Semester:
Offered:
Prof. Julia Fierman
T 12:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Tozzer 203
Taught as part seminar and part practicum, this course introduces undergraduate students to the craft of ethnographic research. Through weekly readings and semester-long practice projects, students critically examine and put to practice key elements of qualitative research methods used by anthropologists. Varied ethnographic assignments allow students to practice skills central to field work: participant observation, taking and organizing field notes, conducting formal and informal interviews, carrying out archival work and artifact analysis, and using audiovisual tools.
While recognizing the longstanding centrality of ethnographic methods to anthropological scholarship, the course examines critical perspectives that challenge and call for reimagining the discipline’s methodological repertoire – including decolonial, collaborative, community-based, and multimodal approaches. The ethics and politics of ethnographic fieldwork figure prominently in class discussions throughout the semester.
Course readings include a selection of ethnographic monographs and articles alongside practical guides. The close reading of ethnographic texts during the semester orients students toward detailed examination of each author’s methodological choices and invites consideration of the relationship between ethnographic data and theoretical analysis. In addition to assigned readings, all students are expected to read and comment on portions of each other’s works-in-progress.
Open to undergraduates only.