Your journal is a special object for this course. While I’m referring to it as “an” object, it’s really going to consist of a number of different things, all of which will be ways that you record, reflect upon, and analyze your experiences with “the field.” It will be your practice of ethnography.
Journal assignments are always due on a Thursday and consist of two parts, a “Journal” and a “Reflection” part. They should be in total about 2-3 pages in length.
You may find it helpful to keep fieldnotes. These might be a small booklet where you can write down your observations. This will be what you’ll carry with you wherever you’re doing your work. Notes here are written on the spot, contain diagrams and drawings; you might have one of your interlocutors write something down for you, draw a map, etc. These are your rough notes, and they aren’t meant to be pretty. You will not be required to turn these in, so feel free to use whatever format works for you – I will not be checking this.
Your Journal is what emerges out of these notes, presumably in a computer file. Each week, I’m going to ask you to write about your observations and your notes. These will be on a variety of topics at first, the listed Assignments, but towards the end of the course they will be a part of your individual project. What you turn in that week might not be everything that you’ve done. It might, too, be something that you collected a week before (e.g. if you cannot visit your fieldsite one week).
For submission, aim to describe a particular moment, scene, event, place, or person in a way that conveys something to the reader. Your actual journal may be longer, so only pick those parts that you think I should see.
Your Reflections are your thoughts as you re-read what you have written in your journal. What assumptions, what ideas, what thoughts went into the crafting of that journal? How did the ethnographic encounter change between the event and your writing it down in your fieldnotes? How did it change from the fieldnotes to the journal? What might the readings that we’ve done in recent weeks have to say about your work? These should engage with at least one of the readings for the week.
That means that each week, you will submit about 2 pages (about 500-1000 words or so, Journal + Reflections). Try to have your reflection engage with the reading. If you simply cannot make the journal and the readings meet up conceptually, write a short reaction to a particular point from the reading.
Finally, your Field Journal might include other objects: flyers, magazines, websites, pictures, objects, etc. Or, alternately, it might not. These are optional.
There will be a proposal for the final project as an assignment different from journals.
SECTION I: DEFINING ETHNOGRAPHY
Week 1: What is participant observation? What is ethnography?
Jan 24th
Introductory lecture
Assignment (Due Tuesday, Jan 31st):
Journal Exercise 1
A key part of ethnography is participant observation. But what is observation? As we see, participate in, and experience an event, location, or group, we make choices, conscious or not. What do we observe? What do we write down? How?
In this exercise, get into groups of three. Go together to a particular place nearby and observe for an hour. “Observe” here means what you want it to mean (we’ll discuss and refine in more detail later). Write down what you think might be important about the place and what’s going on there. Take notes in what will be your first entry of the “Fieldnotes” section of your journal. Do not share your notes with your fellow students yet. Do exchange email addresses.
Then, for this week’s assignment, write up these notes to tell a 1-page story about the place that you chose. Send this to your teaching assistant or me, cc-ing your fellow group members, by Sunday morning.
Wednesday, read your fellow group members’ emails and consider the differences between what they wrote and what you wrote. Are there differences? Why? Are they significant? Write another email to me and to your group in which you analyze these differences, due Monday morning.
If we’re going to be very strict about deadlines, let’s say “by morning” means “before sunrise.” Pretend that your thoughts are vampires and have to get to the safety of my inbox before they burst into flames.
Week 2: Where and what is “fieldwork?”
Tuesday, Jan 31st
Assignments:
First journal entry due (Activity from Jan 24th writeup)
Start thinking about the second journal entry.
Readings:
– Dewalt, Kathleen M. and Billie R. Dewalt with Coral B. Wayland. (1998). in H. Russel Bernard, ed., Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Lanham: AltaMira Press, pp. 259-300.
Thursday, Feb 2nd
Readings
– Malinowski, Bronislaw. (1922) “Subject, Method and Scope” in Argonauts of the Western Pacific, pp. 1-26.
– Geertz, Clifford. (1972). “Thick Description” in The Interpretation of Cultures.
Week 4: The interview
Tuesday, Feb 7
Assignments:
Journal Entry #2
For this class, you will need to identify a fieldsite. This could be a physical location around campus or off, but it could just as easily be a group of people or an activity. You don’t have to have your “final” fieldsite chosen yet, but y
ou should have some ideas.
