| Research Methods in Social and Cultural Anthropology (ANTH 8203) Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota Spring 2005 David Valentine Class location: 389 HHH Center Office: 364 HHH Center Class dates: Mondays, 12:20-02:15 P.M. 01/24- 05/02/2005 Phone: 612.626.8692 Email: [email protected] ffice Hours: by arrangement Course Description: This class is intended to introduce students to historical and contemporary issues and debates in methodology in social and cultural anthropology, as well as provide initial training in a range of ethnographic and qualitative methodologies. A primary goal of the class is to emphasize the connections among methodological, ethical, and theoretical questions; that is, this is a course which simultaneously aims to train students in particular methodological skills but also focuses on the interconnections among methodology, ethics, theory, writing, representation, and the politics of research. One question we will ask throughout the class is why "methodology" appears to have a separate status from that of "theory," and to interrogate this distinction. Course discussions will be supplemented by informal presentations from other anthropology faculty who will offer advice from their own experience of doing ethnographic research. Course Requirements The primary object of the class in terms of written work is the production of a grant proposal, based on primary ethnographic research conducted during the semester. As such, this is a work-intensive class, and students are encouraged to read as much of the course material over the winter break as possible. Progress reports will be evaluated throughout the semester, and each student will be expected to present their work in class at the end of the semester. Students will be expected to conduct weekly ethnographic research among a group, community, or other social formation. Ideally, you will be doing this 5-8 hours a week. It would be best to get a sense of where you might do a project before the semester begins. Ideally, it would be related to your dissertation project, but this is not essential. Please contact me via email over the break if you want to discuss suggestions. Written work for the class clumps toward the beginning and end of the semester, since proposals and research on the grant proposal you will write needs to happen early on. The second big round of written work will be your final paper (the grant proposal). Details of Assignments Assignment 1 (due week 2 in class) 1. Write a 3-4 page proposal of the research project you plan to conduct during the semester. Discuss your reasons, your relationship to the group/issue you will study, the plans you have for making contacts (within the limits I will outline), and if you have made contacts already, describe the process, problems, research questions, and issues that have arisen so far. Assignment 2 (due week 3 in class) Collect information on grants you plan to apply for for your dissertation fieldwork. We will be examining what is required, in particular issues relating to methods. Some grant applications are available on line, others need to be requested. For anthropology students, Wenner-Gren is one that is almost universally applicable, but you may also want to search out grants from NSF, SSRC, Fulbright etc. Assignment 3 (due week 4 in class) Ensure you have completed the on line IRB tutorials (see below) by today. A final and informal project will be the group production of a collection of "Fieldwork Gems," (a phrase coined by one of my grad school pals) in which we will jot down and record the advice, suggestions, methodological innovations, insights, and so on that you have during the semester, as well as any gleaned from the readings and faculty presentations. Status Report (due March 21) Produce a brief report of your fieldwork progress (no more than 4 double spaced pages), laying out your work so far, articulating difficulties and problems, and Final Project (due May 6) The final project is a complete grant application, based on your fieldwork. For most anthropology students, the Wenner-Gren application is the best choice. Students from other disciplines should consult with me and their advisers. Ethics and IRB requirements Because your research involves human subjects, this class research has had to be approved by the university's Institutional Review Board. Because this research is done for a class, involves no risk to your informants, and will not be published, it falls into the category of "exempt" research. Your fieldwork will be covered under what is called a "class protocol," with myself listed as Principal Investigator. However, each of you is required to familiarize yourself with the contents of the IRB webpage (http://www.research.umn.edu/irb/), and in particular, the following two on-line tutorials: 1. The Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI) hosted by University of Miami Medical School. This can be accessed at http://www.research.umn.edu/first/humansubjects.htm (Item 1 on this page). Register for the training, complete it, and then return to the above page to report your completion. 