Courses

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.

This course offers a hands-on introduction to key methods of ethnographic fieldwork while exploring both practical and critical questions raised by the production of ethnographic knowledge. Students will become familiar with the diverse techniques collected under the heading of ‘ethnographic research' and will put these into action through a series of mini-research assignments. These assignments-and the successes, failures, surprises, disappointments and dilemmas students encounter in carrying them out-also provide the raw material through which we consider the epistemological and ethical possibilities and limits of ethnographic knowledge. Thus we take up ethnographic fieldwork and writing as situated practices with powerful histories, rather than as neutral methodological tools. Readings include examples of various kinds of ethnographic text (including images) and critical reflections on ethnography itself. Mini research assignments comprise a scaled-down dry run of ethnography making, giving students practice at preparing research proposals, conducting field observation and interviews, and turning these into contextualized ethnographic texts.