I was a bit hesitant and worried about the library workshop because I always find it difficult to find what I am looking for. Its easy to come to a dead end when looking through the databases because its difficult to find the right words to put in the search engine. However, this workshop turned out to be very successful! I found a couple of great articles that I skimmed through and seemed to have some great info. Nancy was a great help! Below are the list the titles of sources I found. I hope they prove to be helpful for you guys as well! Feel free to use them. The links won’t work but you can look them up with the titles. (let me know if you want to check one out but have trouble getting to it.
“The Stigma of Mental Illness” ed. Karen Bellenir
“Understanding Mental Illness Stigmas and Depression Triggers”
“Representations of Health Embodiment and Experience Graphic Memoir” ed. Courtney Donovan (great article if you are using Marbles as a primary source)
Crossing Over: Writing the Autistic Memoir (you would have to request the book chapter because Queens doesn’t have it, but only two chapters seemed to be relevant. There seemed to be some general information about autism in literature, so you might want to take a look if you’re speaking about autism)
I will keep editing this post to add on new sources I find so keep your eye out for anything that seems useful!
Brandely, I also found the library workshop to be very helpful and us being English majors we will always have to find sources. It is great that professor Tougaw and Professor Nancy was there to guide and help us. It is definitely not easy looking for articles on the Queens College database because there are so many to look at. I really like how Professor Nancy narrow things down by showing us which database would be helpful for our final project. Thank you for the suggestion of the sources. it’s very kind of you. Since my main focus is Autism in Literature I will look at Crossing Over: Writing the Autistic Memoir.
Woo stigma! (Note: “Woo” for finding articles discussing stigma, not woo for stigma itself.) After quick hop over to your blog, I see that your research project has evolved into looking at “stigmas of mental illness,” and that you are considering “Marbles” and/or “The Reason I Jump.” I guess some questions to consider are: How do either text combat stigmas (or maybe they’re not combating them)? How might the genre of memoir work toward creating “understanding” for mental disorders? Or maybe there are making stereotypes of certain neurodivergence? And does popularity of a text help to create/proliferate stereotypes (because you mentioned the film “Rain Man” in your previous blog proposal)? These aren’t necessarily good questions (and they’re not exactly focused), but I think they might fall somewhere into the ballpark of ideas you are considering.
Micahel,
Thanks for your suggestions! Those questions really do help guide me in to some sort of direction because right now I feel like I am going around in circles! I am always open to suggestions and appreciate that you took the time out!
Thanks again!
Unfortunately, I was not able to the attend the library workshop but it seems that it was a huge help for you! I have attended Dr. F’s presentations for other classes, and know that she really is a big help in terms of how to narrow down searches and perform them efficiently. I also find your particular research topic to be very interesting, so keep up the updates and I’ll keep checking back!
I always find library sessions helpful, even as a seasoned English major. I always learn something new and beneficial. Although it was helpful, I always have trouble finding sources when I’m not at home. Or in a comfortable space. A place were I can lay down, or think for an extended period of time. So I usually find the best sources while I’m at home. Nonetheless, the library session was great. I’m going to look into your first source about the stigma of mental illness. Thanks!