2. Informed consent tutorial: http://www.research.umn.edu/consent/ It is essential that you complete these tutorials prior to undertaking your research. While you do not need to apply for IRB approval yourselves, you will have to go through and understand this process before you begin your dissertation fieldwork. We will also have a presentation in class from an IRB staff member, in the context of a broader discussion of ethics (week 5) Required Texts: The reading load for this class is quite heavy, and you are encouraged to read as many of the ethnographies over the winter break as possible. In addition to the texts below, there will be some additional articles, available via e-reserve. I will try to get at least the first few weeks reading on line before semester begins. Recommended readings are not posted on e-reserve. Briggs, Charles L. 1986 Learning How to Ask : A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. Cambridge: CUP. Robert Emerson, Rachel Fretz and Linda Shaw 1995 Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press. Ferguson, James 1999 Expectations of modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kulick, Don 1992 Language shift and cultural reproduction: socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge: CUP. Terrio, Susan 2000 Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate. Berkeley: University of California Press. Wolf, Margery 1992 A thrice told tale: feminism, postmodernism, and ethnographic responsibility. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Course Outline 1. Starting Out: The Obvious and the Not So Obvious (1/24/05) Readings: **Begin Grant and Ethics Projects this week** Mead, Margaret 1933 More comprehensive field methods. American Anthropologist 35(1):1-15. Silverman, Martin G. 1972 Ambiguation and disambiguation in field work. In Crossing cultural boundaries. S. Kimball and J. Watson (eds.) San Francisco: Chandler. Cameron, Deborah 1997 Performing gender identity: young men's talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In Language and masculinity. Sally Johnson and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (eds). pp.47-64. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. 2. The Fieldwork Tradition (1/31/05) **Assignment 1 due -- Project Description** Readings: Malinowski, Bronislaw 1984[1922] Introduction: the subject, method and scope of this inquiry. In Argonauts of the Western Pacific: an account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Stocking, George 1983 The ethnographer's magic: fieldwork in British anthropology from Tylor to Malinowski. In Observers observed: essays on ethnographic fieldwork. George W. Stocking (ed.) pp. 70-120. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Gupta, Akhil and James Ferguson 1997 Discipline and practice. In Anthropological locations: boundaries and grounds of a field science. Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (eds.). pp. __. Berkeley: University of California Press. Rapp, Rayna 1999 How Methodology bleeds into daily life. In Testing women, testing the fetus: the social impact of amniocentesis in America. New York: Routledge. Sanjek, Roger 1990 The secret life of fieldnotes. In Fieldnotes: the making of anthropology. Roger Sanjek (ed.) pp. 187-270. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Recommended: Malinowski, Bronislaw 1967 A diary in the strict sense of the term. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) 1951[1929] "Introduction" and "Methods" from Part II. In Notes and queries on anthropology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 3. Research Design, Research Questions (Ethnographic Case Study I) (2/7/05) Readings: **Assignment 2 due -- Grant Information** Johnson, Jeffrey C. 2000 Research design and research strategies. In Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. H. Russell Bernard (ed.) pp. __. Rowman and Littlefield. Briggs, Charles L. 1986 Learning How to Ask : A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. Cambridge: CUP. 4. Participant-observation (2/14/05) Readings: **Assignment 3 Due -- Ethics** Gans, Herbert J. 1968 The participant-observer as a human being: observations on the personal aspects of fieldwork. In Institutions and the person. Howard S. Becker et al (eds.) pp. 300-17. Geertz, Clifford 1983 "From the native's point of view:" on the nature of anthropological understanding. In . In Local knowledge: further essays in interpretive anthropology. Pp 55-70. New York: Basic Books. Goffman, Erving 1987 On Fieldwork. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 18(2):123-32. DeWalt, Kathleen M and Billie R. 2000 Participant-Observation. In Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. H. Russell Bernard (ed.) pp. __. Rowman and Littlefield. 5. From Observation to Description (2/21/05) Readings: Robert Emerson, Rachel Fretz and Linda Shaw 1995 Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press. Geertz, Clifford 1973 Thick Description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. in The interpretation of cultures. pp. 3-30. New York: Basic Books. Recommended: Sanjek, Roger (ed.) 1990 Fieldnotes: the making of anthropology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 6. Paying Attention (2/28/05) Readings: Garfinkel, Harold 1973 Background expectancies. In Rules and meanings: the anthropology of everyday life. Mary Douglas (ed.) pp. 21-23. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Stoddart, Kenneth 1974 Pinched: notes on the ethnographer's location of argot. In Ethnomethodology. Roy Turner (ed.) pp. 173-179. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Ryave, A. Lincoln and James N. Schenkein 1974 Notes on the art of walking. In Ethnomethodology. Roy Turner (ed.) pp. 265-274. