JT: I’ve been really interested in questions around methodology, which aren’t always emphasized in humanities-based fields like cinema and media studies (CMS). Partly, this interest was pedagogical, because of our program’s core PhD class, “Theory and Method,” and thinking about the grad curriculum in general as well. If theory, or maybe “epistemology,” is a way of thinking, method is a way of doing—a set of processes and protocols. Of course, the two are inextricable. But in CMS as a field we’ve tended to emphasize the theory part, with methodology being less foregrounded.

My current research project raised a lot of questions for me about what feminist research methods could look like. Partly this was because of how collaboration threads through the project. We’re discussing film organizations that involve various kinds of collectivity, and then it’s also a coauthored book that grew out of a collaborative research network. I wanted to be reflexive about the kinds of knowledges this kind of transnational, transcultural collaboration could and could not produce, and to think about how we could take seriously ideas around epistemological humility, feminist accountability, and situated knowledges, and recognize people’s right to opacity. At their core, these questions intersect with discussions around feminist, decolonial approaches to research, and I thought it could be great for grad students to have a space to think about their own research projects through these and other prisms that question the foundations of how we do the work of research.

In addition, the idea of methods as “doing” also raises provocative questions about research forms—how can we produce research in formats that reflect the concepts they convey? In some ways, an interdisciplinary grad student conference is a little lower stakes, maybe, than the primary conference in your field. So it could be a good space to experiment with new forms and reflect on research processes.

And of course, the pandemic has reshaped ways of working in academia, as it has in many fields. Given rising authoritarianism globally, the pandemic’s unevenly distributed effects, and mass uprisings for racial justice, it seems like an apt moment to reflect on the possibilities this transitional time could offer. What might “transforming research” from feminist, decolonial perspectives mean in these contexts? How can we strive to make these transformations actually meaningful and not just appeals to buzzwords? Graduate students are key for thinking through these questions.

JT: Since questions around space and place have threaded through my research, I’ve been wanting to explore the possibilities of VR/XR as a research platform lately, so that’s a possibility. If I think about ideas very far afield from my own experience as a researcher, I’m also intrigued by histories of the shared meal as a kind of artistic medium, and I wonder if there could be interesting possibilities around that as a research or conferencing practice that emphasizes radical hospitality… Not sure what that would look like to be honest, but that’s part of the appeal!

If you had endless time and resources to do an alternative version of your dissertation, or a supplement to it, what would you explore?

ZL: I have been thinking about the role of sources and observations, and ways of forming connections and generating knowledge in relation to my informal practices of digital collecting, drafting, and crafting as research methods. Inspired by practices of remixing, collaging, and vidding, I am experimenting with mood boards, visual/video essays, playlists, and scrapbooks as methods of processing and thinking along primary and secondary materials. Relatedly, I’m also intrigued by social media platforms as tools for accessible short-form knowledge dissemination. As my dissertation is on how influencer media mobilize labor and infrastructure across cultural production, digital infrastructure, and commodity network, it will be interesting to think through how social media platforms can be leveraged to facilitate more inter- and intra-sectoral dialogues.