Week

Date

Seminar

1

04/03/2021

Performance Studies and the Honours Workload

Preparation: Read from the Department’s journal About Performance (2017) No. 14/15:

1. McAuley, Gay. 2010. “Interdisciplinary Field or Emerging Discipline?: Performance Studies at the University of Sydney”, in Contesting Performance: Global Sites of Research, edited by Jon McKenzie, Heike Roms and C.J.W.-L Wee, Palgrave Macmillan, reprinted in “Special Section: 30 Years of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney”, About Performance 14/15 “Performance Studies: Here, There, Then, Now”, 2017, pp.247-259.
2. Maxwell, Ian. 2006, “Parallel Evolution: Performance Studies at the University of Sydney”, TDR, 50:1, Spring, reprinted in “Special Section: 30 Years of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney”, About Performance 14/15 “Performance Studies: Here, There, Then, Now”, 2017, pp. 229-246.
3. Cheng, Nien Yuan, 2017 “Globalisation, Transgression and the Call to Performance Studies, in About Performance 14/15 “Performance Studies: Here, There, Then, Now”, pp. 261-284.

In class: We will work through the Honours handbook for Theatre & Performance Studies, and look at planning, time management, and your year’s calendar. We will also discuss the readings above: please read them carefully and come prepared to talk about the evolution of the discipline of Performance Studies.

To do before next week:

1. Schedule an appointment with Lawrie Ashford and Justine Shih Pearson to discuss your potential placement.
2. Schedule an appointment with Lawrie Ashford to discuss your thesis proposal.

2

11/03/2021

Placements & Ethics Applications

Preparation for this week:

1. Continue to work on your research/writing calendar – make a copy for your work desk and diary - check each week to see how you are travelling.
2. Investigate your placement options and be prepared to discuss them in class.
3. Take a look at the Ethics website: https://sydney.edu.au/research/research-integrity-and-ethics.html
4. Look at deadlines for ethics submissions (and add these to your yearly calendar): http://sydney.edu.au/research_support/ethics/human/deadlines.shtml

In class: Why do we need to do an ethics application for your Honours placement and casebook? When do we need to do an Ethics application? How do we do an Ethics application?

Programme Co-ordinator Justine Shih Pearson will attend this session to talk through examples of former fieldwork placements undertaken by students in the Department, and to discuss the viability of any potential placements you may have in mind.

3

18/03/2021

Research Skills: Databases and Research Tools

Preparation for this week:

1. Start to organise your thesis topic & (re-)familiarise yourself with the library website. Look at: http://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/performance & https://library.sydney.edu.au/research/research-support.html
2. Have a look at some research software. Investigate:
   1. Endnote, http://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/endnote (free at Library website)
   2. Mendeley https://www.mendeley.com/ (still free for small storage)
   3. Zotero –https://www.zotero.org/
   4. Scrivener https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview (30 day trail for free – but costs after that).

You may also have some other fabulous online research tools you want to tell us about – please do.

1. Continue to investigate your placement options with the Department’s Programme Coordinator

In class: We will meet at Fisher Library – Exhibition Meeting Room 1 (223) on Level 2 – for a database and research training session, led by Kim Wilson, our Faculty Liaison Librarian extraordinaire.

4

25/03/2021

Your Thesis, Your Supervisor

Preparation: You should, by now, have spoken to the Honours Coordinator about your ideas for a research topic; established what your topic might be, and been allocated a supervisor by the Honours Coordinator, and done some (more) preliminary “spadework” on your topic.

In class: Present your topic, using these questions as a guide:

1. what is your preferred area of research?
2. why do you find this interesting?
3. what is already written on this topic?
4. what are the ‘gaps’ in the literature that you have identified?
5. do you have an idea of your angle?

We will discuss each proposed topic and the supervisor/student relationship.

We will also take a quick look at other research tools like EndNote, Mendeley and Scrivener.

To do before next week: Make sure you have scheduled and had your first meeting with your thesis supervisor.

5

1/04/2021

Scholarly Apparatus

Preparation:

1. Read two Honours thesis from the collection in the Departmental Library.
2. Consider what referencing approach these use and what you would like to use, Chicago/Harvard/MLA etc, and be across the conventions of your chosen style (through online websites for each).
3. Meet your supervisor and discuss your thesis interests.
4. Continue to investigate your placement options with the Department’s Programme Coordinator (you need your placement established before Week 7).

