Dom Taylor, MA, MLIS

Peace & Conflict Studies, Philosophy, Catholic Studies, and Religion Librarian    dominique.taylor@umanitoba.ca

Religion Subject Guide

Religion & Sexuality: Research workshop

RLGN 1424-A01

January 17, 2019

Introduction to library + reading/paraphrasing

USEFUL:

It helps with your research and university experience.

My hope is for you to experience the library as something that is:

USEABLE:

It is not difficult to figure out.

DESIRABLE:

You enjoy your experience in the library or using library systems.

1.

2.

3.

YOUR RESEARCH:

Identifying/narrowing a topic, finding references, suggesting keywords, outlining some search strategies, etc...

HELP USING SYSTEMS

Using databases, citation management software, etc...

CITATION

If you have questions about a citation format, I can point you to some resources or give you some guidance.

1.

2.

3.

HONING YOUR IDEAS

I can help clarify your ideas and refine your arguments, by helping you identify/locate counter-arguments and alternative perspective.

4.

1.

2.

3.

Citation as a tool

1.

TRUST

2.

GAMES

3.

4.

SUPERPOWERS

THE RESPONSIBILITY ARGUMENT

5.

YOUR TURN

Julian: "Is the bank open on Saturdays?"​​

Getting around the world means you have to trust people. The question is how much trust you should give and why. This depends on context.

Me: "Yes!"

Julian: "How do you know??"

Me: "I was there last year, I think."

Julian: "Do you actually know? If I don't make a payment, I'll lose my apartment"

Me: "Oh...I don't actually know. Let's check online."

Julian: "Looks like a blizzard out. Are classes cancelled?"​​

Me: "Definitely!"

Julian: "How do you know??"

Me: "I looked out the window."

Me: "I checked the university homepage."

OR

I'M CITING SOMETHING

 BUT

there are other equally important reasons to cite.

• Expressing yourself meaningfully requires shared rules.
• This is like a board game/ sport. You can modify or disregard some rules, but there comes a point when you are no longer playing the original game.

Following the citation game gives you some abilities by allowing for certain moves:

1. Duty/Obligation: 2-way obligation. If you take others' ideas seriously (by citing them), then people will take your ideas seriously.

2. Licence: Like a license to drive, but this is a license to put an idea forward/critique an idea. This license comes in different strengths. This strength is directly tied to the strength of the idea you are citing and how you explain it.

3. Legitimacy: How seriously people will take your claims depends on how well you use your licenses. The better (and more) connections you have to other ideas, the more likely people will take your ideas seriously.

1. Using the library search engine, find and/or look over one of the following articles or books:
   • "Feminist Buddhism as Praxis: Women in Traditional Buddhism" by Kawahashi Noriko in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

   • "Liberation Theology, Modernity and Sexual Difference" in Liberation Theology and Sexuality (ebook) edited by Marcella Althaus-Reid.

2. Pick what you think is the most important type of info.
3. Why do you think this? Come up one reason for each type of info.
4. Identify one aspect of the source that might be difficult to cite.

ZotBib citation generator. This can handle multiple citation formats, including APA, but it isn't perfect, so verify the information using one of the following:

1. Purdue OWL (reference list and in-text) and/or CitationFox (reference list only).
2. UM APA 1 pager (easy to use)

1. Both are forms of citation.
2. Both require author and year, but quotes also require page numbers.
3. Quoting is especially useful when the author's terminology or wording is crucial. For most assignments, use quotes sparingly. 
4. Paraphrasing is the default way to cite because it allows you to reframe the author's ideas.
5. If you are using the author's words or ideas, then CITE! Better to cite too much than too little. 

Research

1.

RESEARCH

2.

AND/OR

3.

4.

WORKSHOP

WORKFLOW

5.

TAKEAWAYS

Leverage your knowledge of how trust and citation work:

1. A good article or book is usually based on (i.e., cites) other good articles/books (authors use 2 way obligation). In this way, a good article lets you look into the past.
2. Unless it has been very recently published, the article/book you cite has likely been cited by others (authors attempt to create legitimacy and others use that legitimacy for their own work).In this way, a good article lets you look into the future of the original article. GoogleScholar can help with finding who has cited the article you are reading.

