Project 2: In this assignment, students worked in groups to design interview questions, collect video interviews, and then to composing a video essay that makes an argument about relevant commonalities among respondents

Newmann Holmes, Alba

English

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Swarthmore College 
Works 
Digital Humanities Curricular Development Faculty Development 
Spring 2018 
Unexpected Homelands Video 
Alba Newmann Holmes 
Swarthmore College, aholmes2@swarthmore.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/dev-dhgrants 
 Part of the English Language and Literature Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Alba Newmann Holmes. (2018). "Unexpected Homelands Video". Visual Rhetorics And Multimodal 
Writing. DOI: 10.24968/2476-2458.dhgrants.23 
https://works.swarthmore.edu/dev-dhgrants/23 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. 
This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in 
Digital Humanities Curricular Development by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please 
contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. 
English	2V	
Alba	Newmann	Holmes	
 
Project	2:	Qualitative	Research/Video	Essay	project:	Unexpected	Homelands	
	
You	will	complete	this	project	in	stages:	
2/12 Project 2 Group Proposal Due (two paragraphs plus four citations) 
2/14 Interview Questions for Project 2 Due 
2/15-2/25 Gather interviews and preliminary imagery 
2/26 Video editing workshop 
2/27-3/6 Group Meetings with HIST1W and Dance 022  
3/1 Storyboard due 
3/8 Rough edit due 
3/19 Final edit due 
3/22 Display of Videos at Reception in LPAC lobby 6:30 pm (followed by Pohaku performance) 
	
For	this	project,	you	will	work	with	a	team	of	your	peers	to	design	an	interview-based	research	
project.	You	will	collect	interviews,	analyze	the	data	you	collect,	and	create	a	video	essay	that	
reflects	on	important	patterns	or	themes	from	your	research.	(Final	videos	will	be	3-5	minutes	
long.)	
	
There	are	numerous	reasons	people	study	other	people:	to	challenge	assumptions	about	groups,	
communities,	or	social	environments;	to	make	connections	between	groups	or	behaviors;	to	
support	proposals	for	change	or	preservation.	In	the	case	of	our	course,	your	project	will	focus	on	
some	aspect	of	the	idea	of	homeland,	place	of	origin,	or	the	connection	between	identity	and	place,	
for	instance.	This	project	draws	upon	methods	used	by	ethnographers	and	oral	historians.		
	
The	initial	impetus	for	this	project	came	from	conversations	with	students	reflecting	on	the	spaces	
of	their	own	upbringing—Guam,	Palestine,	New	Jersey	(among	many	others)—and	on	the	
assumptions	outsiders	have	expressed	about	their	homelands.	Responses	to	those	assumptions	
ranged	from	bemusement	to	distress.	In	“Diversity	as	Topography”	Kathryn	Valentine	and	Mónica	F.	
Torres	explain,	“genuine	interaction	among	diverse	populations	invokes	a	much	messier,	more	
complicated	notion	of	diversity	[than	“structural	diversity”].	It	goes	beyond	the	sheer	presence	of	
diverse	students	to	include	diverse	human	beings	in	relationship	to	and	with	each	other”	(199).	
	
The	goal	of	this	assignment	is	to	bring	students	into	conversation	with	one	another	about	some	of	
the	complexities	of	their	experiences	and	assumptions	about	one	another’s	homelands.	Also,	the	
assignment	explores	questions	of	representation—what	does	it	mean	to	literally	capture	other	
people’s	voices	and	repurpose	or	weave	these	into	compositions	of	our	own?	How	does	pattern	
seeking—looking	for	shared	experiences—amplify	the	experiences	of	the	individual?	In	what	cases	
might	it	erase	or	elide	the	particularity	of	experience	to	present	it	as	part	of	a	larger	“data	set”	of	
experience?	Finally,	how	do	organizational	strategies	in	video	composition	compare	to	those	in	a	
traditional	“IMRaD”	(Introduction,	Methods,	Results,	and	Discussion)	structure,	which	would	be	the	
more	conventional	way	to	present	this	kind	of	work?	Videos	will	be	exhibited	at	a	public	opening	in	
LPAC.	
	
Process	
The	writing	for	this	project	will	be	broken	into	several	stages,	and	I	will	give	you	specific	instructions	
for	each	stage:	
	
Stage	1:	Write	a	Proposal	
• Form	a	group	
• Determine	your	research	question(s)	or	focus.	
• Collect	textual	research	that	relates	to	your	area	of	interest.	This	could	include	scholarly	as	
well	as	popular	sources	that	can	help	contextualize	your	research	question(s).	
• Explain	the	research	questions	or	hypothesis	you	hope	to	explore	in	this	project	and	why	
you	think	it	could	produce	knowledge	or	perspectives	that	could	be	useful	to	readers.	
• Carefully	describe	the	methods	you	will	use	to	gather	your	interview	data.	
	
Stage	2:	Collect	Interviews	and	Analyze	Findings,	by	putting	your	discoveries	in	conversation	with	
prior	research	
• After	receiving	feedback	on	your	interview	design,	collect	your	interviews	(approximately	
five	20-minute	interviews).	
• Analyze	your	observations/interview	data,	with	the	help	of	the	prior	research	you	collected	
	
Stage	3:	Produce	a	3-5	minute	video	that	frames	one	or	more	discoveries	from	your	project		
• As	a	group,	decide	which	themes	or	patterns	emerged	from	your	research	that	you	wish	to	
share	with	audience	members	
• Collect	visual	resources	that	complement	your	interview	data	for	use	in	your	video	
composition.	
• Create	a	storyboard	that	connects	visual	imagery	to	narrative	excerpts	from	your	interviews	
• Edit	video	footage	
• Videos	will	be	placed	on	public	display	in	the	LPAC	lobby	as	part	of	interdisciplinary	
collaboration	between	our	class,	Dance,	and	History	classes.	


