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GQS 360: Genealogies and Theories

BEAM Framework

BEAM is an acronym intended to help students think about the various ways we might use sources when writing a researched argument. Joseph Bizup, an English professor at Boston University, outlined the framework in a 2008 article. The idea has since been refined and adapted by many others.

Beam Framework - Examples

Kind of Source Explanation Example: Should we consider Nicki Minaj’s music feminist?
B - Background Sources
  • Present shared information and established facts
  • Provide context or background
  • Intended to be informative
  • Information is uncontested
  • Encyclopedia articles on feminism (broadly), Black feminism (more narrow), hip-hop, etc.
  • News articles related to Nicki Minaj’s popularity
  • Blog posts and articles related to broader happenings in hip-hop
  • [Note: If you are analyzing bias or controversy in these sources, they become “exhibit” sources rather than “background”]
E - Exhibit Sources
  • Documents, data, visual images, videos, newspaper articles, blog posts, music videos, lyrics, or other artifacts/objects that you analyze, interpret, or explicate
  • Sources on which you have exercised your own critical thinking to make an argument
  • “Anaconda” music video (costumes, sets, props, etc.)
  • Lyrics to various Nicki Minaj songs
  • Ayers, Mike. 2014. “Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ Video Breaks Vevo Single Day Record.” Wall Street Journal Blog: Speakeasy, August 22. Link
A - Argument Sources
  • The conversation of critical views and relevant scholarship that you are joining
  • Affirm, refute, critique, refine, extend
  • Collins, Patricia Hill. 2004. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. New York: Routledge
  • Collins, Patricia Hill. 2006. “New Commodities, New Consumers: Selling Blackness in a Global Marketplace.” Ethnicities 6 (3): 297–317.
  • Durham, Aisha. 2010. “Hip Hop Feminist Media Studies.” International Journal of Africana Studies 16 (1): 117–40.
M / T - Method / Theory Sources
  • References to the theoretical or methodological lens being used
  • These authors have usually not addressed your specific research question
  • hooks, bell. 1992. Black Looks: Race and Representation. New York: South End Press.
  • Stoeffel, Kat. 2015. “bell hooks Was ‘Bored’ by Anaconda.” The Cut, October 9. Link