Your Lens(es)
Today we will discuss the concept of the lens (some people call this the frame, or the framing). Before we begin, let's review the six elements every research project should contain, with their definitions:
If your object is your “what”, and your questions are your “why”, your lenses might be best thought of as your “whom,” in that they help you decide: “Who will you read to help you theoretically frame your questions?”
Some students think this business of finding lenses is limited to academia. They are wrong. No matter what you do next in your life, “doing your homework” will be the order of the day. Consider this: your friend calls herself an innovator, and in a bar she tells you about her latest cool invention: a disk on which you play movies But when you tell her that the DVD has been in production a decade now, she looks baffled, and then starts talking about how she "can't be expected to know everything." How weird would that be?
To summarize: The "lens", as I define it, is your demonstration that you know whom else is thinking in your field. You don't need to know everything written about your interests, but you do need to know *something* beyond your own thoughts. One more thing: with lenses, quality is better than quantity. Rather than name-dropping a million people, it’s better to find between one and three people with whom you can really dialogue in your project. Then you can safely say you have your "lens" established.
Theories & Theorists
In general, scholars think of lenses in two ways:
Some Greatest Hits
As you might imagine, “hot” theories and theorists tend to differ across academic disciplines, historical time periods, and countries where one is working (this is especially the case when we are talking about theorists who write primarily in texts that need to be translated into English.) That said, to help you get exposed to the theories and theorists we talk about frequently in cultural studies, I’ve made a “quick and dirty” guide. The guide has been tweaked from an original that was geared toward students doing digital media work, so your interest may not appear here. If that is the case, no worries! We’ll talk
- Topic: what is the general subject you wish to research?
- Question: what about your topic interests you? Why should it interest others?
- Objects: what specific cases, historical moments, geographical regions, or social groups most intrigue you, with regard to the question you raised, above? (Note: you may want to think of objects as subsets of your original subject, above.)
- Lens: whose theoretical work will inform and influence you as you consider your questions vis a vis your objects?
- Method: precisely what original work will you be doing as part of your research, how will you do it, when, where, with whom, and why?
- Presentation: how, when, and where do you plan to deliver the findings or results of your original work to your audience?
If your object is your “what”, and your questions are your “why”, your lenses might be best thought of as your “whom,” in that they help you decide: “Who will you read to help you theoretically frame your questions?”
Some students think this business of finding lenses is limited to academia. They are wrong. No matter what you do next in your life, “doing your homework” will be the order of the day. Consider this: your friend calls herself an innovator, and in a bar she tells you about her latest cool invention: a disk on which you play movies But when you tell her that the DVD has been in production a decade now, she looks baffled, and then starts talking about how she "can't be expected to know everything." How weird would that be?
To summarize: The "lens", as I define it, is your demonstration that you know whom else is thinking in your field. You don't need to know everything written about your interests, but you do need to know *something* beyond your own thoughts. One more thing: with lenses, quality is better than quantity. Rather than name-dropping a million people, it’s better to find between one and three people with whom you can really dialogue in your project. Then you can safely say you have your "lens" established.
Theories & Theorists
In general, scholars think of lenses in two ways:
- Via theories (i.e. general schools of thought: e.g. theories of psychoanalysis, theories of feminism, actor-network theory, etc.)
- Via theorists (i.e. people who espouse certain theories, generally associated with certain schools of thoughts: e.g. Freud, Mulvey, Latour)
Some Greatest Hits
As you might imagine, “hot” theories and theorists tend to differ across academic disciplines, historical time periods, and countries where one is working (this is especially the case when we are talking about theorists who write primarily in texts that need to be translated into English.) That said, to help you get exposed to the theories and theorists we talk about frequently in cultural studies, I’ve made a “quick and dirty” guide. The guide has been tweaked from an original that was geared toward students doing digital media work, so your interest may not appear here. If that is the case, no worries! We’ll talk