For next class, you'll start thinking about the uses and priorities of humanistic inquiry and what it means to create humanistically-informed research questions in music. You should take notes on the things you read and be ready to discuss them in class as well as in the Discussion Forum. Please proceed as follows:

1. Make sure you've done everything on the "Important To-Do List" from last class, especially if you joined class late. And be sure to submit your Exit survey from last class if you attended the first class but haven't yet submitted the survey (remember this is how i take attendance/grade participation too).

2. Before engaging with the day's resources, think about what you know (or think you know) about music research and/or humanistic research. What topics and approaches seem important? What kind(s) of knowledge is (are) prioritized? What might be underrepresented? How might these priorities and approaches differ from other kinds of research you've done? how might they be similar? What kinds of music research questions can you imagine asking?

3. To start thinking about humanistic inquiry, read/watch:

the short paragraph and video in the link “What are the Humanities?" (you can ignore the "please give us money" stuff at the end)
Chapter 1 of Do the Humanities Create Knowledge?
the short blog post "The Great Divide: Positivism vs. Constructivism."

As you do, take note of the kinds of knowledge and knowledge production emphasized by the humanities, returning to the questions you asked yourself in Step 2. What about each author/speaker's ideas do you find either compelling or challenging?

4. To start thinking about your own music research questions, read the provided excerpts from two books:

The Prologue and Ch 1 from The Craft of Research, which will help you think about how to come up with and begin to hone an interesting research question
Ch 1, Ch 3, and pp. 113-122 ("Formulating a Research Question in Music Analysis") from Writing in Music: A Brief Guide, which provides musicological examples of that process.

As you read, try to relate these ideas to the kinds of knowledge production discussed in Step 3 as well as to your own research interests [Note: If you are a more experienced researcher, some of this may feel like review, but i want to make sure we are all on the same page as we get started.]

5. Read Eight Provocations: descriptions of "aha moments" in humanistic music research that led to the start of real research projects for real musicologists (me and my awesome MIT (ethno)musicology/music theory colleagues). Choose two contrasting provocations that are compelling to you: one from the Historical Musicologist/Music Theorist list and one from the Ethnomusicologist list. Consider them in light of the day's topics. You might ask: what musical topics do your two provocations address? what questions do they raise for you? what larger contexts do you want to consider? what forms of knowledge do they demand? what broader humanistic research problems could they suggest? where are the uncertainties? etc. Be prepared to discuss more in class.

6. Contribute to the Discussion Forum as follows:

a) Make your initial post on the Discussion Forum by midnight the day before class.
b) Read and take notes on your classmates' responses by class time.
c) Make a minimum of 1 response by midnight the day of class (you can make this response before class time or wait for additional inspiration from the class discussion).

7. Come to class ready to get nerdy with it all!