Assignment: Follow the steps below to complete a your research statement. Your research statement should consist of THREE paragraphs: The first a description of your research question and problem; the second a discussion of the course readings that you will use to frame your research question, including a discussion of a quote from one of the readings, and the third a description of at least THREE kinds of evidence that you will need to locate in the library to answer your question and solve your problem.

Post your research statement to the blog by 11:59pm on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 MONDAY, OCTOBER 9!

 STEP ONE: Try to write a statement of your research interests and goals, using the following format:

• I am studying ______________ [describe your assigned object briefly here].
• Because I want to find out who/how/why __________[ask your research question here using the guidelines below].

Good research questions are open-ended. Take care not to formulate a research question so broad that it cannot be answered, or so narrow that it can be answered in a sentence or two. Open-ended questions can be solved in more than one way and, depending upon interpretation, often have more than one correct answer, such as the question, Can virtue be taught? Closed questions have only one correct answer, such as, How many continents are there in the world? Open-ended questions are implicit and evaluative, while closed questions are explicit.

If you feel as though your topic is too broad or too narrow, use the following questions to refine your topic.

If your topic seems too broad, consider questions like:

• What do you already know about the subject?
• Is there a specific time period you want to cover?
• Is there a geographic region or country on which you would like to focus?
• Is there a particular aspect of this topic that interests you? For example, public policy implications, historical influence, sociological aspects, psychological angles, specific groups or individuals involved in the topic.

If your topic is so specific that you can’t find sources that specifically address it, consider questions like:

• Could you add elements to your topic for examination?
• Could you think more broadly about this topic? Give thought to the wider implications of your research.
• Who are the key players in this topic?
• What other issues are involved in this topic?

 STEP TWO: Add a third statement to your research question that explains why this question is worth asking. Why should people be interested in learning more about your object? This is the “So what?” part of your research problem. To do this, add another sentence to your statement:

• I am studying ______________.
• Because I want to find out who/how/why __________.
• In order to help my reader understand _____________.

This last sentence should connect your topic and question to some theoretical or conceptual problem in the study of Black Atlantic Altars as we have pursued it in this class. Try to think about how your research relates to the conceptual issues and problems we have addressed in class so far ( such as: theories of the African diaspora, syncretism and hybridity, the altar concept, indigenous conceptions of power and aesthetics, issues of representation and cultural translation, etc.).

What does your topic, and the question you are asking of it, potentially offer to a wider community? How will you enter this conversation that we have been following through our class readings and discussions this semester and explain it to a general public?

Once you have written your research statement in this three sentence format, turn it into a paragraph in which you introduce the topic of your research and clearly explain your questions. Make sure that you introduce the reader to your object (for example, by describing it using clear and compelling language, or by providing some provocative background information that points to the questions that you are asking in your research).

STEP THREE: Write a paragraph in which you discuss how your research questions emerge out of the course readings. This will help to connect your specific object, and the questions you are asking about it, to a wider conversation about Black Atlantic Religions that we have been exploring through our class readings and discussions. In this paragraph you should clearly frame your question conceptually, and in doing so make specific references to the readings. You should include at least one direct quote from a course reading in this paragraph.

STEP FOUR: Once you have settled on a statement, you should then make a list of the evidence that you anticipate you will need to find in order to complete your research. What kinds of primary sources will you use (i.e. newspapers, TV shows, radio broadcasts, government documents, business contracts or reports, and so on)? What kinds of secondary sources might you need in order to contextualize the primary materials (i.e. sources that provide a historical or cultural background to your topic or sources that analyze related topics)? Write a paragraph that discusses a minimum of THREE kinds of evidence you need to find to complete your research.

Once you have completed these four steps you should revise what you wrote in the above four steps into a coherent and organized blog post containing three paragraphs. You should also include a photo of your object (either one from the Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic site, or a photo you have taken of your object in the museum).