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Sacks, Harvey 1984 On doing "being ordinary." in Structures of social action: studies in conversation analysis. J.Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage (eds). New York: Cambridge University Press. Goffman, Erving 1967 On facework: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. in Interaction ritual: essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City: Anchor Books. Bulmer, R. 1973 Why the cassowary is not a bird. In Rules and meanings: the anthropology of everyday life. Mary Douglas (ed.) pp. 167-193. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 7. Ethics and Dilemmas (3/7/05) Readings: Review UMN IRB webpage (see above in assignments section) AAA Code of Ethics: http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm Shea, Christopher 2000 Don't talk to the humans: the crackdown on social science research. Lingua Franca10(6):27-34. Price, David 2000 Anthropologists as Spies. The Nation, November 20, 2000. Blackwood, Evelyn 1995 Falling in love with an-Other lesbian: reflections on identity in fieldwork. In Taboo: sex, identity, and erotic subjectivity in anthropological fieldwork. Don Kulick and Margaret Wilson (eds). pp. 51-75. New York: Routledge. Valentine, David 2003 "The calculus of pain": violence, anthropological ethics, and the category transgender. Ethnos 66(1):27-48. Pratt, Mary Louise 2001 I, Rigoberta Mench� and the "culture wars." In The Rigoberta Mench� controversy. Arturo Arias (ed.) pp.29-48. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Stoll, David 2001 The battle of Rigoberta. In The Rigoberta Mench� controversy. Arturo Arias (ed.) pp.392-410. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Recommended/Resources: AAA Committee on Ethics Final Report of the AAA El Dorado Task Force http://www.aaanet.org/edtf/index.htm Gregor, Thomas A. and Daniel R. Gross 2004 Guilt by association: the culture of accusation and the American Anthropological Association's Investigation of Darkness in El Dorado. American Anthropologist 106(4):687-698. AAA Committee on Ethics Briefing Papers on Common Dilemmas Faced by Anthropologists Conducting Research in Field Situations: http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/bp.htm Ethics Web: http://www.ethicsweb.ca/ ** Spring break -- No Class (3/14/05) ** 8. Observation and Description: Using Language (Ethnographic Case Study II) (3/21/05) Readings: Kulick, Don 1992 Language shift and cultural reproduction: socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.. Resources: (Handouts) Atkinson, J.M. and J. Heritage (eds.) 1989 Transcript notation. In Structures of social action: studies in conversation analysis. pp. ix-xiii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edwards, Jane A. 1989 Transcription in discourse. In Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. W. Bright (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 9. Contemporary Concerns: Reflexitivity and Positionality (3/28/05) Readings: Nader, Laura 1972 Up the anthropologist: perspectives gained from studying up. In Reinventing anthropology. Dell Hymes (ed). Pp.284-311. New York: Pantheon. Clifford, James 1986 Introduction: partial truths. In Writing culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography. James Clifford and George E. Marcus (eds.) pp.1-26. Berkeley: University of California Press. Brettell, Caroline B. 1993 Introduction: fieldwork, text, and audience. In When they read what we write: the politics of ethnography. Caroline B. Brettell (ed). pp. 1-24). Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Zavella, Patricia 1993 Feminist insider dilemmas: constructing ethic identity with "Chicana" informants. Frontiers XIII(3):53-76. Visweswaran, Kamala 1994 Introduction. In Fictions of feminist ethnography. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Nussbaum, Emily 1998 Return of the natives. Lingua Franca February 1998: 53-56. 10. Contemporary Concerns: Multi-sites, Cultural Objects, New Terrains (4/4/05) Readings: Marcus, George 1998 Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton: Princeton University Press (Introduction, chp 4). Constable, Nicole 2003 Ethnography in imagined virtual communities. In Romance on a global stage:pen pals, virtual ethnography, and "mail-order" marriages. Berkeley: University of California Press, Lepselter, Susan 1997 From the Earth Native's Point of View: The Earth, the Extraterrestrial, and the Natural Ground of Home. Public culture (9)2:197- Caputo, Virginia 2000 At "home" and "away": reconfiguring the field for late twentieth century anthropology. In Constructing the field: ethnographic fieldwork in the contemporary world. Vered Amit (ed.) pp.19-31. New York: Routledge. 11. Feminism and Methodology (Ethnographic Case Study III) (4/11/05) Readings: Wolf, Margery 1992 A thrice told tale: feminism, postmodernism, and ethnographic responsibility. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 12. Ethnography in a Globalizing World (Ethnographic Case Study IV) (4/18/05) Readings: **Stop Fieldwork this week!** Terrio, Susan 2000 Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate. Berkeley: University of California Press. 13. History, Anthropology, Method (Ethnographic Case Study V) (4/25/05) Readings: Ferguson, James 1999 Expectations of modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press. 14. Class Presentation of Projects (5/2/05) **Final Projects Due May 6** |