Unexpected Homelands Video

Swarthmore College Works Digital Humanities Curricular Development Faculty Development Spring 2018 Unexpected Homelands Video Alba Newmann Holmes Swarthmore College, aholmes2@swarthmore.edu This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Humanities Curricular Development by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/dev-dhgrants  Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Alba Newmann Holmes. (2018). "Unexpected Homelands Video". Visual Rhetorics And Multimodal Writing. DOI: 10.24968/2476-2458.dhgrants.23 https://works.swarthmore.edu/dev-dhgrants/23 English	2V	Alba	Newmann	Holmes	 Project	2:	Qualitative	Research/Video	Essay	project:	Unexpected	Homelands		You	will	complete	this	project	in	stages:	2/12 Project 2 Group Proposal Due (two paragraphs plus four citations) 2/14 Interview Questions for Project 2 Due 2/15-2/25 Gather interviews and preliminary imagery 2/26 Video editing workshop 2/27-3/6 Group Meetings with HIST1W and Dance 022  3/1 Storyboard due 3/8 Rough edit due 3/19 Final edit due 3/22 Display of Videos at Reception in LPAC lobby 6:30 pm (followed by Pohaku performance) 	For	this	project,	you	will	work	with	a	team	of	your	peers	to	design	an	interview-based	research	project.	You	will	collect	interviews,	analyze	the	data	you	collect,	and	create	a	video	essay	that	reflects	on	important	patterns	or	themes	from	your	research.	(Final	videos	will	be	3-5	minutes	long.)		There	are	numerous	reasons	people	study	other	people:	to	challenge	assumptions	about	groups,	communities,	or	social	environments;	to	make	connections	between	groups	or	behaviors;	to	support	proposals	for	change	or	preservation.	In	the	case	of	our	course,	your	project	will	focus	on	some	aspect	of	the	idea	of	homeland,	place	of	origin,	or	the	connection	between	identity	and	place,	for	instance.	This	project	draws	upon	methods	used	by	ethnographers	and	oral	historians.			The	initial	impetus	for	this	project	came	from	conversations	with	students	reflecting	on	the	spaces	of	their	own	upbringing—Guam,	Palestine,	New	Jersey	(among	many	others)—and	on	the	assumptions	outsiders	have	expressed	about	their	homelands.	Responses	to	those	assumptions	ranged	from	bemusement	to	distress.	In	“Diversity	as	Topography”	Kathryn	Valentine	and	Mónica	F.	Torres	explain,	“genuine	interaction	among	diverse	populations	invokes	a	much	messier,	more	complicated	notion	of	diversity	[than	“structural	diversity”].	It	goes	beyond	the	sheer	presence	of	diverse	students	to	include	diverse	human	beings	in	relationship	to	and	with	each	other”	(199).		The	goal	of	this	assignment	is	to	bring	students	into	conversation	with	one	another	about	some	of	the	complexities	of	their	experiences	and	assumptions	about	one	another’s	homelands.	Also,	the	assignment	explores	questions	of	representation—what	does	it	mean	to	literally	capture	other	people’s	voices	and	repurpose	or	weave	these	into	compositions	of	our	own?	How	does	pattern	seeking—looking	for	shared	experiences—amplify	the	experiences	of	the	individual?	In	what	cases	might	it	erase	or	elide	the	particularity	of	experience	to	present	it	as	part	of	a	larger	“data	set”	of	experience?	Finally,	how	do	organizational	strategies	in	video	composition	compare	to	those	in	a	traditional	“IMRaD”	(Introduction,	Methods,	Results,	and	Discussion)	structure,	which	would	be	the	more	conventional	way	to	present	this	kind	of	work?	Videos	will	be	exhibited	at	a	public	opening	in	LPAC.		Process	The	writing	for	this	project	will	be	broken	into	several	stages,	and	I	will	give	you	specific	instructions	for	each	stage:		Stage	1:	Write	a	Proposal	• Form	a	group	• Determine	your	research	question(s)	or	focus.	• Collect	textual	research	that	relates	to	your	area	of	interest.	This	could	include	scholarly	as	well	as	popular	sources	that	can	help	contextualize	your	research	question(s).	• Explain	the	research	questions	or	hypothesis	you	hope	to	explore	in	this	project	and	why	you	think	it	could	produce	knowledge	or	perspectives	that	could	be	useful	to	readers.	• Carefully	describe	the	methods	you	will	use	to	gather	your	interview	data.		Stage	2:	Collect	Interviews	and	Analyze	Findings,	by	putting	your	discoveries	in	conversation	with	prior	research	• After	receiving	feedback	on	your	interview	design,	collect	your	interviews	(approximately	five	20-minute	interviews).	• Analyze	your	observations/interview	data,	with	the	help	of	the	prior	research	you	collected		Stage	3:	Produce	a	3-5	minute	video	that	frames	one	or	more	discoveries	from	your	project		• As	a	group,	decide	which	themes	or	patterns	emerged	from	your	research	that	you	wish	to	share	with	audience	members	• Collect	visual	resources	that	complement	your	interview	data	for	use	in	your	video	composition.	• Create	a	storyboard	that	connects	visual	imagery	to	narrative	excerpts	from	your	interviews	• Edit	video	footage	• Videos	will	be	placed	on	public	display	in	the	LPAC	lobby	as	part	of	interdisciplinary	collaboration	between	our	class,	Dance,	and	History	classes.	

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Unexpected Homelands Video

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