In this journal entry, I want you to observe for a set period of time (e.g. 30 minutes), and then participate as well. What this means will differ based upon the site that you choose, for instance:
- Imagine that you’ve chosen to look at the workers at the stall across the road from the entrance gate. While you can’t participate without actually getting a job there, you could talk to the owner, asking her how long she’s worked there, why she chose to work there, what exactly she does.
- Now imagine that you’ve chosen the reading room at the library. This is actually a very difficult place to work, as at first glance there doesn’t seem to be much going on. Sit and read there a little bit and pay attention to the space as you do: how does the light and space change how you read? Talk to someone about the space.
You can think of better examples than these. If you are in a student organization, this would be a fine place to do participant observation. As always, the further you get out of your comfort zone, the better.
As you do this exercise, you will naturally feel uncomfortable and will want to, for lack of a better word, lurk. Resist this. Simply tell who you’re speaking with that you’re doing an assignment for class and that you’re interested in what they’re doing – people like to talk about themselves.
Thursday, Feb 9
Interviews
In-class activity: For this activity, we will divide into two groups, one group of interviewees and another of interviewers. Each interviewer will have a particular topic (e.g. “conduct a genealogy of the interviewee”), but each interviewee will have a “hidden agenda” (e.g. “you are not allowed to name deceased relatives by name, to ask about this means that the asker has wicked intentions”). It is the interviewer’s task to discover not necessarily the information he or she is tasked to discover, but to find out the hidden agenda. After the exercise, ask yourself how you knew what this agenda was, what indexical (etc.) cues did you get?
Readings
Briggs, Charles. 1986. Learning How to Ask. Chapters 1-3 (pp. 1-60)
SECTION II: METHODS AND ETHICS
Week 3: Codes of ethics
Tuesday, Feb 14
Assignments:
Journal entry #3
Practice conducting an interview, bearing in mind Briggs’s cautions. You may interview anyone you like. Report an interesting part of your findings in your journal submission for the week, and in your reflection, ask yourself questions like: what did my interview not capture? What were some difficulties in interviewing? How can this be improved?
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Readings:
- American Anthropological Association Code of Ethics: http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethics.htm and click on the “AAA Code of Ethics” link.
- Lederman, Rena (2009) “Comparing Ethics Codes and Conventions.” Anthropology News 51
- Lederman, Rena (2007) “Educate your IRB.” Anthropology News 48: 33‐34.
Thursday, Feb 16
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Assignments:
Journal Entry #4
Take a short online course in research ethics (link to be provided).
Use the experience as a basis for Journal writing. Notice for whom the training course is designed. Think about which aspects may or may not be useful for fieldworkers and why, bearing in mind the distinction between ethical compliance and ethical competence (see Lederman 2007 above).
Week 5: The Conversation
Tuesday, Feb 21
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Readings
Douglas, Mary, ed. (1973) Rules and Meanings, “Tacit conventions” pp. 15‐25
Agar, Michael. 1996. The Professional Stranger. Chapter 5.
Thursday, Feb 23
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Assignments:
Journal entry #5
For this entry, you will record about 10 minutes of actual conversation. The idea here is to capture a sample of conversation that you can study, to better understand the differences between “interviews” and “how people talk with each other in real life”. (Some of you may choose to work in “teams” for this one.) Your conversational group may feel a bit awkward at first, but will loosen up after a few minutes. The situation can be one in which: people are working on something together or solving a problem (cooking or assembling or fixing something? Working on an assignment? Trying to find something?); someone is ‘telling a story’ about something or catching the others up on something that s/he experienced or heard about—in a class, at home, on TV, at a party—about which the others don’t already know; etc.
Even if the conversation goes on for hours, you only need to record about 10 minutes. Then, listen to your recording once or twice and select and transcribe a brief segment (about 60 seconds will be plenty) that interests you. Bear in mind that, for this exercise, you aren’t focusing on conversational content because our concern is with form: you are exploring the question “what sort of social activity is conversation?” It’s useful to break the question down in terms of structure and function. Thus—how is your conversational selection “structured” (socially, temporally, etc.): what are its parts or dimensions? How do they fit together? How did the segment fit within the larger conversation? What made your conversation “work” (and how do you know)?—or—how and why did it not work?
