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SOC 410, Dr. Weise
Intellectual Biography Assignment &
Revised Sociologist List
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*What is an intellectual
biography and how should I think about writing
one? •
Intellectual biographies offer insights into 1)
the person’s life; 2) the intellectual and
creative work of the person; 3) the relationship
between life and work; and 4) the significance
of the life and work historically. Ask yourself
the following questions: Why am I interested in
this subject? Why does this subject matter?
• Identify the larger context
that makes your subject and her work meaningful,
whatever it is. Was she a pioneer in a
particular field? Was she part of an
intellectual school or cultural movement? Was
her work important because it represents
something bigger, because it was utterly unique,
because she made a contribution at a crucial
moment in time, or for some other reason?
• In addition to profiling
your subject, placing her in context, and
assessing her intellectual legacy, your reader
also wants to know what your specific questions
and conclusions about the subject are. In this
sense, an intellectual biography is just like
any other historical essay or exercise in
critical analysis. You should formulate an
argument and present evidence to support it
[per Dr. Weise's approval]. |
Where to find biographical information
Academic Library
Using the Pearsall Library Online
Catalog:
- Search the online catalog for
Biography books in the collection. Lots of these will be
located in the Reference Collection. Example: do a
search for American National Biography.
Who is Marcus Garvey? If I'm doing
an intellectual biography on Marcus Garvey, I could look him
up in the American National Biography and I'd find an
article about him.
Other uses of the online catalog:
- Search Pearsall Library's collection
to find books that your researcher wrote. Search using
your researcher's name for an Author Search.
- Search Pearsall Library's collection
to find books written by someone else about your
researcher
- Use an online catalog that searches
the world's libraries -
WorldCat! (sometimes, it is warranted to use
Pearsall Library's
Interlibrary Loan service in concert with WorldCat)
Using Pearsall Library's Article
Research Databases
- Do an Author search to find articles
written by your researcher. Example: Garvey, Marcus
- Search for articles written by other
people about your researcher. Do they cite works
from your researcher's past? Do they agree or disagree
with your researcher's work? When finding articles about
your researcher, search their name as a phrase by
enclosing their name in quotation marks. Example:
"Marcus Garvey"
World Wide Web
Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Wikipedia, Dogpile,
etc...you know the drill. Lots of information is out there,
but it's up to you to find and use only the highest-quality
information that you can find. Here's a list that should
help you to evaluate what you find on the WWW.
Citing Sources
- Use the library catalog to find the ASA style guide.
Other Tools:
Sometimes a subject guide is the best
place to start. Pearsall Library provides subject guides
across the disciplines -
Biography Subject Guide
*I found info about Intellectual
Biographies on a webpage for a History 460 course at
Oregon State University:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~eherman/teaching/460/S04%20Intellectual%20Biography%20Guidelines.htm |
