Research Notes #5
So much research, so little time
Research Notes is a product of hippiegrrl media. At hippiegrrl media we believe that Black Lives Matter, Climate Change is Real, This land is Indigenous land, Women have autonomy, Love is love is love, No human is illegal, Science=Truth, Unions are essential, and the time for Transgender Liberation is now! Please wear your mask and stay safe. We value your readership! If you enjoy Research Notes, please share it with a friend!
Back to Basics
My original intent with this newsletter was to provide a behind the scenes look at the research process, however, December 2020 and January 2021 called for other, more pressing, information to be disseminated. I felt it was important to provide a greater understanding of how to evaluate sources, understand the American electoral system, and dispel disinformation, as a grounding for further research.
Going forward though, I will be focusing on the resources and research that informs the content on hippiegrrl explains it all, gen x reactions, and the forthcoming pop-culture deconstruction (link soon!), as well as future sites on hippiegrrl media. Each issue will be a compendium of research completed during the preceding 2 week period. It might be odd to show the process, but I think it is important to share all the resources with readers.
If you prefer to read this newsletter and move on with your day, there will still be plenty of content to keep you interested, but for those that would like to dive deeper into topics of interest, I will provide links, when available, to all the corresponding resources. I hope that you will continue with me on this journey and send it along to anyone who might be interested in this type of content.
So - without further ado - the first February (Tempus fugit!) edition of Research Notes starts now!
Gathering sources
Open tabs
As an avid researcher, I am signed up for many newsletters. When I have the chance to read through each one, I open new tabs with the links that are provided from these trusted sources. This means that most of the time I will have anywhere from 10 to 50 tabs open on my browser. These tabs serve as a jumping-off point for further research I will do on the topics that interest me.
Once I focus on specific topics from the open tabs, I create bookmark folders in my chrome instance to save links for future reading. At this point, I have hundreds of links bookmarked. This may seem like a chaotic way to keep track of topics, but it suits me well. I need things front and center, rather than buried in emails, notes, or desktop folders, in order for me to keep my place in the research. I suppose this is akin to dogearing pages in a book, which is another method that I use to keep track of important passages for future research.
Conference content
Last weekend I was able to attend the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Virtual conference. Among the many wonderful speakers, panels, meetings, and discussions there was one presentation in particular that caught my eye. Titled “Artificial Intelligence: The Future is Already Here”, the panel included the Director of Corporate Development for Oceanit and the State Librarian of Hawaii in conversation on ways to track (read: monitor) patrons who browse the public libraries. The librarian was all in on the AI tech that Oceanit is creating and the State of Hawaii has started a contract with this company to expand the capabilities of AI to track patrons.
The Director spoke on the benefits of the tech and stressed that the current tech does not use facial recognition. This made the librarians in the chat extremely excited. They absolutely loved it and I was floored at how quickly they all in on surveillance tech simply for the ease of counting patrons. These are the people that I rely on to be critical thinkers and they were not questioning the tech at all. Luckily, there was one librarian in the chat thread who was a voice of reason and her comments pointed me to Top Technology Trends on-demand session she had participated in as a presenter.
The CORE: Top Tech Trends session is a staple at ALA Midwinter, but this year they took a new approach, focusing on troublesome tech trends. Librarianship, as a profession, is committed to privacy, access for all, and banning censorship. These core values inform the fight to push back on surveillance type technology use within the library. Public librarians are committed to the communities that they serve and should be looking to forge relationships with community members to deal with issues that may arise in the library. Surveillance and policing should not be leaned on in this manner.
After a wonderful conference, I came away with many things to ponder.
Fields
Librarianship, Critical Technology Theory, Philosophy
Intellectuals and Organizations
Virginia Eubanks, Michel Foucault, Angela Y. Davis,
Concepts
Surveillance Capitalism, Privacy, Deep Fakes, Intellectual Freedom
Book review content
As a member of NetGalley, I am able to read books on my digital device prior to their publication. In return for this privilege, I write reviews on the NetGalley site, which are cross-posted to Goodreads and hippiegrrl reads.
This month, the selection was White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America by Anthea Butler, which comes out on 22 March 2021. The subject matter that Dr. Butler deals with in this book covers many areas I am drawn to in my research. Religion, Race, and Politics. The book covers the intertwining of right-wing politics with white Christian Nationalism in a straightforward way and Dr. Butler is one of the pre-eminent public intellectuals in this area of study.
In addition to reading the text, I listened to an interview with Dr. Butler on the Powers and Principalities Podcast from Exvangelical, which increased my interest in researching these topics.
Fields
Sociology, Religion, History, Politics
Intellectuals
Anthea Butler, Blake Chastain, Michael Eric Dyson
Concepts
White Evangelical Racism, White Supremacy, Far-Right Politics
YouTube as a resource
One of the resources that I use often is YouTube. I heavily vet the YouTubers I follow and once I determine a channel to be legitimate I often patronize the creator on Patreon. Becoming a patron often allows you to be the first to view videos or participate in online discussions via lifestream or discord chat. It is a great way to support creators that you enjoy and also interact with a community of other patrons who enjoy the same content.
One of the creators that I support is Natalie Wynn, aka ContraPoints. Natalie makes content that is both well-researched and has a high production value. In her latest video: J.K.Rowling, she discusses the history of transphobia, radical feminism, and breaks down an essay by J.K. Rowling, detailing her reasons for being a TERF. Natalie always does a great deal of research before producing her videos and although they are often upwards of 1.5 hours long, an eternity on YouTube, they are well worth the watch.
This video sent me in search of more resources on trans liberation, radical feminism, and equal rights.
Fields
Sociology, Human Rights, Politics
Intellectuals
Judith Butler, Audre Lorde, bell hooks
Concepts
Transphobia, TERFs, Trans-inclusive radical feminism, Trans Liberation
As you can see, my research takes me in many different directions. After doing a great deal of reading and thinking on a given topic, I will compile my thoughts into a long-form piece on one of the hippiegrrl media blogs. Over the past year the content has slowed down as we have been dealing with COVID, but I am hopeful that 2021 will be a year where the research can begin to inform new pieces. As these new pieces are posted, they will be linked here. Until then, thank you for reading, and remember to do something nice for yourself this week!
Ways to participate this week
Read: Media Literacy in a Fake News World - LibGuide from the HMCPL
Listen: Straight White American Jesus - a podcast on religion and politics, hosted by two ex-ministers who are now scholars of religion