Choose at least 2 of the researchers who the girls encounter in the first parts of the story.

Choose at least 2 of the researchers who the girls encounter in the first parts of the story. For each one, what is their discipline? Go back to Repko et al.’s chapter that we read earlier this semester for this question. Look up the discipline of the fictional researchers you choose in Repko et al.’s Table 5.3 (pg. 128). Copy Repko’s et al.’s summary of the disciplinary perspective for each researcher you choose. Does that make sense with the character’s approach to research? Explain. What does this research specifically do throughout the story that demonstrates their allegiance to their discipline?

In Subramaniam’s story, Singing the Morning Glory Blues, does the Bored Foundation of the U.S.A.’s experiment succeed or fail? Explain your answer.

The last part of the story tells us about how the girls from the beginning created a new way of doing research – perhaps this could be called interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, or perhaps even undisciplined research. On Pg. 87 the narrator discusses three major interventions into traditional research that the girls made – 1. Changing the rules of the degree itself to create joint PhD (paragraph 1), 2. Changing the structure and culture of the research space (paragraph 2), and 3. Collaborating not only with each other and other formal researchers but collaborating with local community members and acknowledging their expertise and particular knowledges thereby expanding who can participate in knowledge production (paragraph 4). This represents some of the author’s dreams of an undisciplined path forward. Now, it’s time for you to dream about a different kind of university and/or way to create knowledge. What is something specific that you would like to see change about the university and/or how knowledge is produced. What would it take to experiment with your idea? What do you think would be the results including the challenges? You can dream of transforming the university or going beyond the university setting or get specific within our current university setting to how you would design classes or spaces on campus differently – it’s up to you. Explain why you think your change might make knowledge production better – more fair, accurate, or other measures of “better” that you come up with. Think about our other readings – especially last week’s idea about how our current knowledge systems create definitions of humanness which have serious consequences. Perhaps you can think about how to intervene in that with a change to our systems.