You need 5 relevant and credible sources for your annotated bibliography

Although you will adapt this to your own needs and preferences over time, this is a good workflow to start with:

1. Identify a broad topic that interests you, do some basic research, and narrow down your topic to a specific question. Narrowing can take multiple tries: (A) Catholicism + Gender--->(B)Catholicism + women---> (C) Catholicism + women  + ordination OR Catholicism + women + reproductive rights.

2. Formulate a focused research question/thesis: neither too broad nor too narrow. This is tricky and will take practice. You can start by answering "who," "what," "why," "when," "where," and "how" questions. Set some parameters (e.g., dates, geographic location, demographic information), but be ready to change them. 

3. From your question/narrow topic, identify keywords, including synonyms and related concepts that you can use in your search. Examples: "Latin America" and "South America" are used as synonyms (interchangeably), therefore it is important to search both terms. "Gender" is often related to the term "sexuality." Even though these are not synonyms, they cover similar territory, therefore it may be useful to look up both.   

4. Combine keywords, phrases, subject headings into search queries:  Try many different searches and combinations of terms. Expect that it will take at least 10 different searches to get a good feel for what is out there. Use AND, OR, brackets + quotations (""). More on this below. To start, use our basic search engine OR GoogleScholar.

5. Keep track of interesting articles!

PLEASE STAND UP!

Stay standing if:

1. You are in RLGN 1424-A01

Stay standing if:

1. You are in RLGN 1424-A01

   AND

2. You are wearing (jeans OR glasses)

Stay standing if:

1. You are in RLGN 1424-A01

   AND

2. You are wearing (jeans OR glasses)

   But you did NOT

3. "Eat breakfast" this morning

AND

OR

A search for "Jewish AND Christian" will find results that contain both terms and will exclude results that only have one of the two terms.

Jewish

A search for "Jewish OR Christian" will find results that contain either of the search terms. This will generate more results. Handy for synonyms.

+

Christian

Christian

1. Using the library search engine find 2 peer-reviewed articles on the ethics of male circumcision. One should be a defense and the other a critique.  These should be published after 2010. Tip: use limiter tools to narrow your search (right hand of the results screen--limit to articles, peer-reviewed, published after 2010). You can identify articles directly via the search. You can also review the references in a critique to identity an article that provides a defense. FOR YOU RESEARCH ESSAY YOU SHOULD DO BOTH!

Hint: Build a simple search, such as: Circumcision AND religion AND (rights OR ethics). Remember: you can also add terms to this search that indicate the perspective you are looking for (e.g., "critique," "defense," "review," "violation," "risk," "benefits," etc...).

2.  Once you have found your articles, search for them in GoogleScholar and, if possible, identify 1 source that has cited the given article.

3. Based on these preliminary searches, formulate a simple research question that would be appropriately broad/narrow for a 1 page research essay.

1. It helps to do a general search and see what information is available before creating a research question/topic.
2. Once you find one good and relevant resource, you can use it to find others. Look at the citations and using GoogleScholar you can see who has cited the article you found.
3. Some sources, such as papal encyclicals, can be found online on organizational websites (e.g., Vatican). However, as a general rule, use sources that are found in our search engines or a peer-reviewed source in GoogleScholar. 

The workshop allowed us to see how the research process works and how you can use interconnected resources to get a better picture of a given topic. However, to put this knowledge to use

1. Experiment with topic searches. Make use of AND + OR, as well as brackets () and quotation marks (""). Get comfortable using a thesaurus to find synonyms and related terms.
2. Try out different search engines. Start with the basic library search and GoogleScholar, but then try out some of the databases listed in the subject guide. They will all produce different results with the same search. 

ZotBib citation generator. This can handle multiple citation formats, including APA, but it isn't perfect, so verify the information using one of the following:

1. Purdue OWL (reference list and in-text) and/or CitationFox (reference list only).
2. Catholic Studies guide (some info for Catholic Studies-specific citation).
3. UM APA 1 pager (easy to use)

Dom Taylor

email: dominique.taylor@umanitoba.ca

phone: 204.474.9184

book an appointment

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