DCI 191 - Conventions of Scholarship: Past, Present, and Future

Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 1

What is scholarship? Who controls it? Who is left out of scholarly conversations? In the first six weeks of this course, students will explore how various information stakeholders define scholarship, from academics to government bodies. We will primarily explore how academic inquiry differs from personal inquiry; what conventions people observe within the social sciences, humanities, fine arts, and STEM; and the problem of gatekeeping in academic scholarship, and how certain populations are marginalized. Students will learn how to identify quality scholarship, while remembering that quality is subjective and fluid. The second half of the course will leave behind the classroom in favor of an experiential learning lab in the University Library. Students will help their peers not only find information and scholarship to satisfy their own academic inquiry, but will also learn how libraries organize that material and make it discoverable.