MCSN 2019 assignments

From Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology
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short link: http://bit.ly/mcsn19a

The assignment schedule itself will be developed as the course progresses, in consultation with students and according to student feedback. Please check back often. New assignments will be posted the previous week. The following abbreviations are used to indicate readings in the table below. All readings are online; most are available on Rutherford Reserve and several are also at the SUB bookstore. (For additional sources see http://bit.ly/mcsn19)

Remember that all assignments are to be submitted via eClass (http://bit.ly/mcsn19e) - not by email or hardcopy. (On eClass you'll find a single submission link for each day.) They are due before class on the day assigned (e.g. by 11 am). Late assignments will be downgraded. Please see syllabus on http://bit.ly/mcsn19 for the details.

Tuesday Thursday
Week Date Topic Date Topic
1 03-Sep Introductions and SN exercise. Intro to MCSN as Ethnomusicology. Social structure, social networks, SNA. Examples in music culture. Course mechanics: 3 streams (SNA, readings, project). Tools: course wiki, eClass, Pajek, readings, reading reviews, quizzes, assignments. 05-Sep Read: Crossley ch. 1; skim Barabasi ch. 1. Submit: Barabasi ch. 1 homework, but applied to MUSIC networks. Submit: About Me. (all submissions on eClass: http://bit.ly/mcsn19e)
2 10-Sep Read ESNAP prefaces & ch. 1, completing all the exercises as you go (don't worry if you don't understand something; we'll discuss). Also read Crossley ch. 2 12-Sep Quiz #1: SNA basics. Read: Crossley, ch. 3, and submit review.
3 17-Sep 19-Sep Discussion: your project ideas.
4 24-Sep 26-Sep
5 01-Oct 03-Oct Submit: project proposal draft.
6 08-Oct 10-Oct Quiz #2.
7 15-Oct Submit: project proposal rewrite. 17-Oct
8 22-Oct Submit: annotated project bibliography. 24-Oct
9 29-Oct 31-Oct Submit: project paper outline.
10 05-Nov 07-Nov Quiz #3.
11 12-Nov No class (Reading Week) 14-Nov No class (Reading Week)
12 19-Nov 21-Nov
13 26-Nov Student presentations 28-Nov Student presentations
14 03-Dec Student presentations 05-Dec Student presentations. Last day of class.
15 10-Dec 12-Dec
16 17-Dec Final paper due 19-Dec


Note: in the following schedule, all reading assignments refer to Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (ESNAP) unless otherwise stated. Most of these readings are specified using the book's section numbers rather than page numbers. Click on dates for the day's outline (these are fluid, especially beforehand). Principal topics are in boldface. Be sure to try out all the applications using Pajek on your own computer! This is very important for your fluency with both theory and software.

Some optional readings are indicated in this table by reference to ESNAP chapters they complement. Wasserman and Faust contains more rigorous explanations of all the topics in ESNAP; I haven't marked these as optional readings, but feel free to refer to their Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications as needed. Likewise, browse Hanneman and Riddle's Introduction to social network methods, which covers largely the same material as ESNAP but permuted (and using software that runs only on Windows machines).

ESNAP questions are generally due on Thursdays, along with a Web example illustrating chapter content - prepare this example as a Pajek network that you can share with the class. ESNAP assignments are generally due on Tuesdays. There are also a number of self-guided in-class group projects, requiring a write up and submission by the following class period. Submit all assignments via eClass.

Some homework answers consist of prose, while others require network diagrams. You can prepare diagrams in your word processor (for instance, see MS Word's "Drawing" toolbar), but far better to prepare them as Pajek ".net" files.

Note that your work is always due by 11 am on the due date - i.e. you must submit your work before class! Without an approved excuse (doctor's note or evidence of family emergency), late work will decremented 3 percentage points per day or fraction thereof, and make-up quizzes will not be given without such excuse.

Stream 1 - SNA topics:

  • social structure
  • attributes and relations
  • cohesive subgroups
  • sentiments and friendship
  • affiliations and 2 mode networks
  • prestige

Stream 2 - Music/culture topics: (books: culture and SN, music and SNA; various articles)

  • culture
  • society

Stream 3 - projects

  • project ideas - brainstorming: SN in life, or online
  • SN as context vs SN as music
  • developing and sharing your ideas
  • proposals and research
  • reading reviews
  • finding references and tracing the bib network


