Description

This course aims to familiarize students with research methodologies as well as the diversity of theoretical and disciplinary approaches that are available to them, in order to help them prepare for a Master’s project. Students will be able to choose between four seminars, each of which will focus on a specific cultural question that may be examined from a variety of angles. They will be encouraged to do some documentary research on these topics, reflect about the various critical and theoretical approaches that are possible, and compare and synthesize them in an interdisciplinary manner.
 
  M. Consigny. Linguistics 
 1er semestre. Mercredi 13h-14h
 The class is in English. It covers 2 aspects of research work, each taking part of the semester. In the first part, covering roughly 3 or 4 classes, students learn how to write an abstract. In the second, they prepare and produce a short research paper on a topic of their choice but related to linguistics. Preparation includes choosing the subject, defining it, conducting bibliographical research, producing an outline and writing it up. Oral resentations are an important part of the course; they help students to organise and clarify their work and provide feedback on their work in progress. At the end of the semester, students hand in an extended essay/research paper (up to 3,000 words) on the chosen topic.
 
 Mme Hillion. Postcolonial studies 
 1er semestre. Jeudi 12h-13h.
 This course aims to introduce students to postcolonial studies, a pluridisciplinary research field located at the crossroads of literature, theory, history and social sciences. In the wake of Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism (1978), postcolonial theory has been investigating the cultural, political and economic impact and enduring legacy of colonialism and imperialism on colonized people and lands. The first part of the course will examine fundamental texts and thinkers of the field, in order to understand its key concepts and debates. In the second part of the course, students will present and discuss research projects on a topic of their choice related to postcolonial literary studies. 

  Moodle page : LG20EM60 - Initiation à la recherche L3S5 - Hillion
 
 
 Mme Grassy. Studying Popular Music Today 
 1er semestre. Mardi 15h-16h, A14
 Ce cours d’attache à proposer une initiation à la recherche dans le domaine des musiques anglo-saxonnes dites « populaires ». A partir du livre de Keith Negus, Popular Music in Theory : An Introduction, et des différentes méthodologies proposées par l’auteur, on découvrira différents points d’entrée dans l’étude de ces musiques au croisement des études culturelles, de la sociologie, de l’analyse littéraire et musicologique : on verra comment elles émergent depuis un lieu, un moment historique et politique, et comment elles peuvent être considérées à la fois comme un objet esthétique et politique et comme le lieu où se créent des identités aussi bien individuelles que collectives.
 
 Lecture obligatoire
 Negus Keith Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction, Welseyain UP, 1996
 Longhurst, Brian. Popular Music and Society. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014.
 Negus, Keith. Popular Music Studies. Hodder Education, 2002.
 Shuker, Roy. Popular Music, The Key Concepts. London: Routledge, 2002.
 _______________ Understanding Popular Music, London: Routledge, 2001.
 
 
 Mme Cressman: The politics of representation in documentary photography 
 1er semestre, vendredi 12h-14h , salle 4307
 This course is an introduction to academic research. The first part of the course examines some of the key ideas posed by the politics of photographic representation and the diverse practices in documentary photography through a series of short lectures and in-class discussions of critical theories on the documentary “genre”. Part of the course will also be devoted to photographic analysis. In the second half of the semester you will be focusing on the paper writing process through a series of weekly tasks (finding a title, defining a main argument, writing an introduction, writing a paragraph, etc.) At the end of the semester (week 14), you will be required to hand in a research paper exploring a question of your choice linked to the politics of representation in documentary photography.

Students are welcome to enroll in the optional course entitled “Documentary photography in North-America” (UE5) as well, as it can offer a useful complement to your understanding of the history of photography and of photographic practices in the 20th and 21st centuries.
  

Compétences visées

The students will be expected to develop initiative, especially as far as documentary research is concerned.
 They will be expected to acquire an understanding of evolutions in historiographic and critical thinking.
 Other skills to be acquired include the ability to work with a variety of critical discourses, in an interdisciplinary manner.

Disciplines

• Études anglophones