In class: Be prepared to discuss:

1. What works in the theses you have read & what doesn’t work in your opinion? How is it structured?
2. What are the “scholarly apparatus” – footnotes, appendices, bibliography conventions, etc that they used? Were they consistent?
3. What will you be using?
4. The outcomes of your meeting with your supervisor – what is your thesis about now?

X

8/04/2021

No Class: Mid-Semester Break

6

15/04/2021

What is Your Thesis

Preparation: Begin to develop your thesis proposal (2 pages in length) with a preliminary thesis statement, an outline of the potential content and a bibliography (listing at least 8 items), including annotations of two key references.

In class: We will discuss each proposal.

To do before next week: Schedule and have your second meeting with your supervisor; make sure you have considered the in-class feedback and incorporated this into the proposal you send to your supervisor before you meet them.

7

22/04/2021

Placements: Who, What, Where, When?

Preparation: With your placement established over the last 7 weeks, with the help of the Department’s Programme Manager and Honours Coordinator, this week you are expected to research the artist/company/institution with whom you will be placed. Who are they? What do they do? What is their history? Who do they work with? How do they keep going? How do they present themselves to the world?

In class: Formal presentation of placement research – ie prepare; no speaking off the cuff.

8

29/04/2021

How to Present a Paper

Preparation: Prepare your seminar paper on your thesis topic.

In Class: Present your seminar paper on your thesis topic. This should be a formal presentation – consider it a rehearsal of your presentation for your presentation at the Departmental Research Seminar in Week 9. Feedback will be given in class.

To do before next class: Rewrite your thesis proposal and presentation, send it to your supervisor for feedback. Remind your supervisor that you need this feedback by [negotiate date] so that you can incorporate it into your presentation at the Departmental Research Seminar on the 7th of May.

9

7/05/2021

Presentation at Departmental Research Seminar (Friday 1-3pm)

Each student will present their revised paper on their thesis topic for the Friday afternoon Research Seminar in the AV Room Level #1 Woolley Building (no Thursday class).

10

13/05/2021

Re-visiting Ethnographic 'Fieldwork' in a Theatre & Performance Studies Context

Preparation: (Re-)read:

1. Rossmanith, Kate. 2009. “Making Theatre-Making: Fieldwork, Rehearsal and Performance-Preparation” in: Reconstuction 9 (1)
2. McAuley, Gay. 1998. “Towards an ethnography of rehearsal” New Theatre Quarterly 14 (53): 75-85 &/or Gay McAuley. 2012. “Writing about rehearsal: some preliminary observations” in Not Magic, But Work. An Ethnographic Account of a Rehearsal Process, Manchester University Press.

In class:

1. We will discuss the main ideas on field work for/in performance studies offered by these two writers. What theories do they use to support their ideas?
2. We will also discuss the Research Seminar feedback on your thesis topic. How did the presentation go? What will you do differently next time you offer a paper? What were the suggestions from the audience on your topic? How might this influence your research/research question?

11

20/05/2021

What Makes a Good Casebook?

Preparation:

1. Read two more casebooks from the Departmental Library.
2. Read Ness, Sally Ann. 2004. “Being a body in a cultural way: Understanding the cultural in the embodiment of dance”. In Helen Thomas and Jamilah Ahmed (ed) Cultural Bodies: Ethnography and Theory. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

In class: Demonstrate and discuss how these writers used ethnographic and rehearsal studies theory (overtly and covertly) in their casebooks. Please prepare – ie write out – your responses.

12

27/05/2021

What is Thick Description?

Preparation: (Re)read:

1. Ponterotto, Joseph G. 2006. “Brief note on the origins, evolution, and meaning of the qualitative research concept thick description”. The Qualitative Report 11 (3): 538-549.
2. Read two more casebooks.

In class:

1. What is the difference between ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ description?
2. Did/how did the authors of the casebooks you read for this week use ‘thick description’ throughout their casebook? Please prepare – ie write out – your responses.

13

3/06/2021

No Class Scheduled

We may use this as a catch-up session, to cover material that has come up over the semester, for individual consultations etc.