JSTOR Projects

Six faculty projects were funded during the spring 2000 semester. Brief descriptions of the projects follow.

Dr. Ashish Chandra (Pharmacy) integrated JSTOR into his Research in Pharmacy Administration course by requiring students to use the JSTOR database for their library research papers. Dr. Chandra helped students access and search the database, and prepare written and oral summaries of articles from the database.
Dr. Chris Campbell (Communications) used the JSTOR database for a research paper on media coverage of crime. The paper was an examination of interdisciplinary cultural studies theory and scholarship as it pertains to crime and the "narrative" of crime coverage. A preliminary search of the JSTOR database revealed over 200 papers related to the research project in such diverse disciplines as African American Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Economics, Literary Theory, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. This research also had relevance to his Media Criticism and Writing for Radio and Television courses.
Dr. V. J. DuRapau (Mathematics) integrated the JSTOR database into the department's Senior Colloquium courses. Student use of JSTOR provided them with additional sources of information for research, and opportunities to critically evaluate electronic sources of information and develop their skills in reviewing mathematics and statistics literature.
Dr. Sheri Hoem (English) integrated the database into her Literary Criticism and Theory course. The journal articles available from JSTOR provided students with exemplary models of criticism in practice, and offered students a chance to determine which theoretical assumptions and methods learned from the course were exhibited in the published criticisms. Dr. Hoem used a computer laboratory to teach the students how to access and search the JSTOR database. Students were required to write a term paper using, among other resources, JSTOR articles.
Dr. Cirecie Olatunji (Education) used the JSTOR database in her Practicum in Counselor Education graduate course. The project goals were to provide an opportunity for students to expand their computer competencies by using the JSTOR electronic database and to offer students an easier means for accessing counseling journals. Students in the course completed two papers based on journal articles in the JSTOR database. This project also met a technology competency guideline of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.
Dr. Pamela Waldron-Moore (Political Science) used the database in her Research Methods and Quantitative Analysis courses. The project, centered on student research papers, gave students practice in one of the most important aspects of research analysis-the art of reviewing literature in order to develop general explanations for observed behavior. Secondarily, the project was intended to help students identify relationships among concepts and research findings.