Coming up with research topics

I’ve started a new page on the blog called ‘Questions‘ — just look to the tab next to ‘About’. I’ll start using that page to list interesting research questions I’ve dreamed up on my own or in response to someone else. The questions will ideally range from the quirky and fun to the highly academic. The list is intended as a fount of inspiration for me whenever I get bored, come across new sources, or need a blog post topic. It is also intended as a repository of potential topics for someone else’s thesis, term paper, dissertation, blog post, or hobby project. I’ve added in a couple of questions I’d thought of randomly in the last few days. I’ll keep adding to the list over time, and whenever I find something new about one of the questions I’ll update the entry and put up a post here on the main page.

Finally, if anyone else has some questions they’d like to put on the page, please feel free to post a comment on the Questions page and I’ll add any question that strikes my fancy to the list.

Bob McDonnell and Regent University: judging a politician’s biography

Election Day insight #1: The election of Bob McDonnell in Virginia goes to show that in order to understand how a politician would govern, journalists need to focus on biography at least as much as on current issues.