Research During COVID-19 ~ Changing Plans

Hey! My name is Katherine Watson and I’m an English major in my last semester of my undergraduate degree here at THE Ohio State University. This summer, I’ve undertaken a research fellowship funded by the University Libraries. My focus is the enemies to lovers trope; a classic romance plot where the two romantic leads of a story get into a conflict or miscommunicate in some way, and have to work to come to an understanding to reach their romantic resolution, often changing one or both characters for the better. I’m sure you can think of a dozen instances in modern television, movies, and fiction where this happens. Anne with an E, Ten Things I Hate About You, The Proposal, and the smash hit young adult novel Of Red, White, and Royal Blue all come to mind. For me, the first characters that I think of are Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. With them as a starting point, I plan to go through nineteenth century popular literature and learn more about how writers used and developed this trope, making it into what it is today in 2020. 

 

Something that the coronavirus has made me realize about myself is that I’d been getting into the habit of being far too confident that the future will happen as I plan it. When I first designed this research project, my plans were pretty straightforward. My primary research resources were going to be Ohio State’s immense collection of penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and ladies’ magazines from the nineteenth century. I intended to spend my summer sitting in libraries across campus, getting to look at, hold, and do research with real literary artifacts. Then the pandemic hit. 

 

There were a few weeks where I was certain that this research fellowship wasn’t going to go through at all. As plans solidified and the dust settled from the enormous change that we’ve all found ourselves having to make, one thing was clear. The way I was going to be doing my research was going to have to adapt to the new normal. My incredible advisor, Jennifer Schnabel (hey Jen!), suggested I continue with my thesis as planned, with a few small changes. Obviously I’d have to work remotely, as quarantining and shelter in place orders went in effect across the United States. I would now be making use of the digitized resources that Ohio State and universities everywhere had to offer. 

 

So that’s what I’m doing! Tabs housing Project Gutenberg and JSTOR are now perpetually open on my computer. Google Scholar is my best friend at the moment. Even as much as I use the Internet, as I’ve utilized it for academic work in the past, I had no idea how much was really accessible with just an Internet connection and an Ohio State login. As amazing as it would have been to get to hold these books in my hands, I’m still having an incredible time doing research with the digital materials. I think that this digital component is adding a whole new level to my research- what really is possible when you don’t have immediate access to libraries? How accessible is information? Over the next ten weeks, I’ll be keeping you updated on just that.

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