Creative Research Journals
PHD central
You are asked you to create and maintain a monthly Creative Research Journal commencing with your research proposal. The journal is meant to document your ideas, processes, and the progress of your research, and to respond to feedback in order to reflect, articulate, and digest each interaction. Think of your journal as a research laboratory; the Creative Research Journal may become a crucial element reflected in your final submission.
We encourage you to devise a format that best suits your own research (see below), making it a vital part of your praxis where you experiment with presentation, documentation, and articulation. Research milestones and final research projects are also documented here.
Your journal can be password-protected but will be available to your peers, advisors, reviewers and other invited session guests, forming an invaluable resource, archive, and means of communication for the broader research community.
How to Create Your Creative Research Journal
You can add a page to your existing website, if you have one, or create a standalone blog conducive to sharing your research in process.
There are many platforms for online publishing. Some suggestions include:
Straightforward blogging platforms: Wordpress (free), Squarespace (paid), Wix (free), or Weebly (free)
are.na: a platform for creative thinking and collaborative research (free or paid; Students get 50% off of the premium plans for 2 years)
hotglue: platform for making internet samizdat style sites (free)
Guidelines for Posting to Your Creative Research Journal
➢ Label your journal updates clearly with the month and year of posting.
➢ Remember that it benefits you to provide as clear a picture as possible of your activities that month. This doesn’t have to be finished work: it can be documentation of work in progress, notes, sketches, whatever you feel most appropriately articulates your research.
➢ Remember that evidence of the journal is due on the first Friday of each month we are in session.
➢ Don’t delete or remove assignments or posts: the journal is an archive of your process through the program and will also serve you well in the event of failed experiments and differences of opinions, interpretations, and outcomes.
➢ Only use the password: “TTSF + last two digits of applicable year” (e.g., SFTT25 etc.) if you want to password-protect your blog. Otherwise, faculty and students will be unable to access it.
what to post
➢ Begin by adding your approved application research proposal.
➢ Monthly research dispatches - Document progress in your practice and research in a 300-1200 word post. In the simplest terms, describe what you have been doing. You can include:
A clear description of the work done including lab/studio/field work and details like size, quantity, duration, etc.
Physical context is helpful: if it’s site specific, why not show the site?
A description of your process of working on this project.
What writers, theorists, philosophers, practioners in your field/s of interest informed, resonated with, influenced the work and how?
Will your plans for your thesis change, or have they already changed, as an outcome of what you did this month. If so, how?
➢ Advisor meeting responses - Post a concise recap of what you discussed in your advisor meetings. This will help you keep track of the development of your project and how you incorporated feedback. You will copy and paste this text additionally in this form.
➢ Research Cluster group meeting responses - Post a short recap of your Research Cluster group meetings, sharing insights or feedback shared by your peers.
➢ Reading Diaries (see guidelines below)
➢ Other - You’re encouraged to use your Creative Research Journal as much as possible in order to develop a habit of capturing your creative research process. The more you document your process and the changes/developments in your thinking and practice, the more material you will have available to help you complete your dissertation project. Consider posting responses to readings, your peers’ research and presentations, workshops, and other learning experiences within and beyond the program.
Reading Diaries Guidelines
You will be expected to complete a reading diary for all "required" readings which will be found in the course syllabi. We advise you to commence this journey as early as possible. Most readings will be available in the course syllabi a term in advance.
Briefly explain your understanding of the text(s), what problems they address, which questions they answer (and how) and which ones are left open. As time is very condensed in intensives and residencies this process will help you clarify your ideas and understanding of the material and lead to better informed discussions. Your diaries give session leaders an advanced sense of what their group will be like. Your questions will alert them to areas of concern and special interest.
Don’t paraphrase what you read; just confirm your understanding and what questions you have towards the material. This should be possible in 300-600 cumulative words.
Upload your Reading Diary to your Creative Research Journal by the first Friday of the month before an Intensive Session so that your course instructors have time to review and to get a sense of your interests and/or any areas of confusion. Make sure to link your diary in your monthly PhD Check-In form, so that we know to share a link to your Journal with course leaders.
sharing your creative research journal
Please share your Journal with your advisory team on a regular basis so they can follow your research progress.
The Journal is also intended to help you connect with your peers - please encourage your fellow students to visit your Journal to learn more about your practice and your research journey, and to receive peer-to-peer feedback.
GUIDE FOR FACULTY HERE
To access and refer to your peers’ journals, please reference the directory: