Successful Strategies for Teaching Undergraduate Research

The authors of this book, Marta Deyrup and Beth Bloom, are college librarians. Who else could be an expert at dealing with research? These women see hordes of college kids wandering into a library, trying to find information on “gun control,” and having no idea where to go. Do they go for the internet? For the stacks perhaps, trying to find an old book? Will the newspaper records be of any use?

    In chapter 2, the authors talk about “good research,” which seems to me like perfectly normal history work. The talk about primary and secondary sources, the importance of both, while stressing the differences. It is important, even for a high school student, to understand the difference; if the source is secondary, then the authenticity could be challenged. We are shown four points to ponder when considering the source, consisting of the origin, the reason it was created, the time period, and the significance. One example I can recall is the classic movie 55 Days at Peking, starring Charleton Heston. It has the typical “good old American boys won the war all by themselves” attitude, and shows all the foreign troops to be incompetent. However, a recent article in a military history magazine shows the opposite; most of the troops at Peking were Japanese, and they did a remarkable job at defending the embassy compound. 55 Days at Peking is a secondary source, made to stoke American ideals. The magazine article, on the other hand, while also a secondary source, was written to get the story straight.

    The authors cover research with media, archives, texts, and any other source that the average college student will need. In my day we started learning research in first grade, by going to the Encyclopedia. By fourth grade, we were at the public library, looking for books on the human. As the years went by, I learned to research not only the books, but also old periodicals. We had to look into the New York Times, old National Geographics, Time Magazine, and whatever publications we could get our hands on.

    We can blame the internet for students’ weaknesses today but blame alone will not cure the problem. Research may have to be taught to the student, and that is where this book comes in.

Strategic Diversity Leadership by Damon A. Williams

There’s a funny line in this book, in the chapter titled Towards a Twenty First Century Definition of Diversity. The author suggests that with ethnic and economic diversity, we must also deal with a diversity of ideas. You’re going to have many opinions on how to define the concept of diversity. Will it be ethnic? Religious? Social? Racial perhaps? A table is included where you have diversity on social levels and institutional levels, each one unique to the group. The difference is simple; identity drives the formation of groups, while the institution sets goals. Not surprising, when you look at how cliques form in an elementary school. A group of kids who live within a few blocks of each other and go to the same place of worship will likely exclude anyone who doesn’t. Athletic kids who are on the school teams will probably stick together as well. The average high school clique won’t set a goal of what it wants to accomplish.

Goal-oriented approaches appear to be a major part of Mr. Williams’ thinking. He uses the analogy of the wolf versus the cheetah to show why diversity efforts often fails. Cheetahs are small and light, and they rely on surprise, acting alone. Wolves, on the other hand, are pack animals, and they will spend days stalking their prey or tiring it out. Diversity plans do not work, according to the author, if they rely on one-time actions. He uses the 2005 protests at Harvard as an example of how college administrators must learn from sudden conflicts, rather than simply addressing them when they happen.

Gender diversity has been in the news lately, regarding the lack of women in college science faculties. Some blame it on sexism, others blame it on hostility from a mostly male industry, others blame the lack of encouragement women may face in pursuing careers in science. Diversity is discussed in this book not as a problem, but as an end result. The question is not the need for diversity, but how the school intends to encourage it in the long run.

Andrew Savulich: The City

    A bike messenger bleeds form the mouth after being punched by a cab driver. In another photo, a building doorman tackles a pickpocket on the hood of a cab. A subway passenger sits on the floor of the car, tended to by transit police after being stabbed. The other riders pay no attention. Andrew Savulich photographed the city for the Daily News since the 1980’s, mostly as a freelancer. Most of this photos from the time never got printed. The photos in this book display the sleazy, dangerous, and dirty side of New York life, most of which have never been seen before.

    One of the most controversial photos in this book from Steidl is of a woman, sitting in a crushed car, smiling. She looks like she’s nuts, given the destruction all around her. Is she drunk? On drugs? Knocked silly from the impact? Whatever the reason for her out of place levity, it’s the perfect example of the insanity of the city at the time. When I see these photos from the city’s bad old days, I can remember the combination of danger and excitement. It wasn’t a place for the dainty.

    Savulich isn’t much of a self-promoter, which is why I’d never heard of him until I saw this book. He was a Rutgers-trained architect, worked in Boston, then came to NYC to pursue a career in photography. He worked in construction while going to grad school for art, then began getting freelance assignments from tabloid papers. Nowadays the tabloids are on their way out thanks to the internet and the inability to shock people. As for Savulich’s photos, a whole lot of them had to be kept off the press because they were considered too edgy. But thanks to Steidl, we can see them in all their (dirty) glory.

    Seeing these photos takes me back 30 years, to a time when New York City was dangerous, dark, and filthy. However, under all the grime, people still went to work, ate out, came home, got their kids to school, and didn’t die. People lived here, some enjoyed the city, some hated it. The 80’s and early 90’s in New York are remembered with nostalgia, even though the city wasn’t as much fun as it is now. Then again, even in the most dangerous times, it was much more exciting than the Long Island suburbs. Perhaps that’s why I loved coming here so much? Perhaps that’s why I was dying to go to school in the city? Some people just love crowds, honking horns, shouting drivers, and the short walk to the grocery store. Those are the people you’re going to see in this book.