes statement]
one group presentation report
one list of works cited [your bibliographies]
continuous pagination
an appendix containing your copy of your group’s presentation report [this may be
submitted separately in the appropriate media]
Grading
Grades for this course will be distributed as follows:
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Angel postings – 20%
1st essay - 10%
2nd essay - 20%
2 bibliographies (one annotated) 5% each
1 reading presentation- 5%
1 group project/presentation – 10%
Final portfolio – 25%
All graded work will be assessed according to the following scale:
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
D
F
= 100 - 94
= 93 - 90
= 89 - 87
= 86 - 84
= 83 - 80
= 79 - 76
= 75 - 70
= 69 - 60
= 59 - 0
Academic Integrity
As in all courses, you will be held to accepted standards of academic integrity. Penn State
strictly adheres to an academic integrity policy that mandates the pursuit of teaching,
learning, research, and creative activity in an open, honest, and responsible manner. This
means maintaining the highest levels of personal honesty, respect for the rights, property,
and dignity of others in all academic endeavors. Academic integrity includes a
commitment neither to engage in acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception,
nor to tolerate such acts by other members of the community. All students should act with
personal integrity, respect other students' dignity, rights and property, and help create and
maintain an environment in which all can succeed through their own efforts
Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not
limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of
academic dishonesty by others, submitting work of another person or work previously used
without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students.
(Remember that unacknowledged paraphrase is also considered plagiarism.) Students who are
found to be dishonest will receive academic sanctions and will be reported to the University's
Judicial Affairs office for possible further disciplinary sanction.
Click here to consult the Penn State University's policy on Academic Integrity.
Students with disabilities
The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified people with disabilities to participate in its
programs and activities and is committed to the policy that all people shall have equal access to
programs, facilities, and admissions without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability,
performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. If
you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical
access, please talk to me as soon as possible.
This schedule may be subject to occasional adjustment as the semester
progresses. Keep an eye on the announcements on Angel for any changes. The
assigned readings on this schedule are identified by the author's last name.
Week 1 – Sept 7
Reading:
Eagleton: Introduction, chap 1 - The Rise of English
Ngugi: The Language of African Literature
[Statement of expectations due]
Week 2 – Sept 14
Reading
Cluck: "Reflections on the Interdisciplinary Approaches to
the Humanities"
Klein: "Blurring, Cracking, and Crossing"
Gunn: "Interdisciplinary Studies
Week 3 – Sept 21
Reading:
Eagleton chap 2 and 3
Hall: “Cultural Studies: Two paradigms”
Thomas: "Interart Analogy: Practice and Theory in Comparing the Arts
Week 4 – Sept 28
Readings:
Eagleton: chap 4: and 5
Hall: “Encoding/Decoding,"
Conrad: “Hear of Darkness”
[1st bibliography due]
Week 5 – Oct 5
Reading
Kareithi – “White Man’s Burden”
Achebe: “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" ;
"Race and Racism" and "Black Cultural Studies" in Dictionary
Isa Denesen: “Farah”
Screening: “Out of Africa” 1
[1st Essay due]
Week 6 – Oct 12
Readings:
Ngugi: Devil on the Cross
Screening: “Out of Africa” 2
Faculty Forum 1
Week 7 – Oct 19
Reading:
Lindqvist: Exterminate All the Brutes”
Screening: Amandla – A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
Week 8 – Oct 26
Reading
Raymond Williams, "Base and Superstructure"
Dictionary: "Historicism"; "New Historicism"; "Cultural Materialism
Week 9 – Nov 2
Workshop on research papers and group projects
[2nd bibliography due due]
Week 10 – Nov 9
Faculty Forum 2
Week 11 – Nov 16
Group Projects
[2nd Essay due]
Week 12 – Nov 30
Group Projects
[Outcomes statement due]
THANKSGIVING BREAK. NO CLASSES
Week 13 – Dec 7
Conferences on papers
Week 14 – Dec 14
Conferences on papers
Final Portfolios due Monday Dec.18 before noon.