Participant Observation and Interviews: Introduction to Ethnographic Methods
Course Code
SOSC 20224 10
Cross Listed Course Code(s)
ANTH 21432, ANTH 31432, ENST 20224, GLST 26220, SOCI 20515, SOSC 30224
Course Description
This course is designed to provide students in the social sciences with a review of qualitative research methods, particularly participant observation and interviews. We will unpack major debates on ethnographic and interview-based research, and you will have opportunities to try your hand at practicing fieldwork, designing interview guides, and conducting interviews. Class debates will cover epistemological, ethical, and practical matters in ethnographic research.
We will discuss issues of positionality, self-reflexivity, and power. Expect a lot of hands-on activities: you will formulate a preliminary research question at the beginning of the course, and you will conduct a few weeks of ethnographic research in a field site of your choosing—physical or virtual. Each week you will be asked to complete short ethnographic assignments, and to produce field notes to be exchanged and discussed in class.
Course Criteria
This course is cross-listed with Anthropology (ANTH 21432/31432), Environmental Studies (ENST 20224), Global Studies (GLST 26220), and Sociology (SOCI 20515), and Social Sciences (SOSC 30224.) This course is open to all undergraduates and is included in the Summer Institute in Social Research Methods. This course is an approved elective for students in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies major and in the Health and Society minor. It also satisfies the methodology course requirement for the Sociology major and the Anthropology major. It counts as a methodology elective for the Global Studies major. It is an approved elective course for the ENST major and minor requirements, but students must petition with relevance to course of study. It may be approved as an elective for additional majors by petition.
Instructor(s)
Cate Fugazzola
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