Research on the Greek system
 

Hello everyone !

My name is Clara, I live in France. For my Master degree, I will write a memo on fraternities and sororities in the American colleges. I have a series of questions that I want to ask to people who actually are in a fraternity. It would be really nice if you help me !! If you are interested, please send me an email and I will send you the questions. The answers will be anonymous and I won't tell the name of your fraternity in my memo.

Thank you very much ! :)

Perhaps it's lost in translation, but what is a "Memo" in relation to a Master's degree in France? And why would you be writing about something that you like would never be able to witness in person?

Has this been ran by your Internal Review Board for interviewing human subjects? What will the research be used for? Will individuals get to see/correct their comments before you complete the work?

What does the Informed Consent consist of?

I'm actually wondering how this will be graded - one can't expect professors in France to have any sort of knowledge base (beyond movies) about the Fraternity and Sorority system in North America. Plus, the likelihood that those professors would be graduates of an American college and members of a Greek Letter Organization is very slim.

My only guess is that the OP wants to avoid any "this is bullshit" type of questions on her thesis defense (or equivalent).

OP - what's your major or concentration for your Master's?

Maybe a memo is not the right word, I'm sorry for that. I have to do some research work about the subject I want actually and then Ihave to write a one hundread pages paper.. I am studying English language, literature and civilizations. I chose this subject, as an American civilization subject, because it interests me. As you said, it doesn't exist in France. I could travel to the US to interview members of fraternities or sororities but I don't have the money for that, that is why I chose to do it on the Internet.
I will not be graded on the questions I will not be graded on the question I will ask you, it is my own initiative to have the point of view of people who actually are in a fraternity or sorority. I am reading books and articles in order to have the other point of view. I cannot already tell if I will use what you will say but it could be helpful.
Even if my teachers have a restricted knowledge about fraternities ans sororities (which is true), I will be graded on my research work, what I wrote and how I present it the day of the exam.

I hope I am clear enough...

This would generally be called a "Thesis" here. However interviewing subjects for a thesis is supposed to require an informed consent process and an internal review process to protect the rights of your participants. An informed consent is necessary to inform your participants of how their contributions will be used and their rights to refuse to continue at any time.

At least it is here.

If you're interviewing people on your own initiative, run it by your professors first.

How will you prove that those people answering you questions are actually Greek and not fakes/trained monkeys/people who live in a closet with too much time on their hands, and therefore, valid research subjects?

Therefore, your masters thesis is a combination of surveys and literature reviews, correct?

That makes sense except you say you will not be "graded" (is your masters thesis graded in that sense?) on the questions. However, your advisor/committee should work on interview questions and survey design with you (if you have not already taken a course in survey design). Someone has to review the questions for your survey and these questions are a key component of your masters thesis.

My response is also based on the fact that I don't advocate students using message boards unless the advisors approve their use (unfortunately, that sometimes happens).

American fraternities and sororities is certainly a challenging subject in the sense that not only are you not a part of it or could never be a part of it, there's a huge part of it that is closed off to public information, and many of the things you will find are part of the superficial aspects of greek life, not the meat and potatoes, if you will.

I will talk about the informed consent process with my advisor. And I will send emails directly to people I find on the official fraternities or sororities website, so that I'm sure they are not trained monkeys.

Thanks anyway

I think I have a new signature.

Lol

If you find the subject interesting, continue with your preliminary research by all means. But do know that at the core of Greek life is ritual, and that is something you will not be able to collect much information on. I would suggest that you start looking at fraternities with "open ritual" which means that their ceremonies and ritual are open to any member of the public. I would also suggest contacting college NPC or IFC groups via email or phone and asking that they send a message to all members. This way you might be able to get first hand information from active members.

laughed wicked loud at work. THANKS.

I will do that, thank you !