Statement of Professional Goals

Early Spring, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

I have been thinking more than writing these last months, observing more than commenting, recording more than sharing. This will end like winter, another cycle completed, different than the last but always familiar. This is not unlike my updated dissertation structure that focuses on reoccurring patterns of human development and experience rather than chronological order. I present at three conferences in the next several weeks. The first is the Historic Preservation Association Conference in Portales, where I will present a cultural history on the Healing Waters Trail as a case study in preservation and sustainability. It will also be a little something something to add to the website for the Trail as it becomes a better known amenity. My second conference presentation is titled “Place Ethnography: Notes from the Field.” My third conference paper will be the foundation of my first chapter using the revised structure, which I covered in my last post, about place and diaspora. I will introduce the groups of people I will write about. All three will be presented here in part first. My most recent writing was a “Statement of Professional Goals as They Relate to the Advancement of the Humanities and Social Sciences,” for a fellowship application. While my chances are slim and the competition fierce, it was a chance to articulate what I want to be when I grow up. I talk a lot about my dissertation committee. I keep excellent company. It is still a draft, but I will make it a public statement for good measure and luck. 

Statement of Professional Goals as They Relate to the Advancement of the Humanities and Social Sciences by Tita Berger

My professional goal is to craft historical, analytical and interpretive place narratives. I want to contribute to local place making activities as an educator, community scholar and activist. These goals relate to the advancement of the humanities and social sciences primarily as these activities serve to articulate how human culture shapes places, how we study these contributions and how we advance scholarship and participation through these practices. These goals are being realized in my dissertation field work and writing. The potential to advance the study of the humanities and social sciences is tremendous in the field of place studies primarily because of its breadth. Place research encompasses a wide variety of humanities and social science fields, drawing from history, art, cultural studies, literary studies, geography, anthropology, philosophy, architecture, sociology, and others, and employing theories and methods that range from photography and ethnography to critical cartography, material analysis and phenomenology. How places are made, how they grow and decline, how they are defined, celebrated, understood, represented, contested, manipulated and claimed, narrated and marketed, the mutual constitution of people and places in identity and attachment, and the role of historical revitalization, environment and social sustainability are all central questions that I seek to explore and articulate professionally as a scholar and place historian. 

My professional goals and the advancement of intellectual inquiry and exchange that I seek to engage have been profoundly shaped by my dissertation committee. I will recount their contributions to the advancement of the humanities and social sciences to illustrate how they have shaped my professional and intellectual goals. Renowned photographer Miguel Gandert’s work documenting the social rituals, people, and landscapes of the region is unparalleled. The starkly beautiful depictions of people in place defy the destructive idealization that often imbues visual depiction of the region and its people. These powerful storied landscapes narrate the historical survival and constantly evolving expressions tradition, landscape and memory and culture. Architectural historian and scholar Chris Wilson’s writings found much of my work in cultural landscape studies and historic preservation. My professional goals encompass the typological and analytical analysis that is central to survey work as well as preservation. Recently I was hired as a consultant to write text for interpretive panels for the historic downtown segment of the Truth or Consequences Healing Waters Trail, a recently opened trail that traverses the town and loops down to the river. It was a delightful experience and unexpected professional honor, albeit much harder than I could have imaged to pen a cogent paragraph-length narrative for eight panels. My work in the Historic Preservation and Regionalism certificate program, headed by Wilson in the School of Architecture, played a large role in getting this work. Michael Trujillo’s dissertation and recently published text draws from anthropological ethnographic field-work in northern New Mexico. His sustained critique is a sharp departure from the romantic ethnographic depiction of people and places that have come to define the region. The practices of people, place, and cultural contests that mark modern places are complex, imbued with trauma, dislocation, violence and heartache as well as perseverance, joy, fortitude and celebration. My own ethnographic field-work, modeled after Dr. Trujillo’s research, has forced me to confront issues of sustained sexual violence, poverty and methamphetamine use, which exist simultaneously with burgeoning art and farmers markets, sustainability projects and revitalization efforts. The historical recovery of the work of writers, scholars, activists and others whose contributions to the advancements of the humanities and social sciences have been obscured and elided is a critical to the continued advancement of the humanities and social sciences. This has been a focus of my dissertation chair, Gabriel Meléndez. His research and writing on the intellectual production of Spanish language newspaper and literary writers at the turn of the 19th century challenge and invigorate current understandings of history, politics and identity. The deeply respectful scholarship that expands the cannons of intellectual work and forges the connections between the academy and larger community is shared by these scholars. The humanities and social sciences advance not just in scholarship, but in these obligations, collaborations and commitments. 

