Undergraduate Research in Art: A Guide for Students

191 Pages·2018·1.976 MB·English

by  Vaughan Judge, Jenny Olin Shanahan, Gregory Young

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
IN ART
Undergraduate Research in Art: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding
research skills, with examples of undergraduate research activities and case studies
on projects in the various areas of the study of art—from art history, art education,
and fi ne art therapy, to studio art, graphic design, and digital media. Although art
degree programs don’t always call it research, many undergraduate activities in art
have components that could be combined into comprehensive projects.
The book begins with an overview chapter, followed by seven chapters on
research skills, including literature reviews, choosing topics, formulating questions,
citing sources, disseminating results, and working with data and human subjects.
A wide variety of subdisciplines follow in Chapters 9 through 1 8 , with sample
project ideas from each, as well as undergraduate research conference abstracts.
The fi nal chapter is an annotated guide to online resources that students can access
and readily operate. Each chapter opens with inspiring quotations, and wraps up
with applicable discussion questions. Professors and students can use U ndergraduate
Research in Art as a text or a reference book.
Vaughan Judge is Director of the School of Art at Montana State University.
Jenny Olin Shanahan is Director of Undergraduate Research at Bridgewater State
University, with leadership positions in the Council for Undergraduate Research.
Gregory Young is Professor of Music at Montana State University and has held
ongoing posts in conferences in undergraduate research and in curriculum development.
Routledge Undergraduate Research Series
Series Editors: Gregory Young, Montana State University,
and Jenny Olin Shanahan, Bridgewater State University
Undergraduate Research in Music
A Guide for Students
Gregory Young and Jenny Olin Shanahan
Undergraduate Research in Art
A Guide for Students
Vaughan Judge, Jenny Olin Shanahan, and Gregory Young
Undergraduate Research in Dance
A Guide for Students
Lynnette Young Overby, Jenny Olin Shanahan, and Gregory Young
Undergraduate Research in Film
A Guide for Students
Lucia Ricciardelli, Jenny Olin Shanahan, and Gregory Young
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Undergraduate-Research-Series/book-series/
RURS
UNDERGRADUATE
RESEARCH IN ART
A Guide for Students
Vaughan Judge
Montana State University
Jenny Olin Shanahan
Bridgewater State University
Gregory Young
Montana State University
First published 2019
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
The rights of Vaughan Judge, Jenny Olin Shanahan, and Gregory Young to be
identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-58740-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-58741-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-50397-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
Series Foreword vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgments xi
1 Overview 1
2 Literature Reviews 8
3 Choosing Topics and Formulating Appropriate Research
Questions or Project Goals 19
4 Working With Human Subjects 28
5 Collecting Data and Carrying Out Arts Research 34
6 Analyzing and Synthesizing Data 51
7 Citing Sources 59
8 Dissemination of Results 65
9 Studio Art and Related Topics 81
10 Art to Market: Entrepreneurship 95
vi Contents
11 Interdisciplinary Ideas: The Path Less Taken 111
12 The Discovery of Knowledge in Art History 116
13 Art Theory 120
14 Art Education 126
15 Art and Technology 135
16 Art Therapy 142
17 Culture and Popular Art 151
18 Philosophy of Art 165
19 Online Resources 170
Index 175
SERIES FOREWORD
The Routledge Undergraduate Research Series was created to guide students and
faculty, particularly in the arts and humanities, working on a wide variety of research
and creative projects. After a brief overview, chapters on the research process
common to all disciplines follow, and then several chapters that pertain specifi cally
to the discipline. The National Conferences on Undergraduate Research have
expanded annually since 1987 to about 4,000 participants. The British Conference
on Undergraduate Research has been an annual event since 2011, and the World
Congress on Undergraduate Research started in 2016, demonstrating the relevancy
of this movement in our changing higher education curriculum.
Gregory Young and Jenny Olin Shanahan
Series Editors
PREFACE
The Expansion of Undergraduate Research
Over the past 40 years in the United States, undergraduate research activity in colleges
and universities has been increasing dramatically, led initially by science professors
