IRB Application: Draft 2

Application for the Use of Human Subjects

Part A  Application Information (Only typed applications will be reviewed; submit 2, unstapled copies to ORCA in A-285 ASB)

1.  Title of the Study: A Collection of Stories and Memoirs from the People of Dharamsala, India      
2.  Principal Investigator: Rachel Rueckert    3.  Contact Person:
(if different from PI):      
Title: Undergraduate Student    Dept: English    Title:    Dept:      
Address (+ ZIP): 489 Sandy Oaks Drive
Sandy, Utah, 84070    Address (+ Zip):
      
Phone:801-916-5211    Email: racheladventure@gmail.com    Phone:    Email:      
4.  Co-Investigator(s): Gideon Burton, English Professor
(Name & Affiliation)      
5.  Research Originated By:   (Check One)            ~ Faculty               X~Student               ~ Staff      
6.  Research Purpose(Check All that Apply):        ~ Grant          ~ Dissertation        ~ Thesis               
~ ORCA Scholarship       ~ Honors Thesis    ~  Course Project: Which Course?
      
7.  Correspondence Request:         ~ Mail            X~ Call for Pick-Up             

Part B  Research Study Synopsis

1.  Brief Study Description (Include Purpose of the Research):
  Stories are an essential part of the human experience, both wonderful and terrifying in their possibilities.  In order to understand this universal narrative, I want to write a creative project that encompasses two things.  First, I want to record stories from the population that makes up the unique city of Dharamsala, India, and second, I want to gain a better understanding of the nature of stories.  In order to put these narratives into perspective, I will also be constructing a personal narrative that highlights some of the limitations of my own subjective experience abroad to better understand the nature of stories.        
2.  Study Length

Mini Project

Ashley, the coordinator of field studies, has encouraged the field facilitators to create a mini project to get practice and skills about the things we will need when we are in our own fields.  I like this idea, since role playing in the classroom can only take us so far.  Here is my idea.

I want to figure out what the level of awareness is of undergraduate students about the different international opportunities available to them, as well as what factors encourage or discourage them from applying.  I figure I will gather some informal interviews, and maybe do some participant observation (though I am not quite sure how that will work), but it is something I actually really am interested in.  Stay tuned for more information!

March 3, 2011: Time Log

50 min- attending the facilitator class on February 23rd

50 min- attending my first field facilitator training on February 25th

120 min- gathering and reading through weekly sources (The Art of Happiness and Selections of Tales)

45 min- writing up weekly journal and this time log

60 min- figuring out travel plans

Total:  325 min

March 2, 2011: Learning Journal 7

To kick things off, I think that the most interesting thing I have learned about this week is reciprocity.  My good friend Maggie wrote a great blogspot about it that pretty much summarizes all of the things I felt when I went to Ghana, Africa last summer.  I highly encourage anyone to read it.

Reciprocity was also something we had the opportunity of discussing in the prep class on Monday.  Dave Shuller, the previous field studies coordinator, came in and gave us a brief lesson on it.  Reciprocity is really just a fancy way of saying the give and take in society, but it is something we as Americans are not so good with.  He says that the word itself needs to be fancy because then we will think about it more.  Some powerful rhetoric that we use over and over loses meaning, but he argued that this particular word is unique so that it will keep us thinking about this subject.

Dave said that the reason why Americans are not really great with reciprocity is because we operate on a contract system.  I've talked about this in my Peoples of India class too.  We seem to all act as contracting, independent individuals.  We see time as money, and money as the exchange for pretty much everything.  However, other cultures are much more interested in kinship.  Time is an investment, and being a part of a family is necessary.  Merely paying off our host family and getting them a nice present is not going to cut it.  That is not reciprocity.  That is the exchange of goods, what we are used to.

I wish that I could have learned more from Dave, and maybe I will get a chance to talk to him about it again, but a good recommendation he had was to bring a photograph.  As many issues as I sometimes have about the ethics of photography, it really is a great thing in a number of ways.  For one, I think it is a great ice breaker when it comes to getting into the community, and for reciprocity it is also priceless.  It is something that means just a little bit more than the average gift, and I think it can be appreciated for the most part across the board.

Still, this is such a sticky subject I do not know what to do about it this time around.  Do you have any ideas about proper reciprocity?  It would be nice to find something specific to Tibetans as well...

Speaking of community access, another important thing we discussed in class was the National Geographic photographer,  Stephanie Sinclair, who looked at the FLDS population.  She has some great insights in this interview about gaining access to the community.  As a photographer, this really speaks to me.  I never felt like I was able to really be okay taking pictures when I was in Ghana, and to hear how many months it took for her to get to that point helped me remember my limitations.  She also worked through a few gatekeepers, or people she had to get permissions from (such as the prophet, etc), and it was only then that she was able to do her work.  She had to go through this process through every different community she went to, but in the end she got some amazing footage that no one else has ever captured before.  In class we also talked about how humor was something that can help in getting access to a community.  For her, it was pretending to fall off a ladder in order to get some great smiles for that awesome first picture.

As far as other updates, I have completed my first IRB draft and am glad to report that I have not forgotten everything that I learned last year during the process.  I think this will be a much cleaner project, so maybe I will not have to go full board this time around.  I have gathered some pretty sweet sources for the week, including an official citation to why stories are important to this particular community.  Finally found it!  I am still looking for more support for that argument though.  Doing this makes me stop and look at my own paradigm and figure out what stories mean to our culture, and what they mean to me personally.  I am so excited to start this project!

And the best part?  It is really happening.  I bought my plane ticket and everything.  I am going a week earlier than my group to set up housing, and my friend Hailey (doing a field study in Deli) is coming with me!  After the program I am doing about 5 days of travel in North India, then I am doing four days in France and 4 days in Rome!  I am one lucky, happy girl.