My current ethnographic field work in Truth or Consequences will continue through August of this year. My inclinations to exuberance and sociability have translated into great success in the field, measured by the numbers of interviews completed as well as the densely-packed field books that I have amassed from weekly observations in the town since August 2012.  I have maintained a public research blog on my ethnographic work has been viewed over 1000 times. From this body of research I will craft a dissertation that makes these connections, advances study of the humanities and social sciences, marks their relevance in our daily lives and furthers my professional goals as an educator, scholar and activist.  

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Here is the final copy of my fellowship letter. 4.9.13 The first one should have read "Welcome to my Dissertation Committee."

Statement of Professional Goals as They Relate to the Advancement of the Humanities and Social Sciences 

Remember: If the Creator put it there, it is in the right place. 

Minquass Proverb

We come and go, but the land is always here. 

And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it—for a little while. 

Willa Cather, O Pioneers!

My professional goals are to craft historical, analytical and interpretive place narratives and to contribute to local place making as a community scholar, educator, and activist. These goals have been profoundly shaped by my dissertation field work these past nine months, as well as the scholarship and mentorship of my dissertation committee. I believe socially sustainable places create the spaces where the advancement of the humanities and social sciences flourish. Universities are such places, and scholarship advances because of the work of scholars in these places, as well as the work of countless others to ensure that professor and students have the support, facilities and amenities they need to do this intellectual labor. In other places the connections between the advancement of scholarship and research to what communities hold valuable is not so readily self-evident. Place making activities serve to articulate how human culture shapes places, how we study these contributions and how we advance scholarship and participation through these practices. Beyond this however, place making activities serve to illustrate the connections between the advancement of scholarship and the contributions of research to our own lives, histories, families, livelihoods, health and well-being. 

The potential to advance the study of the humanities and social sciences is tremendous in the field of place studies primarily because of this juxtaposition between its breadth and grounding. Place research encompasses a wide variety of humanities and social science fields, drawing from history, art, cultural studies, literary studies, geography, anthropology, philosophy, architecture, sociology and others, and employing theories and methods that extend from photography and ethnography to critical cartography, material analysis and phenomenology. Place studies, while ranging from sprawling philosophical treaties to the confined analysis of fleeting poetic encounters, are grounded in particular experiences of place. Clifford Geertz writes  in his afterword to Senses of Place (1996), edited by Keith Basso and Stephen Feld, and published by the Santa Fe based School of American Research Press, that “it is still the case that no one lives in the world in general” (262). “Everybody,” he continues, “even the exiled, the drifting, the diasporic, or the perpetually moving, lives in some confined and limited stretch of it—‘the world around here.’” Place definitions are many, but for the purposes of my work place constitute connections to identifiable landscapes real or imagined. Long relegated to the backdrop of history, places are emerging as central to how we understand the process and power of culture. How places are made, grow and decline, how they are defined, celebrated, understood, represented, contested, manipulated, claimed, narrated and marketed, the mutual constitution of people and places in identity and attachment, the role of historical revitalization and issues of environmental, economic, political as well as social sustainability are all central to my professional work and scholarship.
  
My current ethnographic field work in Truth or Consequences will continue through this August. My social science background provides me with a solid foundation in statistical quantitative data analysis, powerful tools to uncover and explore patterns and relationships in places, especially given the centrality of data-driven political and economic concerns. My training in qualitative methods, including archival work, historical analysis and ethnographic methods has been honed in the past year. Submitting an ethnographic field work Institutional Review Board application was daunting, but the process forced me to articulate and defend my theories and methods in a manner much different than I had previously encountered. I have had great success in the field so far, measured by over 50 recorded interviews, densely-packed field books, video, photography and other field-based material I have amassed from weekly observations in the town. I have maintained a public research blog on my ethnographic work. Viewed over 1500 times, this public writing exercise has been an anxiety-producing, humbling and exhilarating experience as I seek to describe my methods, theories and observations in-progress. After my year of research, I have a year to finish my dissertation writing. The success of my professional work will be measured by my ability to make relevant connections between advancement of the humanities and social sciences, and their importance in our everyday lives and places.