Your second assessment is a statement of your subject position as a scholar. As

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Your second assessment is a statement of your subject position as a scholar. As noted in this blog from the University of Pennsylvania, interrogating your positionality as it relates to your research is essential to ensuring the validity of your research stance. No one is without bias, so our beliefs, background, identity, heritage, social circle, etc., all potentially shape the way we see the world. Being clear about how your positionality shapes your research will, we hope, be a helpful exercise.
Think of this as an exercise in making yourself your object of study. Think of yourself as a scholar working on a particular topic (you must name and briefly describe this topic in your statement). The goal is for you to consider the effect that your life experience and worldview has on your research. You need not reveal anything personal, if you do not wish to; in which case, construct a “scholar of religion” and discuss her subject position and its impact on her work. You may wish to include the results of the implicit bias test you took for tutorial as part of your discussion.
We recognize that most of you are not planning on pursuing the study of religion, so we invite you to either write about yourself as if you were a scholar of religion OR focus on your positionality in your chosen field of study. If you are creating a scholar (rather than using your own experience), we ask to you clearly indicate this AND that your scholar be engaged in the study of religion.
Our assessment of this paper will focus on your ability to draw connections between your positionally and your research. Our interest in not in the identities you describe, but in what you see as their influence on your work as a scholar. Be sure, therefore, to make clear these connections.
A 750-word (word limit strictly enforced) statement about your positionality and its impact on your research. Your statement may be broken into three sections that correspond roughly to a) a descriiption of your self-understanding as a scholar, b) descriiption of your research area and/or a specific research project you are engaged in, and c) analysis of how section a) affects section b), with discussion of the limitation and benefits your subject position offers you as a scholar.

Writing Strategies: What’s Your Positionality?

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