Sarah Lawrence College (ANTH-3105-R)
Spring 2002
Instructor: David Valentine Class time: Tues. & Thurs. 3:35-5:00pm
Office: Sheffield 05 Spring class dates: January 22-May 16, 2002
Phone: 914.395.2363 email: [email protected]
Course Description:
In the Spring semester, we will continue to explore the range of topics that have brought anthropologists and their subjects into relationships which result in sometimes common, sometimes opposing, policy goals. Continuing our "issues" section of the course, this semester we will be dealing specifically with: problems of studying both the "powerful" and the "powerless;" the debates over female genital operations and./or mutilations; prostitution, trafficking, and reproductive health; housing and homelessness; and youth, education, and labor.
Because you will be focusing on your ethnographic fieldwork in the first part of the semester, we will be holding class only once a week, on Tuesdays, from January through the end of March. Beginning in April, you will start the write up period of your project, and we will revert to having two classes a week. One of these classes will be dedicated to discussing your projects and your writing.
There will be no speakers' series in the Spring, as I do not want to add to your obligations. However, we may have some guest lecturers from time to time.
Course Requirements:
You are, naturally, expected to attend all classes and conferences associated with this class. It is expected that if you have to miss a class for a valid reason (such as illness or family emergency), you inform me as soon as possible prior to the class, or as soon after as is possible. Please note the new attendance policy: more than two excused absences will result in reduced credit for this course.
Class work for the semester will consist of the following formal projects:
1. Three 4-5 page papers, due in class on dates to be determined.
2. Two mini-research projects.
Required Texts:
A course reading packet is available at the library, and from me should you want to borrow it. As well as the reading packet, the following books will be needed, all of which are on reserve at the library and available for purchase in the bookstore:
Fetterman, David M.
1993 Speaking the language of power: communication, collaboration, and advocacy (translating ethnography into action). Washington, DC: The Falmer Press.
Gregory, Steven
1998 Black Corona: race and the politics of place in an urban community. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Liebow, Elliot
1993 Tell them who I am: the lives of homeless women. New York: Free Press.
Willis, Paul
1981 Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.
Course Outline
January 22: Organizational Meeting
Note: you should start your ethnographic project this week. Make sure you maintain contact with the organization you will be working with over the break so that they know you will be coming this week!
PART 8: ISSUES IV: DIFFERENT VIEWS OF SOCIAL POWER
January 29: "Studying Up": Ethnographies of Power I
Readings:
Nader, Laura
1972 Up the anthropologist: perspectives gained from studying up. In Reinventing anthropology. Dell Hymes (ed). Pp.284-311. New York: Pantheon.
Cohn, Carol
1987 Sex and death in the rational world of defense intellectuals. Signs 12(4):687-718.
February 5: "Studying Up": Ethnographies of Power II
Readings:
Davies, Lois J.
1997 Practicing Anthropology in the Corporate World. Practicing Anthropology 19(2):30
Marcus, George E. with Peter Dobkin Hall
1992 Lives in trust : the fortunes of dynastic families in late twentieth-century America. Boulder: Westview Press. (chapter 6)
Rollins, Judith
1985 Between women: domestics and their employers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. (introduction)
February 12: Community Activism I
Readings:
Gregory, Steven
1998 Black Corona: race and the politics of place in an urban community. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Chapters 1-4)
February 19: Community Activism II
Readings:
Gregory, Steven
1998 Black Corona: race and the politics of place in an urban community. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Chapters 5-9)
PART 9: ISSUES V: HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
Resources: http://www.weingart.org/-- Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty
February 26: Housing and Homelessness I
Readings:
Susser, Ida
1999 Creating family forms: the exclusion of men and teenage boys from families in the New York City shelter system, 1987-1991. In Theorizing the City: The New Urban Anthropology Reader. Setha M. Low (ed.) pp. 67-82. New Brunswick: Rutgers University.
