"Helping, Fixing, Serving?" was a fantastic article, and not just from the perspective of field studies. I think it's incredibly important to approach field research from a service-oriented perspective, rather than from the perspective of wanting to help or fix a situation. Of course, for projects such as mine, the tendency towards helping and fixing is fairly unlikely, simply because short of engaging in open war with a nearly-hundred-year-old-article, the focus of literary research is more about finding and compiling information than finding and enacting solutions. However, I think that there's something to be said for applying the spirit of service to my project: service in terms of living with my host family, and service in approaching the perspectives of the long-deceased that I will be studying.
I think that a service-oriented perspective is important to research, even that which is primarily library-based, because I will be attempting to present the opinions of individuals who can no longer speak for themselves. As such, I have a responsibility to approach a study of their beliefs and opinions in a way that allows me to present them accurately, to serve their memories with as much gentleness and humility as I would serve a living person.
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