Research as Conversation

One of the fundamental skills in graduate-level research is learning how you can contribute to or shape the research conversations going on around you.

Quality research functions much like good conversation. A researcher doesn’t present their work as if it exists in a vacuum, but rather listens closely to what has been said and then debates, acknowledges, and builds on other viewpoints, ideas, and voices — usually in form of others’ publications, methods, and previous discoveries.

As a graduate student, it is normal to feel intimidated when approaching a new research “conversation” in your field. For this reason, it can be helpful to start with a set of basic questions, which give you a chance to analyze the conversation and form opinions about how you want to engage with it.

What’s been said? What’s left to say?

Knowing what’s already been thoroughly researched and what questions still exist in your field will help you to smoothly enter the research conversation and find an original niche. It may also be helpful to see where gaps in the diversity of experiences and voices have been represented within your research topic.

You can do background research by identifying highly-cited researchers and publications in your discipline. This happens over time, so don’t rush the process of gathering information. Start off by getting tips from your advisor on what pieces are foundational to your field. Some common tools for conducting background research include:

• Conducting a literature review
• Finding highly cited works
• Reviewing the bibliographies of material you are already reviewing
• Reading scholarly encyclopedia articles

We will further discuss some of these tools later on in the module.

Who is talking and where?

Research conversations can feel exclusive, especially at first. As a student, you are going to be surrounded by academics, faculty and other students who have already had significant experience in academic discussions. Some voices are inevitably louder than others by way of experience, privilege, or even bias. So what can you do to make sure many voices and perspectives are being heard, including your own?

For starters, don’t limit conversations to one location or voice in your own research. Research relevant conversations are happening everywhere– blogs, newspapers, academic journals, conferences and informal or online networking. Here are some tips:

• Gather a range of information types and perspectives to get the big picture.
• Don’t limit yourself to single source types (e.g. a single journal) or publishers.
• Include competing voices and perspectives in your research and bibliographies. You don’t have to agree with the perspectives you include! Acknowledging perspectives that you might not agree with can strengthen your own argument.
• Get outside your academic department and community to find out what others are saying about your field of research.
• Look into community impacts of the research that you are conducting, and include voices who are most impacted by your questions. Better yet, collaborate with those communities to fully inform your projects.
• Know the “experts” who are most highly-cited in your discipline, but also look beyond those names to discover researchers who may still be up-and-coming or represent new paths of thought in the field.

Remember, the conversation is ongoing and never-ending. You have a role to play in advancing knowledge, and your perspective and experiences are valuable contributions. Research also shifts and evolves its interests over time, which makes keeping up with what’s new or important in a given field an active and ongoing skill for researchers of all levels. So keep asking questions and talking, because the more information you learn, the more ready you’ll be to enter the dialogue and even shift the conversation.