Course syllabus
Welcome to the master's course ETHNOGRAPHY at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology!
This course is coordinated by Ana Chiritoiu and Mahmoud Keshavarz. Contact them if you have questions about the course contents and the teaching.
For questions about admission, registration and the like, please contact our course administrator Angelika Holm.
For any other issues, please contact the Director of Studies, Charlotta Widmark.
About the course
Ethnography is at once a qualitative research method and a way of writing/a mode of representation that has long been almost synonymous with cultural and social anthropology. Moreover, it has also played a prominent role in ethnology for a long time now and, in recent years, it has also become increasingly popular amongst scholars in many other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.
Ethnography relies in various degrees on the method of participant observation, which traditionally entails long-term immersion in a social group and/or environment different from one's own. In the past decades, however, it is increasingly debated to what extent ethnography is participant observation, let alone how long, immersive, or 'difference'-focused the latter should be, and this is precisely what we're going to tackle in this course.
Thus, the aim of this course is to discuss and practice ethnography along with other anthropological/ethnological methods. During the ten weeks of the course we combine practical exercises with reading texts on research methodology and examining other people's ethnographies. After the course you will develop a comprehensive understanding of how to conduct ethnography and appreciate its endless possibilities.
Practice
The course places the student’s fieldwork at its core. Every week you will carry out a pilot field study in a location of your choice, whether it's F2F or online, or both. This means that throughout the course you will return to the same location at least five times and apply five different ethnographic methods. The location should be a place (very broadly understood) where people move around, gather, meet or avoid each other; for instance, a pub, a gym, a bus station (or even a bus stop), a laundry room, a doctor's waiting room, a shop, or an online forum. Ideally, this should not be a place you frequent often although you can also argue in favor of this approach. A specific request is that you focus on how various fault lines in society -- for instance, gender, age, ethnicity, or class -- interact in your chosen fieldsite. An important task for orienting yourself in your field is to continuously locate a possible ethnographic aim or query. What research questions does your chosen focus prompt, and what smaller questions do you ask yourself building up to those? What larger societal processes does your field showcase? (E.g., conflict or conflict-avoidance, practices of distinction, cooperation, etc.) And what in your chosen location might be interesting and relevant to broader conversations about social, economic, or political phenomena?
Writing assignments
A. Weekly field reports: Prior to your visit you should plan for how to take and organize fieldnotes and afterwards you should rewrite and systematize your notes. Prior to each seminar you will write a short text (maximum 700 words), with clear references to the required pre-reading. The texts will be made available to your colleagues. When you have handed in your weekly assignment, we want you to review each other‘s work. You will each be distributed 1 assignment to leave feedback on. You meet in smaller groups to give your feedback. This exchange is the basis for the discussions at the seminar, and we encourage you to systematize your own experience, as well as that of your colleague whose work you're asked to comment on, through the prism of the literature ascribed for the day.
B. Final paper: At the end of the course, you will present, and then write up, an ethnographic paper based on your observations.
Lectures
In addition to fieldwork and seminars, the course consists of three introductory lectures by Ana Chiritoiu and Mahmoud Keshavarz, and a guest lecture by Mats Utas.
You will find more information about specific requirements for each lecture/seminar, required readings, and assignments here.
The first meeting of the course will take place on 2 November at 10:15 - 12:00 in room 12:004 at Blåsenhus. It is important that you attend this first meeting, but if you can’t make it do please inform the Director of Studies beforehand via e-mail at charlotta.widmark@antro.uu.se. During the first meeting we will give you an overview of the course and an introduction to ethnographic methods.
Course material
You can find the complete list of readings here.
The course literature is available for purchase from well-stocked bookshops and can be borrowed from the university library (printed and/or as an e-book). Some books can also be bought second hand online. Unfortunately, our experience is that delivery can be delayed, so make sure you get access to the readings in good time for the start of the course!
Expectations
We expect you to read the assigned book chapters and articles before you come to class, and to participate actively in each class. Attendance in the seminars is mandatory. In case of absence (max. 25% of seminars, i.e., one seminar), you need to notify the teachers, fulfill the weekly assignments, and prepare a make-up assignment. Read more about assignments, the attendance policy and the course examination here.