A Look Back On My Research Project...

I was about to write, like many of my colleagues, that my research project did not change much over the semester… wow! How can memory forget so much!? The right thing to say would be that my project has not changed that much in the past few weeks. I remember toying with my different research ideas in the first part of my semester (and I probably confused some of you with my blog posts that seemed to talk about a new project every week!), but since I’ve made the decision to research Geneviève Thiroux d’Arconville’s manuscripts held at the University of Ottawa Archives, I feel like this has been THE research project all along. Probably because I have been working on the research project a lot in the past few weeks. But then again, thinking about it, my research project did change, or should I say became much more narrowed. When I actually decided on this project, I was very excited and I think the excitement made me want to look in many different directions. I have written grant proposals in the past, but I do not think there I have ever written one that is so detailed and specific. Looking back on the course, I think it was an incredible exercise of thinking, re-thinking, writing and re-writing a thorough research project. I came to this course thinking “oh not, not another research methods course!” and I was pleasantly surprised to see (1) that there was much more I could learn and (2) that the readings, the lectures and the comments on the first version of my research project enabled me to come up with (what I think!) is a much stronger research project than I started with. I also think that hearing about all my colleagues’ projects through the blog posts made me take a different look at my own project and certainly helped making it stronger. I should also say that I was amazed at the variety, and mostly the quality of my fellow bloggers’ research projects. This has really pushed me to try and come up with the best research project possible.

It is not in my plans to pursue this research project in a near future (although, we never know!), but I am still happy I got to spend a couple of weeks thinking about it and building it. If any of you is ever in Ottawa and want to look at Geneviève Thiroux d’Arconville’s manuscripts, please visit the University of Ottawa’s Archives and Special Collections. The manuscripts will tell you about life as a (woman) scientist and writer in the 18^th century France, but also about art, war, education, politics, laziness, vanity, melancholy, music, dance, fear, seduction, liberty and avarice. Yes, about all of this, and much more, I promise.

P.S. If you are interested in her work but have no plans to go to Ottawa, there is also Wikipedia... but then, the picture that is on the page is not even of her, but of her sister...