Crawling through the research landscape

Wednesday (21 April):

First wanted to update my blog entry from Tuesday before entering the research landscape ...

Prof Robert Thornton (WITS, Dept. of Anthropology) shared with us how to become 'one' with our research - literally crawling up mountains if it is necessary. Some useful tips from him:
- You don't know it until you write it
- There are no guarantees in research; projects fail and we do not always get to the end of the road
- Move to a land of ideas
- To enter, you must have theory (vision, a way of seeing a problem)
- Translate your vision into language ('linguification'). Ideas are all related to one another through language, thought and communication.
- Your research problem must be seen in the context of the landscape
- Problems: not all are solvable; some methods work better for some types of problems; problems may lead to new problems
- Good ideas never die; new ones are constantly born
- He shared some examples of entry narratives with us
- When you hit the boundary of your research, that is it. You can only go so far, and then your are stuck.
- Cross the landscape many times

Note to myself: be honest when conducting research.

The afternoon session was not quite my cup of tea. I do not like group discussions a lot, and I don't like to contribute just for the sake of contributing ... It all seems a bit artificial. Anyway - my opinion: unfortunately we are all part of a system, and we need to work within certain boundaries across the world. Myself - I thoroughly enjoy what I do, I have lots of space to be pro-active and to collaborate with others on campus, nationally and internationally, and my motivation comes from within.

Note: How about a pool table in the Research Commons? :)

Our night out: take the perfect venue, excellent food, wine from the Cape, Pavlinka, put it together and you have the perfect evening with lots of fun! ;) Thanks Pavlinka for the value you have added and will continue to add to the academy and to the library profession. Your passion and energy is great!

Ina