No topic yet

Need keywords?
Come to a dinner party.

Where & Who:

The Subject-specific databases are where scholars gather and chat about their research.

Your calling cards to join the party:

Your subject vocabulary is limited in the beginning.

*Authors/articles in your syllabus, course reserves, etc. .

*People: an artist, a (literary) author, an architect, an art historian/critic, a film maker/director, etc.

*Objects: buildings, works of art, movies, novels, etc

*Theory/Theme/Genre/Style: post-colonialism, road films, video art, magic realism, gothic architecture, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as a case study in discussing a current art museum issue, etc..

*Time/Cultural/Geographical locations, when applicable: medieval Spain, etc.

*Others you can add to the list

**A logical combination of any of the above elements to contextualize your search.

The Dinner Party Game:

*Use the above search words for your initial searches in the databases.

*You will learn, through search results, scholarly discussions on your potential topic; imagine yourself listening in on the dinner party conversations among scholars in your field.

*A search simply by names of people or titles focuses on an essential element in a topic, while opens to all possible perspectives and approaches towards a subject. From the breadth of such search results, you have the flexibility in pursuing any narrower focus that interests you.

**The dinner party image is from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) at USF. ( http://etc.usf.edu/clipart.)