{"id":1450,"date":"2016-05-12T11:06:35","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T15:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2016-05-12T11:55:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T15:55:06","slug":"in-the-libraries-research-relationships-interviews-dr-simone-alexander-may-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/2016\/05\/in-the-libraries-research-relationships-interviews-dr-simone-alexander-may-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Libraries: Research Relationships Interviews Dr. Simone Alexander – May 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In the Libraries: Research Relationships<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Seton Hall is home to world-class researchers whose work denotes a broad array of scholarship. In this space, we share their ideas on research and making the most of the academic experience.<\/p>\n

\"Simone<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Simone Alexander – May 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Dr. Simone Alexander<\/a> of Seton Hall\u2019s English department, researches primarily in the fields of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Postcolonial Literature, Migration and Diaspora Studies.<\/p>\n

For her most recent book African Diasporic Women\u2019s Narratives: Politics of Resistance, Survival and Citizenship<\/a><\/span> (University of Florida Press) Dr. Alexander won the College Language Association Creative Scholarship Award, in 2015. Offering an in-depth study of literature, analyzing selective texts by the migrant writers Audre Lorde, Edwidge Danticat, Maryse Conde, and Grace Nichols, the book has been reprinted and the paperback edition will be available May 3, 2016 (read an excerpt<\/a> here).<\/p>\n

Dr. Alexander took time out of her busy schedule to talk with us about her research.<\/p>\n

You research, publish and teach, and, you have received numerous awards and grants recognizing your work. How do you find time to balance all these activities? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t even know how! I go to bed even today at 2am, and I\u2019m back up at 6, 6:30am. I love doing this, I love doing research, and I love when I can connect my research in the classroom. I feel as though I get this special adrenaline.<\/p>\n

It has not been easy. I\u2019m raising kids\u2014my kids are older now, so it\u2019s a little easier\u2014but there are times when you have to give up certain things. You can\u2019t show up at some of your kids\u2019 events, you just have to say \u201cYou know what, I just can\u2019t do this today.\u201d So I have to find ways and means, it has not been easy.<\/p>\n

Trying to juggle being a mom, being a wife, it\u2019s a very difficult space to be in at times. I feel as though having a family, sometimes I\u2019m at a disadvantage and I have to do more just to keep up. Because when you are in the academic space, no one cares what happens behind your closed doors, you have to produce. And I\u2019m still kind of in that moment of \u201cpublish or perish\u201d.<\/p>\n

In what ways have Seton Hall University Libraries (books, databases, ebooks, ILL service, librarians) assisted your research process? <\/strong><\/p>\n

In my earlier years I physically went to the library to use books. I checked them out, but then I hung on to some of the books beyond their due date. I didn\u2019t like the fact that the library just gave it [the book] to you for two months! And I kept saying \u201cCan you extend this to the end of the semester?\u201d Quite often most of the books that I used I don\u2019t think anyone else was using them.<\/p>\n

Recently, I love the fact that you can get everything electronically. You can also do interlibrary loan through PALCI, I\u2019ve been using that a lot. When I\u2019m doing research, for example on Toni Morrison, I get every piece of work that\u2019s been done on her. I also love using ILLIAD. It\u2019s so effective, you can submit a request today and by the following morning you get all of your articles. It has been a tremendous help.<\/p>\n

In the past, we had an option if the library did not carry some of the books that we wanted, we could put orders in. I haven\u2019t done any recently, but I\u2019ve supplied different lists [of books] to order. When I first came to campus the library didn\u2019t have much on diaspora studies, transnationalism and migration, they were relatively new fields. So I helped bring in books to build the collection in these areas.<\/p>\n

Which library databases are your preferred starting places to begin when you are looking for current research articles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Always MLA Bibliography, it\u2019s my thing. It has such a volume of different things. Even in my classes I tell students \u201cGo to MLA, you can\u2019t fail.\u201d They give you everything, and then it directs you to JSTOR and everything else.<\/p>\n

Many of our students are undergraduates who are just beginning to develop their research and writing skills. Is there any advice research you offer your own students that we can share with them? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Normally I\u2019m considered (by students) to be very challenging\u2014which I keep saying to students it\u2019s not a bad thing, it\u2019s good! I do not allow certain things to slip, I\u2019m very particular when it comes to grammatical construction.<\/p>\n

I love the interaction in my classroom; I don\u2019t lecture to students, I want them to talk back to me. I also grade them based on their class participation. I want them to talk, it\u2019s part of their grade. Many of them are very good, they talk, they interact, but when it comes to their writing, it\u2019s different\u2014they don\u2019t engage the same way. This for me is so interesting, because when I grew up, you wrote the way you spoke. For the first few years here I couldn\u2019t figure out \u201cHow come you\u2019re speaking this way and then you\u2019re completely not translating what\u2019s here into your writing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, I would send students to MLA and I would walk them through and show them exactly how to find information\u2014if they\u2019re doing work on Nella Larsen for example. And back in the day visits from librarians were incorporated in the elementary English courses. On these designated \u201cresearch days\u201d librarians Tony Lee or Marta Deyrup was invited to show students how to use the library website for their research. Now I access the library website and show them everything, and I\u2019ve been encouraging them to use ILLIAD.<\/p>\n

Get your research going way in advance so you can sit and read everything. Quite often students feel as though research is just about reading the first page\u2014you have to read about 10 articles even though you may not use all of them. You have to have a very broad perspective of what it is you\u2019re going to write on.<\/p>\n

And quite often secondary sources can give you ideas. You may go into a project not knowing; you may say \u201chere\u2019s what I want to work on\u201d and once you\u2019ve read something different it completely will change you, it can bolster your argument much more.<\/p>\n

Listen to Dr. Alexander Talking About Her New Book “African Diasporic Women\u2019s Narratives: Politics of Resistance, Survival and Citizenship”<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Libraries: Research Relationships Seton Hall is home to world-class researchers whose work denotes a broad array of scholarship. In this space, we share their ideas on research and making the most of the academic experience. Dr. Simone Alexander – May 2016 Dr. Simone Alexander of Seton Hall\u2019s English department, researches primarily in the … Continue reading “In the Libraries: Research Relationships Interviews Dr. Simone Alexander – May 2016”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3083,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-library-news","category-research-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3083"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/libraries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}