Earlier this week, I co-presented a workshop on “critical citation practice”. Delivered for our postgraduate researchers, the workshop provided a space to critically reflect on who we read, who we cite and how we search. This is the first time my team has delivered something like this, and we hope to deliver many more in the future.
The idea for the session eminated from discussion with colleagues at Goldsmiths who very kindly took time to talk to us about the session and gave us some useful starting points in terms of how we can start to explore the principles of critical citation. As it was our first attempt at such a workshop, we acknowledge that it is imperfect and we are keen to explore how we can improve it so that it better reflects considerations around critical citation.
The session itself contained a number of elements, and we tried to encourage audience participation wherever possible. After establishing the learning outcomes, we talked about why we reference sources (aside from issues around plagiarism) and then set out to offer our definition of critical citation practice (“The process of critically reflecting and analysing who you read and cite”), making referece to Sara Ahmed’s citation policy in Living a Feminist Life.
One of the key questions I was keen to address early on in the session was a common response I have heard when people reflect on their processes… “but I just want to use the best resource”. This for me has always raised questions. What do they actually mean by that? Inspired by a seminar I attended on my undergrad lit degree (many years ago now!) where we spent a full hour discussing the word “nice” and what it means, we put forward the question: “what does best resource mean?”. As one would expect, there were a range of different answers, which to me highlighted the nebulous nature of that term, and how it is fairly meaningless as a response to the proposition that one should critically reflect on who you cite.
We then moved on to talk about search more generally, but also specifically focused on Safiya Umoja Noble’s critique of search engines in Algorithms of Oppression. We then highlighted Prof. Marcia Wilson’s chapter in Inside the Ivory Tower (pgs 108–123), specifically quoting how as a student she “felt deprived of learning about any topics that were not White and male” due to the narrow range of literature on curriculums.
We then touched on how search results are ordered…many people are unaware of what relevance ranking means and how this is reflected in what is surfaced when a search is conducted. We then asked attendees to reflect on who is on their reading lists. Are a broad range of voices included? Or is it a narrow curriculum, with a narrow range of perspectives?
We then talked about developing a critical citation practice of one’s own, particularly developing a written document to use as a guide or a prompt when conducting research. It’s important to note, that at no point did we tell students they had to do this, or that they had to incorporate specific voices into their work, or that they had to avoid citing certain figures in their field. The purpose was to encourage critical reflection and empower people to consider their research and explore mechanisms they can use to ensure important voices aren’t excluded, to encourage critical thinking when conducting their literature searches and to reflect on what does it mean to say “x is the best resource” in this area.
We finished by pointing to a range of resources that might be useful in engaging in this process (reproduced at the end). As I acknowledged earlier, this is a first step into teaching in this area, and there is much for us to reflect on in terms of how we deliver this in future. However, the feedback we have received so far has been positive, and it has encouraged us to do more and continue to provide a space for these kinds of discussions. We plan to run this workshop again in 2024 and will continue to reflect and develop our processes in this area. And of course, we welcome any comments or feedback that can help us develop this further.
Acknowledgements
In the spirit of acknowledging the work of those that have influenced this work, I’d like to acknowledge colleagues at Goldsmiths for their guidance and inspiration, Professor Marcia Wilson for all her work and particularly for the time she gave in conversation with me, and Dr Deanne Bell, Dr Stephanie Davis and Dr Rachel Liebert for their time and for educating me over the years.
References
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a feminist life. Duke University Press.
Noble S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression : how search engines reinforce racism. New York University Press.
Wilson, M. (2017) ‘The search for that elusive sense of belonging, respect and visibility in academia’, in Gabriel, D. and Tate, S.A. (eds.) Inside the ivory tower: narratives of women of colour surviving and thriving in British academia. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham, pp.108–123.
Resources
African Journals Online — ajol.info
Conducting research through an anti-racism lens — https://libguides.umn.edu/c.php?g=1096139
CRT Collective — https://crtcollective.org/
Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) — https://www.doaj.org/about/
Asian Online Journals — www.ajouronline.com
Black Women Radicals Database — www.blackwomenradicals.com
CiteHer Bibliography — blackcomputeher.org/citeher-bibliography
Global Social Theory — https://globalsocialtheory.org/category/concepts
