what I do
This past week I attended a three-day workshop that was supposed to help me describe my research to a general audience. We produced written and oral accounts. Here is my (roughly) 200-word summary, for those of you who have wondered what my dissertation is about:
"In 1904, sociologist Max Weber revolutionized the newly developing field of sociology when he suggested that social scientists needed to account for the role of contingency (accidents, chance) in their historical explanations, what he called 'chance causation.' A few decades earlier, George Eliot published Middlemarch, a novel that puts at its center questions of chance and agency in determining characters' lives. This kind of resonance between social science and literature happens again and again in the second half of the nineteenth century, yet is overlooked by literary scholars, social scientists, and social historians alike. In my research, I bring together these two seemingly disparate fields -- the history of the novel and the development of modern sociology -- to show a convergence between how art and science grappled with the emerging phenomena of mass society. More specifically, I demonstrate how the narrative structures of British fiction -- its organization, plotting, characterization -- resemble many of the key concepts of Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber, the founding figures of sociology. By showing how early sociology and the nineteenth-century novel can and should speak to one another, my research reveals unexpected, yet significant continuities between the art and science of describing society, ultimately challenging the often-assumed divide between the humanities and science."
It strikes me that this statement could probably be refined even more in terms of jargon and clarity. If you read it, you'll have to let me know if you were able to get a general idea of what I work on.
I enjoyed the workshop immensely. I met grad students from many other fields (especially from the sciences), and it was fun to learn about their research. I must admit to a bit of research-envy: they were working on so many cool projects which had direct application to the world (fuel cell technology, nanotechnology, superconductors, neuroscience, etc.). Me, as the only humanities person in the workshop, felt like my research was so--how do I say it?--superfluous. I've produced a new interpretive framework for gaining knowledge about a specific moment in literary history. It's knowledge production, but has an indirect impact on the real world. Somehow it doesn't seem so significant or useful as, say, a chemical engineer.
But this has been something I've struggled with from day one of my dissertation. How does what I study make any impact or difference in the world? The usual answer relates that question to the teaching that English professors do, but that doesn't quite satisfy me either. I want my research itself to be useful, but I'm starting to realize that that may never be the case and I need to see if I'm okay with that.
"In 1904, sociologist Max Weber revolutionized the newly developing field of sociology when he suggested that social scientists needed to account for the role of contingency (accidents, chance) in their historical explanations, what he called 'chance causation.' A few decades earlier, George Eliot published Middlemarch, a novel that puts at its center questions of chance and agency in determining characters' lives. This kind of resonance between social science and literature happens again and again in the second half of the nineteenth century, yet is overlooked by literary scholars, social scientists, and social historians alike. In my research, I bring together these two seemingly disparate fields -- the history of the novel and the development of modern sociology -- to show a convergence between how art and science grappled with the emerging phenomena of mass society. More specifically, I demonstrate how the narrative structures of British fiction -- its organization, plotting, characterization -- resemble many of the key concepts of Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber, the founding figures of sociology. By showing how early sociology and the nineteenth-century novel can and should speak to one another, my research reveals unexpected, yet significant continuities between the art and science of describing society, ultimately challenging the often-assumed divide between the humanities and science."
It strikes me that this statement could probably be refined even more in terms of jargon and clarity. If you read it, you'll have to let me know if you were able to get a general idea of what I work on.
I enjoyed the workshop immensely. I met grad students from many other fields (especially from the sciences), and it was fun to learn about their research. I must admit to a bit of research-envy: they were working on so many cool projects which had direct application to the world (fuel cell technology, nanotechnology, superconductors, neuroscience, etc.). Me, as the only humanities person in the workshop, felt like my research was so--how do I say it?--superfluous. I've produced a new interpretive framework for gaining knowledge about a specific moment in literary history. It's knowledge production, but has an indirect impact on the real world. Somehow it doesn't seem so significant or useful as, say, a chemical engineer.
But this has been something I've struggled with from day one of my dissertation. How does what I study make any impact or difference in the world? The usual answer relates that question to the teaching that English professors do, but that doesn't quite satisfy me either. I want my research itself to be useful, but I'm starting to realize that that may never be the case and I need to see if I'm okay with that.
posted by mariyaya | 9:31 PM
4 Comments:
Maria, I find your dissertation very fascinating--in fact, I would like to read it one of these days! I myself have always loved literature--and you are right, there are continuities between literature and (social) science. In fact, I believe literature in many ways serves as a mirror for society. It is in literature where serious reflection of how society can be improved upon take place.
I think I got a general idea of what your dissertation is on. Are there specific aspects of social science that you delve more deeply into as case studies between literature and history?
Maria,
I reread it a few times. But yes, I did get a very good sense of your work. It was very clearly and succintly written.
I like your summary. Having read Middlemarch at your urging, I can understand more of your summary. It sure made me think about time and happenstance on the characters' lives; it also made me think about chance and God in my own real life.
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