Folks,
Following Jessica's suggestion, it is way past time to move on to the real
purpose of this list.
I have a general question for doctoral students that may not be easy to
answer but that may be useful to think about in the long term. Are there
only a few broad directions of inquiry that students are pursuing at this
time?
I know that individual projects are exceptionally diverse, but are there
certain themes or theoretical positions that these projects represent?
I believe what I am asking about is how your individual projects may be
contextualized within the field. Is it best to group them by subject
matter--for example, graphic, industrial, interaction and so forth? Or are
there other ways to group the work, such as methodological approach or
philosophical perspective?
Dissertation advisors may have some sense about this matter?-we usually
push students in one way or another--but it is important--even at the early
stage of your careers--to begin considering where your contribution will be
made. I'm very curious to understand where and how you see yourselves.
I raise this question because it is rapidly becoming important to
consolidate our inquiries as we try to explain to people outside the field.
Any thoughts on this among the doctoral students?
(By the way, wouldn't it be nice if the technology of the list allowed us
to visually map and cluster various contributions--like "post-it" notes--so
that we could all share the map as it began to unfold?)
Richard
Richard Buchanan
School of Design
Carnegie Mellon University
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