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COMPUTER SCIENCE
& THE HUMANITIES:
ACLS/NINCH
BUILDING BLOCK WORKSHOPS 1999
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SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Questions to be used as a basis for opening discussions by
individual workshops
DEFINITION
- What materials do you use in your work? Describe the full
range of types of materials, especially if they differ markedly in
their nature and sources.
- How do you relate these materials one to another?
LOCATION
- How do you find this material? Who or what is most helpful in
enabling you to find the best material?
- What are the ideal conditions for working with the resource?
- How often do you work under these ideal conditions?
- What are acceptable substitutes for these ideal situations and
in what contexts?
- How does the form and location of materials affect the ways
you can use this material?
ORIGINAL
- Does "original" have any value for you in your work?
- How much of your time do you work with an "original" as
opposed to a copy or surrogate of the original?
- How important is it to work with the "original"?
- If you work with an original, what proportion of a physical
original do you actively use in your work?
- How are originals contextualized (with other originals, with
usage, as part of a continuum over time, etc)?
- How do you weigh quality against quantity of resources in
their value to your work?
- If you use databases or datasets, how would you describe the
similarities and differences with other kinds of "original" source
material?
INTERROGATION
- What questions do you ask of these materials?
- What questions would you like to be able to ask of them?
- How do you find what you are looking for in the material?
- How do you define what you are looking for?
- How do you make explicit your assumptions and bias?
- How do you situate your work in the context of other earlier
work or of work from other fields?
EVALUATION
- What do you most highly value about these materials?
- How do you evaluate any particular resource?
- What is the balance in your use of primary and secondary
material?
CONSTRUCTION & RE-CONSTRUCTION
- How do you combine, relate, compare different materials?
- Do you re-construct materials? What is the value-added in the
work you do (eg in scholarly/documentary editions;
restoring/preserving original resources, etc.)?
- How do you build an argument; what is the relation between
evidence, analysis and theory?
- What constitutes your understanding of "rigor" and results
that can be tested and evaluated by others in your field?
- How are your results tested and gauged?
COLLABORATION
- Do you collaborate with others? If so describe the division of
labor?
- If you collaborate, do you work on the same material?
- What do you most value about collaboration?
DISSEMINATION
- How do you disseminate your work; in what forms?
- How do audiences find you?
- How do the forms of dissemination affect the way you present
your work?
- What is the relationship between your research process and the
ways materials/research results are used in teaching? Is there a
significant difference in their use in undergraduate and graduate
teaching?
- What is the relationship between your research process and
dissemination to broader publics?
- How are debates shaped and expressed around research and its
primary sources?