Tales of a Dalai Lama and Tales of Uncle Tompa

I found a few different sources I want to look more into that are off the beaten trail.  Still looking for more evidence that the Dalai Lama encourages incoming refugees to tell their stories to the world, I came across two interesting books.  Tales of a Dalai Lama and Tales of Uncle Tompa.  Both are fictional, but could give me some great insights about the use of story in a Tibetan setting.

The first, Tales of a Dalai Lama is pretty didactic and is packed with cautionary tales.  It is supposed to be more religious and philosophical in nature, and in the beginning the author admits to not knowing much about Tibetan Buddhism.  This book also references some other religious texts like it to look into, like Mulla Nasrudin, the jataka tales, rabbinical midrashim etc.  Until now I did not even know that these existed.  This could make for some great reading before and during my field experience.  I am sure there is a lot to learn.

The Tales of Uncle Tompa, however, are supposed to be really funny.  It is less focused on the spiritual and more on a unique Tibetan humor.  All things regarding my project put aside, I think that humor is one of the hardest things to grasp when doing cross cultural interaction.  Reading this book could really get me a head start on that.

Apparently Uncle Tompa is a humorous collection of folktales about a rogue who is somehow spiritual despite being a little rough.  It is supposed to capitulate the everyday lives of Tibetans, which intrigues me more than many of the other sources I have come across.  Plus, it has pictures!  Can you really beat that?

Again, some more sources I want to look more into not just for their value in a literature review, but just for entertainment sake and better understanding the population I will be living with in just two short months time!

Delattre, Pierre.  Tales of a Dalai Lama:  Standpoint:  Lost Horse Press, 1999.  Print.

Dorje, Rinjing.  Tales of Uncle Tompa:  New York:  Barrytown Limited, 1997.  Print.

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for living by the Dalai Lama

I landed on another great source!  I finally found a book that I can cite that talks about the Dalai Lama encouraging people to tell stories.  In fact, he is the one who wrote it!

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living is by the 14th Dalai Lama.  It is made for all audiences, no matter where they are at in their personal journey.  He says that "Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, the very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our life is towards happiness." 

As a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, His Holiness uses this book to talk about the things that bring inner peace and the keys to building a happy life.  This book is interesting though because it combines Buddhist philosophy with a Western psychiatrist (Cutler).  


One of the most important things I can gather from this book is that through meditations, stories, and the meeting of Buddhism and psychology, we can learn to defeat day-to-day depression, anxiety, anger, jealousy, or just an ordinary bad mood. In this book we have discussion on relationships, health, family, work, etc to show us how to get over the mundane and make life meaningful. 

Not only is this going to be a good source as far as finding the answer to the great question of where encouragement for telling stories is quoted, but I also think it is straight up interesting.  I am really fascinated with depression, and I think a Buddhist take on it will be an interesting read.  It is definitely going on my "to read" shelf on goodreads.com.  Hopefully I can add it to one of my course contracts and read it in the field as well.

Lama, Dalai.  The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living:  New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.  Print.

IRB Application: Draft 1

It is hard to believe that the IRB application is already here! The IRB is a review board on campus that ensures that all human subjects research is ethical. I have a lot of work to do. I know that somewhere on this thing I am supposed to write my methods and literature review, but I am not quite sure where? Anyone have any ideas? It is easier to fill out this time though, so that is really nice.

Application for the Use of Human Subjects
Part A  Application Information (Only typed applications will be reviewed; submit 2, unstapled copies to ORCA in A-285 ASB) Fill in every item For help completing this application, click here

1.  Title of the Study: A Portrait of Dharamsala:  A Collection of Short Stories      
2.  Principal Investigator: Rachel Rueckert    3.  Contact Person:
(if different from PI):      
Title: Student    Dept: English    Title:    Dept:      
Address (+ ZIP): 489 Sandy Oaks Drive
Sandy, Utah, 84070    Address (+ Zip):
      
Phone:801-916-5211    Email: racheladventure@gmail.com    Phone:    Email:      
4.  Co-Investigator(s): Gideon Burton, English Professor
(Name & Affiliation)      
5.  Research Originated By:   (Check One)            ~ Faculty               X~Student               ~ Staff      
6.  Research Purpose(Check All that Apply):        ~ Grant          ~ Dissertation        ~ Thesis               
~ ORCA Scholarship       ~ Honors Thesis    ~  Course Project: Which Course?
      
7.  Correspondence Request:         ~ Mail            X~ Call for Pick-Up             

Part B  Research Study Synopsis

1.  Brief Study Description (Include Purpose of the Research):
  Because stories are such an important part of the human experience, I am going to gather stories about the population that makes up Dharamsala, India.  As part of that, I also want to better understand the nature of storytelling and the authenticity of our experiences abroad.
      
2.  Study Length
     What is the duration of the study? (mm/yr to mm/yr format)01/2011-04/2011 for prep class, 05/2011-09/2011 for work in the field, and 09-12/2011 for post field write ups.      
3.  Location of Research
   a.  Where will the research take place? Dharamsala, India
   b.  Will the PI be conducting and/or supervising research activity off-campus?                       
      X~ Yes           ~ No         If Yes, please list sites:      
4.  Subject Information:
   a.  Number of Subjects:   5-20        b.  Gender of Subjects: Male and Female
   c.  Ages of  Subjects:  18 and older                       
5.  Potentially Vulnerable Populations:   (Check All that Apply)         
   ~ Children        ~ Pregnant Women        ~ Cognitively Impaired       ~ Prisoners        ~ Institutionalized    
   ~  Faculty’s Own Students       ~ Other.  Please describe: