1. What is one process of inquiry you’ve pursued entirely for pleasure? 4 sentences.
A process of inquiry I have pursued for pleasure entirely is cleaning. I feel uneasy when my room is a mess or if my floor needs to be vacuumed/mopped. I find cleaning therapeutic and like being organized. However, sometimes it can be hard to balance staying clean with school, work, and assignments.
2. Between their examples of subway delays and the closing of retail stores, Graves, Corcoran, and Belmihoub write, “The goal of research in the humanities in many ways is to make the everyday strange” (149). What are three experiences, questions, or moments from your everyday life that have stuck with you lately: things you’re curious, passionate, or upset about and which you could imagine researching? 6 sentences.
Three moments from my everyday life that stuck with me are my subway rides to work in the early mornings, the realization that time is going by really fast to the point I am always busy, and the little free time I get to myself. The early morning subway rides are always interesting as I witness everyone just as tired as I am and sleeping in intervals together hoping we don’t miss our stops. Recently, with school and work, it gets exhausting to balance everything like I used to. Therefore, whenever I get some free time, it is the best feeling in the world.
3. What is something about research—a practice or form of research, a distinction between categories—that you learned for the first time in Lunsford and Ruskiewicz, and why is it important or interesting? 6 sentences
Something about research that I have learned from Lunsford and Ruskiewicz is that we can do it for fun and pleasure as well. I am so used to doing research for school purposes that I forget there’s so much I am interested in that I can do research on and increase my knowledge on. Research does not have to be a sit-down boring routine where we write notes and analyze scientific data. It can be as simple as doing your own little experiments and learning about something you love. There are so many forms of research to explore. I did not realize how much research I do on several everyday inquiries until I looked at my google history, there are endless options.
Thanks for these responses, Tasnim! Those intimate moments with strangers– like on an early subway— sometimes make me feel like I’m in a film, or peering deep into someone’s inner life.