MCSN 2019 assignments

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

Notes on the assignment schedule

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.

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). Without an approved excuse late work will decremented 3 percentage points per day or fraction thereof, and make-up quizzes will not be given without such excuse. Please see syllabus on http://bit.ly/mcsn19 for the details.

When reading ESNAP be sure to try out all the applications using Pajek on your own computer! These practical applications are very important both for understanding concepts, and fluency with the software. If you have problems, ask!

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).

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. Or hand-draw and submit images if appropriate.

Books and Software

The following abbreviations are used to indicate books for 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)

Schedule

(See book list above for direct links to online books)

Week Date Topics and Assignments Date Topics and Assignments
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. Survey. 05-Sep Read: Crossley ch. 1; skim Barabasi ch. 1. Install Pajek on your computer. (Let me know if you have trouble - I can help.]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 ("Looking for Social Structure"), completing all the exercises as you go, including applications via Pajek (don't worry if you don't understand something or can't quite finish; we'll discuss). Also read Crossley ch. 2, and watch the short video Connecting with Networks: Mathematics Illuminated. For fun: play around with the game Planaritify, available for iOS or Android 12-Sep Quiz #1: SNA basics, based on definitions. I will base questions directly on ESNAP 1.6. Also: read: Crossley, ch. 3, and submit review (2 parts: summary, and critique. 1-2 paragraphs max.).
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