Thursday, 08-Sep-11 Course introduction and overview. Bring your laptops and we'll install Pajek.
Tuesday, 13-Sep-11 Social structure. Read Preface, p. 1, and sections 1.1 to 1.3.2. Graph theory exercise due (distributed by email) - submit answers via the Moodle (see above for instructions regarding network diagrams).
Brainstorm some MCSN examples with research questions.
Thursday, 15-Sep-11 Read sections 1.3.3 to 1.5; submit 1.6; come to class prepared with a Pajek example drawn from the Web, and illustrating chapter content. This will be a regular Thursday assignment. This week, the ESNAP readings focussed on a directed graph, so any directed graph from the web is fine. For instance, you could extract a portion of Twitter.com "following" relations, or look at musician relations (influences, influenced by) on allmusic.com. The point is to create a directed graph in Pajek.
Tuesday, 20-Sep-11 Attributes and Relations. Read 2.1-2.4; submit 1.7.
Thursday, 22-Sep-11 MCSN Quiz #1. Read 2.5-2.7; submit 2.8; come to class prepared with a Pajek example drawn from the Web, and illustrating chapter content.
Tuesday, 27-Sep-11 Review week.Review SNA theory, ESNAP readings, and Pajek techniques to this point. Develop applications of ESNAP chapters 1 and 2 by analyzing websites for social network data relevant to music studies. See SNA analysis of MCSN on the www.
Thursday, 29-Sep-11 Review week continues. Prepare for coming musical composition week.
Tuesday, 04-Oct-11 Self-guided in-class project day: musical compositions. Everyone will develop a musical composition based in network theory. Use the class periods to brainstorm, design, and perform your musical networks.
Thursday, 06-Oct-11 Self-guided in-class project day: musical compositions.
Tuesday, 11-Oct-11 Cohesive Subgroups. Read p. 59 and 3.1-3.4.
Thursday, 13-Oct-11 Read 3.5-3.7; submit 3.8; come to class prepared with a Pajek example drawn from the Web, and illustrating chapter content.
Tuesday, 18-Oct-11 Sentiments and Friendship. Read 4.1-4.4; submit self-guided project writeup (composition) and 3.9.
Thursday, 20-Oct-11 Quiz (covering through chapter 3). Read 4.5-4.6; submit 4.7; bring Web example.
Tuesday, 25-Oct-11 Review chapters 3 and 4; submit 4.8. We will carefully review the quiz in class, and continue our discussion of chapter 4.
Thursday, 27-Oct-11 Repeat quiz from 11-11:30 am (exactly the same format as last week's quiz, with slightly different networks). Read 5.1-5.3 (we'll cover it more fully next week, but you may need affiliation network concepts for the project proposal). Submit initial project proposal (5 paragraphs & bib). We will discuss projects, and also wind up discussion of sentiments and friendship.
Tuesday, 1-Nov-11 Affiliations and 2-mode nets. Read 5.1-5.4; we'll review 4.8 also.
Thursday, 3-Nov-11 Read 5.5-5.6; submit 5.7; bring Web example. Discuss projects in class (please prepare to present yours in 2-3 minutes for feedback).
Tuesday, 8-Nov-11 Continue discussions of projects (prepare to present yours if you haven't already) and affiliation networks, m-slices. Also submit 5.8. No new reading in ESNAP, but use the time to work on your projects.
Thursday, 10-Nov-11 Centrality. Read p. 121, and Chapter 6.1-6.5. Note: NO CLASS - Remembrance Day holiday
Tuesday, 15-Nov-11 Submit 6.6, and second draft of your project proposals (rewrite in light of my comments on your first draft, and research you've been doing. Expand bibliography if possible.). Note: short class today ends at noon.
Thursday, 17-Nov-11 Self-guided in-class project day: (a) map affiliation network for the class and analyze it; (b) play Network message passing game. Read p. 185, and 9.1-9.4; submit 6.7.
Tuesday, 22-Nov-11 Centrality, continued. Read 9.5-9.7; submit 9.8 & results from last Thursday's self-guided session. Note: today we'll begin with course evaluations from 11:00 - 11:20, then review 5.7 & 5.8 (many people had questions), and chapter 6. (Note also that I've reserved some office hour time for you tomorrow,
Thursday, 24-Nov-11 Prestige. I'll talk primarily about chapter 9 today. Submit 9.9; locate Web example illustrating chapter 9.
Tuesday, 29-Nov-11 Student presentations. (sign up here). Submit take-home quiz.
Thursday, 01-Dec-11 Self-guided in-class project day: compositions redux.
Tuesday, 06-Dec-11 Student presentations (sign up here) and performance. Submit 10.8.
Friday, 16-Dec-11 Submit final papers (via Moodle, and also hardcopy to 382 FAB)