I would like to structure our two weeks together as follows:
WEEK 0: Areas of Interest
Sometime before my two-week module, we'll meet for 20-30 minutes to discuss where your interests and mine might overlap. You must make this appointment; please see my full schedule for when we might get together. (I apologize for "stepping outside" of my two weeks, but two weeks is a very short amount of time when you get down to it.)
WEEK 1: Tutorials
In the first week, I would like to spend two hours with each of you discussing possible research ideas. There will be no normal class meetings. This is inspired by the Oxford and Cambridge tutorial system.
You will have already read deeply in your area of interest, probably starting with the papers I've provided, and likely moving on from that starting set. Our discussion will focus on the questions and directions for future inquiry that motivate you.
I would like to have one or our meetings on the first two days of the week (Monday/Tuesday) and the second later in the week (Wednesday/Thursday). Our first meeting will be to exploration of possible directions, and the second for refinement of the ideas we discussed in the first meeting (possibly with additional reading/research support).
Friday, we will come together and you will each give a 10 minute presentation on your area of interest.
WEEK 2: Presentations and Writing
On Tuesday we will workshop your mock proposals. This means we will bring in copies for two classmates, and in groups of three you will comment on and critique each-other's work.
On Thursday we will break things down. Specifically, we'll work together and ask that oh-so-difficult question: can this be done in an academic year? You'll have already started working on a timeline as part of your mock proposal, but this session will pit you against your peers to see if you can minimize and refine your work so that you have a project that is neither over- nor under-specified.
Based on feedback from your presentation during the first week, and the experience of having written and refined a mock proposal, we will end the week on Friday with a second set of presentations.