Hopper, Kim
1993 On keeping an edge: translating ethnographic findings and putting them to use: NYC's homeless policy. In Speaking the language of power: communication, collaboration, and advocacy (translating ethnography into action). D. M. Fetterman (ed.) pp. 19-37. Falmer Press.
March 5: Housing and Homelessness II
Readings:
Liebow, Elliot
1993 Tell them who I am: the lives of homeless women. New York: Free Press.
March 12: Housing and Homelessness III
Readings:
Liebow, Elliot
1993 Tell them who I am: the lives of homeless women. New York: Free Press.
March 19 and March 26 (No class -- Spring break)
PART 10: ISSUES VI: ENGAGING THE BODY (II)
April 2: ** Class discussion of ethnographic projects **
April 4: Female Genital Mutilation or Female Genital Operations?
Readings:
Walley, Christine
1997 Searching for "voices": feminism, anthropology, and the global debate over female genital operations. Cultural Anthropology 12(3):405-438.
Salmon, Merrilee H. and Elliott P. Skinner
2001 Should anthropologists work to eliminate the practice of Female Genital Mutilation? In Taking sides: clashing views on controversial issues in anthropology. Kirk M. Endicott and Robert Welsch (eds.) pp. 360-379. Guilford: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.
April 9: ** Class discussion of ethnographic projects **
April 11: Prostitution and Trafficking
Readings:
Downe, Pamela J.
1999 Participant Advocacy and Research With Prostitutes In Costa Rica. Practicing anthropology 21(3):21-
Chuang, Janie
1998 Redirecting the Debate over Trafficking in Women: Definitions, Paradigms, and Contexts. Harvard Human Rights Journal 11:65-
PART 11: ISSUES VII: YOUTH, EDUCATION, AND WORK
Resources: http://www.PublicEducation.org/
April 16: Education
Readings:
Lopez de Abascal-Hildebrand, Mary
1993 A school board's response to an ethnographic evaluation: or, whose evaluation is this anyway? In Speaking the language of power: communication, collaboration, and advocacy (translating ethnography into action). David M. Fetterman (ed.) pp. 123-136. Washington, DC: The Falmer Press.
Heath, Shirley Brice.
1983 Introduction. In Ways with words : language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
April 18: ** Class discussion of ethnographic projects **
April 23: Learning to Labor I
Readings:
Willis, Paul
1981 Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.
April 25: ** Class discussion of ethnographic projects **
April 30: Learning to Labor II
Readings:
Willis, Paul
1981 Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.
PART 12: WRITING: ETHICS AND REPRESENTATION REVISITED
May 2: Ethics and Accountability
Readings:
Weiner, James F.; and Ron Brunton
2001 Do anthropologists have a moral responsibility to defend the interests of "less advantaged" communities? In Taking sides: clashing views on controversial issues in anthropology. Kirk M. Endicott and Robert Welsch (eds.) pp. 380-400. Guilford: McGraw-Hill/Pushkin.
Lempert, David
1997 Commentary: Accountability in Anthropological Ethics- Protecting our Integrity and the Peoples We Serve. Practicing Anthropology 19(2):36-
May 7: ** Class discussion of ethnographic projects **
May 9: Making a Case for Ethnography in Public Policy: Three Views
Readings:
Christman, Jolley and Elaine Simon
1993 Communicating evaluation findings as a process: the case for delayed gratification. In Speaking the language of power: communication, collaboration, and advocacy (translating ethnography into action). David M. Fetterman (ed.) pp. 76-92. Washington, DC: The Falmer Press.
Stapp, Darby
1999 The Real World--Operationalizing Anthropology. Practicing Anthropology 21(1):50-
Greabell, Lynne E.
1997 Negotiating A Professional Role in Public Policy. Practicing Anthropology 19(2):10-
May 14: ** Class discussion of ethnographic projects **
May 16: ** Final presentation of projects **