IAS has helped me understand the importance of having good research habits. Something that I run into every so often is people demanding empirical data for some of the things that I say. This bothered me for a long time. I thought that I should have the space and freedom to pontificate and not always prepare an essay for every little thought that crosses my mind. IAS has taught me that, depending on which realm I am interacting in, sometimes I am required to have done research for something that I want to enter the public consciousness of “knowledge.” Interdisciplinary research and inquiry to me means going beyond topics that I feel comfortable with, and using different methods to approach them. It isn’t simply enough to read the information; it means to really dig into the material. This should prompt me to develop questions that I want answers to and finding those answers through research. What this does is give me the ability to then add to the discussion by writing and contributing to the topics as they’ve already been established. And when I go to publish material as something that I want to enter into the public consciousness of “knowledge,” good epistemological habits require me to backup whatever I posit with empirical data that is free of bias. Here, I will demonstrate my growth in this field by showcasing three pieces of work: a paper I wrote where I did research on a popular diet known as “keto”; an ethnographic essay I did after conducting an interview in my intended field of work; and an in-depth research project I did trying to bridge the gap between my personal feelings about a subject and the academically published research surrounding it.
The first piece I display is a paper that I wrote during my first quarter returning to college after nine years. I had never really had to do research for my entire life prior to this. I was raised in a religious cult that actually taught people that they shouldn’t do objective research on any topic, and to simply follow the guidelines that they provide. Hence, I was excited to have the opportunity to investigate something about which I felt passionate. I had become a fan of a new diet fad known as the ketogenic diet. Following a modified diet plan, I had lost nearly 100 pounds. However, was the diet scientifically sound? Has there been any research done on, not only the efficacy of the diet, but the safety as well? That’s what I set out to do in this research paper, and I am very happy with the result.
The second paper I display is an ethnographic essay I wrote after I conducted an interview with one of my professors that had left an impact on my academic career. I had entered the University of Washington Bothell not entirely sure what I wanted to do. But my first quarter here, I took a class called “community psychology.” The professor, Dr. Eric Stewart, so powerfully conveyed the key principles of community psychology that I finished that quarter feeling as if I had accidentally found my life calling. I was very excited when I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with him the following quarter for my intro to research class. Conducting professional interviews are a very important aspect of doing research. Being able to take the information learned and present it in a fun-to-read, yet also informative manner is both challenging, but also very rewarding.
The final piece I have on display is an essay I wrote for the aforementioned community psychology class. In my critical and creative writing portfolio, I showcase a piece that I wrote when I had first started college after taking a nine year break where I was working through thinking critically about my life experiences. This paper gave me the opportunity to combine the critical thinking with actual research. I had almost taken for granted the fact that the religion that I was raised in is a cult, but I was given an entire quarter to write this research paper to find writing that had been academically published to support that position. It was almost therapeutic in a way. I felt like Donna Haraway writing about the “Teddy Bear Patriarchy.” I could move on from an entirely emotionally fueled examination of my former faith and dig deep into the published material about the nature of cults and how they operate. I could then put those concepts to the test in deciding once and for all, had I actually been raised in a cult or had I simply lost my faith?
In conclusion, I feel that these three papers give a very detailed map of my growth doing interdisciplinary research. For most of my life, I was actually discouraged from doing objective research on topics that were of importance to me. But I soon became very interested in learning how to do proper research, beginning with a topic which I hadn’t researched but had merely followed popular science. I have also been able to practice doing ethnographic interviews, an important skill when it comes to the field of research. Finally, I demonstrate my ability to do research writing on a topic that hits just a little too close to home, but being able to take a step back and objectively analyze what the published material says on the topic. I feel that one of the areas I have shown the most improvement during my time in IAS is interdisciplinary research and inquiry, and I am very proud to showcase these three pieces.