I\u2019ve communicated with the University of Massachusetts Archives and they\u2019re setting aside some resources for us so I can visit on Friday. I\u2019m excited! It\u2019s been hard to feel really connected to the subject when all of our sources are either secondary and\/or are reprinted primary sources. This project has really highlighted the challenges that research poses. My previous (limited) experience has been fairly straightforward and this has been a challenge. The first part of our project was so frustratingly sparse in terms of resources and only now does it feel like we\u2019re no longer scavenging. <\/p>\n
One of our big challenges has been distilling all this seemingly information into a meaningful narrative without fabricating one. Both Lizzie and I are currently in a historiography course and this tension is the crux of our studies. I keep thinking of the theologian Friedrich Schliermacher who defined the distinction between history and chronicle. A chronicle was a list of events and history was the search for a deeper philosophical purpose behind a string of seemingly arbitrary facts. Unfortunately his thesis allowed room for many 19th-century historians to further racist and anti-Semitic philosophies. Not that we\u2019re anywhere near that territory\u2014eek! However, we are constructing our project around a strong and pretty stark argument. As we gather information, how much of the research is actually evidence of our claim or just an interpretation thrust upon it? <\/p>\n
So are we researching correctly? I know how to cite, how to find an abundance of secondary and primary sources, how to analyze the bias behind those sources? But do I know how to recognize my own bias? Do I want this project to go so well and our argument to be so powerful that I misrepresent the Quaker’s story? All things to consider… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve communicated with the University of Massachusetts Archives and they\u2019re setting aside some resources for us so I can visit on Friday. I\u2019m excited! It\u2019s been hard to feel really connected to the subject when all of our sources are either secondary and\/or are reprinted primary sources. This project has really highlighted the challenges that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divided.coplacdigital.org\/mckeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}