On January 19, 2018, I met with Professor Fields to discuss my course of action for this semester. I spoke with her about my confusion with my Literature Review, and she helped me understand that not only do I have to sort my sources but show what I’m sorting and connect it to my research. Like Dr. Shinko, she encouraged me to narrow my discourse focus potentially to leaders of countries or political parties. I explained the idea of using Claudia Aradau’s piece on trafficked women for my framework, for it’s possible that Aradau’s discourse could apply to the context I am analyzing. We decided that while Arardau’s work will be a central part of my Literature Review, it will be important for me to define different categories of discourse.

Because the draft introduction is due this Friday, I shared my concern of not having a narrow enough topic to write an introduction. Professor Fields and I discussed how due dates are linear and tend to fit positivist research, for interpretivism requires discovery which may not occur until later. Therefore, my introduction will focus on what I anticipate to discover in my discourse analysis and puzzles that give me insight. My hope is to use discourse to show the disparities of burden-sharing and explain the tangible difference in burden-sharing among European countries, so my next step is to continue immersing myself in the discourse available.