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ANTH-310 Doing Anthropological Fieldwork
Fall only
Overview of Course:
This course offers you an opportunity that few undergraduates undertake: The chance to design and conduct your own field-research project. It also gives students a chance to get involved in communities beyond Georgetown’s gates while developing research skills.
In order to acquire the skills necessary for participant observation, we will read about how cultural anthropologists select a research topic, choose a field site, design the study, pose theoretical questions, carry out the research, analyze ethnographic data, and then finally, write an ethnography.
As inspiration, and to help you get started on your own projects, we will read ethnographies in both rural and urban settings; a testimonial about political violence in El Salvador; an oral history of daily life under Jim Crow in the south of the U.S.; and theatre pieces written by performers who use interviews as the basis for their plays. Through these ethnographies and other assignments, we will explore some of the most challenging and contentious debates within anthropology. How valid is the anthropological project today? How “mutual” is the project? Can anyone really “speak” for anyone else? Can anthropologists go too far -- for example by shooting up drugs or participating in the sex trade -- as they try to grasp, as Malinowski described it “the native’s point of view?” How does being an “insider” or an “outsider” shape one’s research? Where/what constitutes the field? Can it be where one lives? Can it be research with a political or social service organization in which the researcher is an activist? Does “collaborating” with informants help to bridge any power differentials? What kind of ethical responsibilities do researchers have to the communities they research? How have communities responded to what anthropologists have written about them? How do non-anthropologists (playwrights, performers, radio journalists, and photographers) use “field research” and interviews? How do these different mediums – ethnographies, testimonials, oral histories, plays, radio journalism, and photography – communicate peoples’ stories?
* An ethnography is a systematic description of a culture based on firsthand observation (often called participant observation).
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: ANTH-001
Course syllabi
The following syllabi may help you learn more about this course (login required):
Fall '09:
Brennan, Denise
(file download)
Fall '09:
Brennan, Denise
(file download)
Additional syllabi may be available in prior academic years.
Sections:
ANTH-310-01 Doing Anthropological Fieldwork
Fall only
Overview of Course:
This course offers you an opportunity that few undergraduates undertake: The chance to design and conduct your own field-research project. It also gives students a chance to get involved in communities beyond Georgetown’s gates while developing research skills.
In order to acquire the skills necessary for participant observation, we will read about how cultural anthropologists select a research topic, choose a field site, design the study, pose theoretical questions, carry out the research, analyze ethnographic data, and then finally, write an ethnography.
As inspiration, and to help you get started on your own projects, we will read ethnographies in both rural and urban settings; a testimonial about political violence in El Salvador; an oral history of daily life under Jim Crow in the south of the U.S.; and theatre pieces written by performers who use interviews as the basis for their plays. Through these ethnographies and other assignments, we will explore some of the most challenging and contentious debates within anthropology. How valid is the anthropological project today? How “mutual” is the project? Can anyone really “speak” for anyone else? Can anthropologists go too far -- for example by shooting up drugs or participating in the sex trade -- as they try to grasp, as Malinowski described it “the native’s point of view?” How does being an “insider” or an “outsider” shape one’s research? Where/what constitutes the field? Can it be where one lives? Can it be research with a political or social service organization in which the researcher is an activist? Does “collaborating” with informants help to bridge any power differentials? What kind of ethical responsibilities do researchers have to the communities they research? How have communities responded to what anthropologists have written about them? How do non-anthropologists (playwrights, performers, radio journalists, and photographers) use “field research” and interviews? How do these different mediums – ethnographies, testimonials, oral histories, plays, radio journalism, and photography – communicate peoples’ stories?
* An ethnography is a systematic description of a culture based on firsthand observation (often called participant observation).
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: ANTH-001
ANTH-310-02 Doing Anthropological Fieldwork
In this course we will not only read anthropology, but also do anthropology. Students will learn about field research design and methodology, as well as conduct their own semester-long field-research projects. In order to acquire the skills necessary for participant observation, we will learn how cultural anthropologists select a research topic, survey a field site, design the study, pose theoretical questions, carry out the research, keep field notes, analyze ethnographic data, and then finally, write an ethnography. We will also read examples of ethnography and other forms of anthropological writing such as testimonials and life histories.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Any Anthropology Course
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Other academic years
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