The Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) curriculum is designed to develop analytical,
writing, and oral communication skills. Participants take courses during the five-weeks
of Summer Session I that the program lasts. They focus on five broad themes for their
research: Health, Politics, Education, Media, and Environment. Research methods components
covered in the program will include: a literature review, formulation of research
questions, statement of hypotheses, selection of subjects, research design, and data
collection methods. The students will be acquainted with general issues involved in
conducting research, validity reliability, and instrument construction. Topics explored
will expand students’ understanding of how to conduct and write their research with
interdisciplinary and intercultural sensibilities.
Graduate School Preparation and Professionalization
This seminar course introduces students to select topics that render visible the generative,
transformative potential of graduate education. Students will read and assess texts
that advance their grasp of the promise of a master’s degree or doctorate. Invited
special guests will speak to students about the importance of graduate education and
other pertinent issues like life-work balance and finding good mentorship. Students
will not only learn how to build relationships with professors and request letters
of recommendations, but work on their personal statements for potential graduate schools,
while considering their pathways as future professionals. Students can mobilize this
learning to work later as scholars, community officials, public administrators, legal
experts, consultants, theorists, and public surveyists.
Research Methods
The objective of this course is to introduce the theories, principles, and methods
of conducting quantitative and qualitative research in the social sciences and other
related disciplines in the humanities. Students will generate and develop their own
research interests and produce an original research proposal in their fields of specialization.
They will learn methods like oral history, ethnography, qualitative surveys, statistics,
focus groups, historical archives, or discourse/textual analysis. Students will learn
how to interview real human subjects, gain permission to special library collections,
and record information as a participant-observer in the “field” in an ethical manner.
A strong connection between conceptual theory, methodological practice, and critical
analysis will be emphasized.
Research Design
The purpose of this course is to help participants develop a conceptual understanding of procedures used in computational research. They will learn how to develop a research project that draws on various sources of information. The focus of our attention will be on the types of statistics commonly found in social science research. In this regard, we will treat the following statistical methods: exploratory and descriptive statistics, the chi-square statistic, correlation and regression, as well as multiple correlation and regression.
In our work in these areas, we will often be using data sets to show the value of statistics for analyzing information. Research projects will be personalized and tailored to student interests. Students will gain experience in a rigorous research approach commonly employed by data scientists, archivists, librarians, public health experts, economists, business administration, political scientists, cognitive scientists, sociologists, and language scientists.
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