Science, Technology, and Society research proposal

Final Assignment: Research Proposal (STS1) Students enrolled in STS1 will write a research proposal of approximately 1,700 words (Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, NOT including bibliography). Please submit an electronic version in .docx format on Canvas by Monday, March 16 11:59 pm. Please also note that you will need to get approval from your section leader for your research question by the end of Week 8. What is a research proposal? In basic terms, a research proposal sets out the research question that the researcher means to answer, giving details about the significance and impact of that question, as well as the plan for how to go about answering the research question. An effective research proposal conveys why the question is important and serves to get the reader/reviewer excited about the topic and proposed research, as well as showing how the question connects to larger issues in the field (in this case STS) that are important. Research proposals generally follow a specified template here, students will need to deliver the components outlined below for the research proposal. You are not meant to answer the research question in this paper, but rather to present a research question, the significance of that question, and how you would go about answering it if given the chance. What kind of research proposal is expected? STS is an interdisciplinary field your methods for research should fit the particular type of question you are asking. For some questions, approaches from, for example, history, may be appropriate, explaining how you might go about drawing on archival research and primary and secondary sources. For other research questions, methods from social sciences may be more appropriate. For example, if youre interested in examining a communitys perspective on a particular technology, proposing interviews or surveys could be appropriate. A useful way of identifying which methods to use for your project is to do a preliminary review of published research to see how researchers have gone about answering a similar question to yours. Your section leader will also provide guidance on how to go about identifying methods for your research proposal. Students will need to propose a research plan that is empirical meaning it relies on data/evidence you collect or analyze. This may include, for example, archival materials consulted at Stanford Special Collections or other archives, or datasets. Other approaches could involve proposing to conduct surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments. Your empirical approach may be qualitative and/or quantitative, as long as you clearly specify what evidence 1 you will analyze and how. You should propose a realistic, manageable empirical plan typically one primary method (e.g., archival research or interviews or analysis of an existing dataset). Students must also use at least 5 secondary sources to support and illustrate their discussion of their research question, goals and objectives, significance, or approach for their project plan. These may include published articles, books, edited volumes but NOT Wikipedia. You are encouraged to use class readings at least 1 secondary source must be a class reading. How do I come up with a research question? There is no preformulated question for this proposal. Your section leader will give additional guidance on developing your research question. A research question is more specific than a general topic e.g. design of paper clips is a topic, not a question. Find a question that you find exciting and engaging one value of the Meaningless Questions exercises is to point you towards what types of artifacts, questions and STS issues you find most interesting. You also can draw upon the STS list of concepts to consider which issues and questions you felt particularly drawn to. Your research question will need to have a sufficiently narrow scope that you can feasibly answer it through your proposed methods and timeframe, but not so narrow that it could be answered easily through a basic reference search. It is your responsibility to articulate the STS question which your proposal would answer, if approved, and to explain its relevance to our understanding of one or another critical aspect of STS. You will need to tell your section leader your research question and receive approval by the end of week 8 – your TA will give you additional information about submission.. What should my research proposal look like? The research proposal should contain the following 4 parts: I. Framework/Motivation/Introduction (recommended length: 400 words; single-spaced pages): Briefly situate your reader/proposal reviewer in time and space by introducing them to the context and framework(s) relevant to your proposed questions. By framework, we mean the key concepts, theories, debates, or analytical perspectives that shape how your project understands the problem (for example, ideas from STS scholarship about power, infrastructure, expertise, classification, or technological change). Here is a good place to cite secondary sources. You should NOT pretend you are writing a paper for Prof. Mullaney and Prof. Martinez, but rather a committee of grant reviewers who may not have the same level of experience with STS as you, and certainly not with your proposed topic of study. You need to equip your reviewers 2 by explaining (succinctly but thoroughly) the context and framework that they will need to know to understand your proposed research and its potential significance. II. Goals and Objectives (recommended length: 500 words; single-spaced pages): State the scholarly questions you propose to research for your project. These questions should collectively add up to a coherent constellation of questions that helps you explore a specific, researchable, and meaningful question related to STS. This is a proposal for funding/future research, and so you are encouraged to frame your project as exploratory research with open-ended questions. You may also include a set of working hypotheses provisional, revisable propositions that clarify what mechanisms or relationships your research will investigate. These hypotheses should not be framed as expected outcomes or foregone conclusions; instead, they should be treated as testable hunches that your evidence may complicate, refine, or overturn (and you may consider multiple competing hypotheses where appropriate). III. Significance (recommended length: 500 words; single-spaced pages): Based on your current understanding of your proposed area of study, and STS more broadly, please explain the significance of your proposed question(s). Why, given what we now know about your subject area, and STS, would our understanding be propelled forward significantly by your project? What might be some policy implications? REMEMBER: Since this is a proposal for future research, rather than completed research, you CANNOT justify significance based on any sense of expected outcomes of your research. That is to say, the significance of your proposed questions cannot be pinned to one hoped-for/expected answer to such questions, otherwise your research will likely lead to foregone conclusions. Rather, the significance of your proposal must reside in a well-articulated, meaningful, open-ended/non-predetermined PROBLEMATIC that you have arrived at through primary source-based (and secondary source-based) research. IV. Project Plan (recommended length: 300 words; single-spaced page): Lay out in basic terms how you think you could go about answering the research question that you posed. We are not looking for a detailed methodology, but instead ask for you to lay out a basic approach for the research that would address your question. Which specific sources, fieldwork sites, datasets, archival collections, interview subjects, etc. would you plan to make use of to undertake this project, and where precisely are they located? Describe what materials you would examine or research subjects you would engage and types of methods that would enable you to achieve your project goals. For example, if you think a survey would be needed to answer your research question: Who would you like to submit your survey to? What types of questions would you like to ask? What STS concepts or theories might you use to understand or interpret the responses? Your plan should demonstrate the connection between your research question and how you would go about answering it. 3 You also need to provide a full bibliography in any appropriate citation format (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) at the end which does NOT count towards the required page length. How do I get help? This assignment is challenging, and it is completely normal for it to feel difficult, especially at first when trying to find a research question. You are strongly encouraged to use your TA and your peers as a sounding board meaning someone you can talk your ideas through with (even before theyre fully formed) in order to test clarity, get feedback on scope and feasibility, and identify what questions or evidence you still need to develop. Enjoy the process, you got this! Note on AI use: Use of language models and/or Generative AI tools (including but not limited to ChatGPT) is not permitted for this assignment and constitutes a violation of the Stanford Honor Code. 4