The Research Intensive Community Model Within—and Without—Sociology

• In Event: 1111 - Teaching Sociology: New Directions

Abstract

The Research Intensive Community (RIC) model was developed at Texas A&M University in the Summer of 2003 as a response to outstanding needs by both graduate students, their faculty mentors, and undergraduate students to re-invigorate student research interests at research extensive universities. This paper outlines the Research Intensive Community model and its potential application to the field of Sociology, particularly to the ethnographic method. What follows is an introduction to the model and its programmatic successor at Texas A&M University, a description of the ethnographic project to which the model is applied, and two of the most prominent challenges to the team-based model in this context, with the first challenge responded to by best practices established over the course of one year of development

Author

• Andrew Craig McNeely, Texas A&M University