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SPAN 5220/7220: Law, Literature, and Marginal Subjectivities in Modern Spain

Research Process Plan

Research process: 1) develop your research question and topic; 2) Brainstorm keywords and related terms; 3) Find background information for your topic; 4) Use search tools to find articles, books, or what you need; 5) Review your literature and evaluate what you found; 6) Organize your references in a citation management tool; 7) Organize, outline and write; 8) Cite and credit the intellectual property of others. Remember: Research is non linear, it can shift, be flexible, go back on your steps, adapt your topic, talk to experts on similar topics and value feedback

Research Topic

Your topic should facilitate a critical approach that integrates some of the theories covered in your course.

Your research topic may be born through different channels:

  • Read your syllabus carefully and pay attention to a topic covered in class that interests you but that you know little about.
    • You may choose a topic that is related to the course's central theme and that interests you.
  • Expand on a subject you found important and that was highlighted in one of the texts you read about the intersection between law and literature in modern Spain in the re-articulation of the empire in the 1810s, the disintegration of the Restoration regime in the late 1910s and 1920s, or the Second Republic of 1931-1936.
  • Cover a topic (from your optic) suggested in one of the books or articles you read.
  • Browse online media to gather topic ideas.
  • Browse background sources to gather topic ideas.
Sometimes, topics change as you progress in your research process, this is normal.

Coming Up with a Topic

Lo más complicado cuando pensamos en un tema, es asegurarse que este tema no es ni muy grande, ni muy pequeño.

Ejemplo:

El anarquismo ⇒ Muy grande

El anarquismo en España ⇒ hemos regionalizado el tema, pero todavía es muy grande

El efecto legal del anarquismo en España ⇒ hemos enmarcado el anarquismo en el ámbito legal.

Finalmente llegamos a un tema:

El efecto legal del anarquismo durante la Revolución Social española de 1936: La legitimidad de la autoridad

 

 

Research Question

Your research question will be related to your topic. This question usually answers a matter not covered by previous scholarship.

Developing Research Questions: Your Purpose

Please take a look at where your questions will lead you. Will your question lead you to:

  • Compare and contrast
    • Example: how are the concepts of race and gender-integrated into Spain's legal system and cultural production?
      • How is a theme presented in an article or book you read differently from the optic considered in a text covered in class?
      • How is author X's contribution different from author Y's?
      • How do different authors cover the same topic?
        • Example: How is the topic of law and humanities covered by Susan Sage Heinzelman, Ravit Reichman, and Richard Sherwin?

 

  • Associate your topic with another
    • Example: How was race considered an element of exclusion in the Constitution of 1812? 
      • How did a topic happen about another topic?

 

  • Interpret the state of your topic
    • Explain the significance of X and how you can measure this significance
      • Example: What is the significance for justice and law that anarchism seeks that any form of authority must demonstrate its legitimacy? 

 

  • Connect a text with a historical problem
    • Example: How does the tale "El Hurto," by Francisco Pi y Margall, reflects the economic problems in Spain following the culmination of WWI?

 

  • Argue for a particular stance
    • Present opposing views and argue in favor or against a view

 

See Strategy: Formulating Questions

 

Background Information

Background sources are beneficial at the beginning stages of your research process. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and even Wikipedia are traditional background sources that we usually do not cite in our final project. These sources will give us ideas for research topics, keywords and even provide further information that may be useful.

Bilingual Search Samples

  • law AND literature AND Spain
  • Clara Campoamor AND Segunda República
  • Spain AND voto femenino OR sufragio universal AND 1931 
  • Second Republic AND Guerra Civil Espanola
  • anti-esclavismo OR abolicionismo AND Espana
  • transatlantic slave trade AND Spanish abolitionist 
  • Joseph Blanco White AND concept of monstrosity AND  Spanish concept* of empire
  • Blanco AND Aristotelian “natural” monstrosity AND enslavement of Africans
  • women rights AND legislation AND 1933
  • La Rampa AND derechos mujer AND independencia económica
  • La Rampa AND sociedad patriarchal OR feminismo OR modernismo
  •  

 

Subject Heading Search

When you find a book or article of interest in the Library catalog, you may look at its bibliographic record and subject terms. The Library of Congress creates subject terms, usually linked to additional resources on the topic. When you use subject terms in your searches, you expand your search.

Example: Subject Headings Related to José María Blanco White’s Bosquexo del Comercio en Esclavos 

Example: Subject Headings Related to the Second Republic of 1931-1936 and Anarchism