needing help in laboratories. Thanks to national organizations such as the Council
on Undergraduate Research (CUR) and the National Conference on Undergraduate
Research (NCUR), these activities have been spreading rapidly into all disciplines. In
fact, even though CUR was started by chemists at primarily undergraduate institu-
tions in 1978 as a way of collaborating with undergraduates in their research labs, the
largest division of CUR at the present time is Arts and Humanities. NCUR began
in 1987 as a celebration of undergraduate research in any discipline, open to all col-
leges and universities, and currently registers about 3,500 student presenters and 500
faculty mentors annually. In 2011 the fi rst British Conference on Undergraduate
Research (BCUR) was held, and it continues annually with the recent addition of
Posters in Parliament, modeled after Posters on the Hill in Washington, DC. The
Australian Conference on Undergraduate Research (ACUR) started in 2012, and
Australia also has Posters in Parliament now. The fi rst World Congress for Under-
graduate Researchers (WorldCUR) was held in Qatar in November 2016.
The primary reason that undergraduate research (UR) has spread throughout
the world in every academic discipline is that it directly benefi ts students in a host
of areas. Students who participate in UR are more likely to persist in college and
graduate on schedule. They demonstrate signifi cant gains in valuable skills such
as critical thinking and analysis, oral and written communication, and logic and
problem-solving. And student researchers report increased self-confi dence, excite-
ment about their fi eld of study, and clarity about future goals. The benefi ts of
Preface ix
participating in UR have been so well established that the Association of American
Colleges and Universities has identifi ed it as a high-impact practice—one of the key
aspects of a college education shown to make a signifi cant positive difference in the
lives of students (Brownell & Swaner, 2010; Kuh, 2008). Undergraduate research
and other high-impact practices benefi t students from every demographic group,
major, and type of institution of higher education, though fi rst-generation and
underrepresented minority students show the greatest gains (Brownell & Swaner,
2010; Linn, Palmer, Baranger, Gerard, & Stone, 2015). Researchers concur that the
advantages of participating in UR are most directly linked to the opportunities it
offers for students to work closely with their professors in meaningful and pro-
foundly interesting work.
Despite decades’ worth of evidence that UR is one of the most transformative
pursuits a college education can provide, the majority of UR opportunities contin-
ues to be highly selective (often only for honors students) and limited to students in
the laboratory sciences. They are not typically as available to students in disciplines
such as art, where creative activity abounds, but “research” has not been the main
focus, at least with undergraduates.
About This Book
We wrote this book to help faculty and students in the arts, and visual art in par-
ticular, become more accustomed to viewing what they do through the lens of
“undergraduate research”, especially when a more inclusive sense of scholarship and
creative activity is included. The acronym URSCA, which refers to undergraduate
research, scholarship, and creative activities, is seen by many as a more fi tting way
to talk about and recruit students to such opportunities. Creating opportunities for
art students to participate in URSCA offers them access to a high-impact practice
that may improve their cognitive and emotional development, acquisition of highly
valued skills, and preparation for post-baccalaureate opportunities.
This book is organized in two large sections. C hapters 1 through 8 cover some
of the fundamentals of research methods, many of which are common to most
disciplines and the different subject areas in art. They provide a foundation to help
students get started in understanding research protocols and processes. Chapters 9
through 1 8 cover UR in art fi elds that are taught in many collegiate art schools.
Chapter 19 provides annotated online resources, but certainly not an exhaustive
list. Each chapter begins with inspirational quotes, a chapter summary, and then an
explanation of the substance of the chapter, with examples and ideas for students to
pursue. Many of the chapters have examples of abstracts submitted to conferences
by undergraduate researchers across the United States.
Art majors, from their fi rst semester until they take their capstone course, can use
this book as a tool to build awareness about conducting scholarly work in the broad