Ethnographic Research and Writing

Javanese shadow theatre, Bedouin love poems, and American street-corner societies are but a few of the cultural realities about which anthropologists have effectively studied and written. This is no easy task, given the substantial difficulties involved in understanding—and portraying through writing—the concerns, activities, and logic of lives other than one’s own. Students in this course will similarly try their hands at ethnographic research and writing. In the fall semester, each student will be asked to undertake an ethnographic research project in order to investigate the features of a specific social world, such as a homeless shelter, a religious festival, or dorm life at a liberal arts college. In the spring, she or he will craft a fully realized piece of ethnographic writing that conveys something of the features and dynamics of that world in lively, accurate, and comprehensive terms. Along the way, and with the help of anthropological writings that are either exceptional or experimental in nature, we will collectively think through some of the most important questions inherent in ethnographic projects, such as the use of field notes, the interlacing of theory and data, the role of dialogue and the author’s voice in ethnographic prose, and the ethical and political responsibilities that come with any attempt to understand and portray the lives of others. Previous course work in anthropology required.