Every so often I demonstrate how a non-scholarly source can lead to scholarly ones: that’s why I write my summer reading posts.    Halloween inspired yet another example.

A blog post (Gibrich, 2015) described incorporating costume elements into a work wardrobe.  This piece sent me in two directions.

Since Gibrich (2015, Before You Begin section, para. 1) advised knowing your employer’s written and unwritten dress codes, I looked for scholarly articles on workplace dress codes.   One article (Saiki, 2013) looked at low-income job seekers and their perceptions of work attire.

Another obvious direction was the concept of costume play, or cosplay.  For a look at gender and cosplay I found a piece by Scott (2015).

These are but two examples, and neither one is developed enough for a full-scale project.  Still, they highlight the role of non-scholarly content in research.  Have a safe and happy Halloween!

 

References

Gibrich, C. (2015, September 7). Cosplay in the workplace [ Blog post]. Retrieved from http://ccgclibraries.com/cosplay-in-the-workplace/

Saiki, D. (2013). Identification of workplace dress by low-income job seekers. Journal Of Employment Counseling, 50(2), 50-58. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1920.2013.00024.x

Scott, S.(2015). Cosplay is serious business: Gendering material fan labor on Heroes of cosplay. Cinema Journal 54(3), 146-154. doi:10.1353/cj.2015.0029