This will be the basis of both your Journal and Reflections assignment for the week (the two can be a bit blurred for this assignment).
Week 6: Field Notes
MIDTERM
Tuesday, Feb 28
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Discussion of projects.
Thursday, Mar 2
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Discussion of projects
SPRING BREAK
Assignments:
MIDTERM (Journal entry #6)
DUE MARCH 15 – NO EXTENSIONS
By now, you should have been thinking about your final project topic and fieldsite. You should have a decent idea of what methods (observation, participant observation, interviews) you might use and what kinds of data you might collect with these.
Write a proposal of no more than 1,250 words (~5 pages) in which you introduce your fieldsite and the methods that you will use. Please incorporate insights from at least two of the readings.
Include the following categories (you are welcome to organize however you see fit, although I will be looking for these):
- Introduction of field site.
- Summary of the goals of the project (what you intend to discover)
- Evaluation of the methods used (probably the main part of the paper and where -you will most likely have your citations)
- Brief statement of the significance of the project (why should someone from outside be interested in your work)
Week 7: Refining methods
Tuesday, Mar 14
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Who is an insider? Who is an outsider?
Narayan, Kirin. 1993 How “Native” is the Native Anthropologist? American Anthropologist 95: 19-34.
Weston, Kath. “The Virtual Anthropologist,” Anthropological Locations pp 163-184
Obbo, Christine. “Adventures with Fieldnotes” In Roger Sanjek, ed., Fiednotes: The Makings of Anthropology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press:
Thursday, Mar 16
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
In-Class Activity
For each Thursday from here on, we will have a discussion in class on issues that arise from your fieldwork. Please be prepared to discuss your work at least once (no need to sign up).
Journal entry #7
Now you should begin your fieldwork for your ‘mini-ethnography.’ During the break, or in the days around the break, begin talking with people, hanging out, or otherwise spending time in and with your field site.
From here on out, your journal entries, while still consisting of a journal (1-2 pgs) and a reflections (1 pg) section, will come from this work, and not be directed by a specific prompt.
Tuesday, Mar 21
NO CLASS
SECTION III: COMPLICATING ETHNOGRAPHY
Week 8: Decolonizing ethnography
Thursday, Mar 23
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Readings
Simpson, Audra. 2007. “On Ethnographic Refusal”
M. Wax (1972) “Tenting with Malinowski.” Am Sociological Rev 37(1): 1‐13.
Hage, Ghassan. ‘Anthropology is a white colonialist projectʼ canʼt be the end of the conversation’ in Media Diversified. https://mediadiversified.org/2017/09/04/anthropology-is-a-white-colonialist-project-cant-be-the-end-of-the-conversation/
Week 9: Complicating the field
Tuesday, Mar 28th
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Readings
Appadurai, Arjun. 1997 “Discussion: Fieldwork in the Era of Globalization,” Anthropology and Humanism, 22:1.
J. Passaro (1997) “You Can’t Take the Subway to the Field!” In A. Gupta and J. Ferguson, eds. Anthropological Locations, pp. 146‐162
Clifford, James. “Spatial Practices: Fieldwork, Travel and the Disciplining of Anthropology,” pp. 185-222.
Assignments: Journal entry #9
Thursday, Mar 30
Abu-Lughod. 1991. “Writing Against Culture” in Richard Fox, ed. Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the present. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.
Behar, Ruth. “The Vulnerable Observer” in The Vulnerable Observer
SECTION IV: WRITING
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Week 11: (Non?)Fiction
Tuesday, April 4
Workshop
Assignments: Journal entry #10
Thursday, April 6
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM
Fassin, Didier. 2014. “True life, real lives: revisiting the boundaries between ethnography and fiction” in American Ethnologist, 41:1, 40-55.
Clifford, James. (1986). “Introduction: Partial Truths” in James Clifford and George Marcus, eds., Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography.
Week 12: Writing
Tuesday, April 11
FROM HERE, WE RETURN TO IN-PERSON
Workshop
Assignments: Journal entry #11
Thursday, April 13
Readings
Geertz (1972) “Deep play: notes on the Balinese cockfight”
Week 13: Finishing Touches
Tuesday, April 18
Assignments: Journal entry #12
Thursday, April 20
Readings
Crapanzano. “Hermes’ Dilemma”
Hoon Song. “Seeing Oneself Seeing Oneself”
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