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Course Description |
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Course Outline |
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Grading |
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Textbooks |
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Instructor |
This course covers the basic principles of research design. It is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. Topics covered include different approaches to framing questions and designing research, sampling, the design of questionnaires and other kinds of data collection forms, research ethics, data collection techniques, coding, and general problems of measuring quantitative and qualitative data. An important component of Anth 318 is for the student to select a research problem, design an approach for solving the problem, and execute the data collection portion of the design.
In spite of what it says in the courses catalog, an introductory statistics course is not a prerequisite of Anth 318.
Lec/Disc: 10-10:50 MWF, 113 Davenport
Date |
Topic |
Aug 22 |
Introduction |
Aug 24-Sep5 |
Research Ethics |
Sep 7-14 |
Anthropology as Science, Art, or Radical Critique |
Sep 17-19 |
Choosing Research Problems |
| Sep 21 | Writing Grant Proposals |
Sep 24-28 |
Theory and Its Components |
Oct 1-5 |
Hypothesis Formulation |
Oct 8-12 |
Measurement |
Oct 15-19 |
Surveys; Sampling Basics |
Oct 22-24 |
Questionnaire Design |
Oct 26 |
No class; Midterm exam due by noon |
Oct 29-Nov 5 |
Ethnography |
Nov 7-9 |
Document Study |
Nov 11-14 |
Archival Data: HRAF, Census, etc. |
Nov 16 |
Experiments & Simulations |
Nov 26-Dec 7 |
Work on Projects; Student Presentations |
Dec 12 |
Final exam due by 11 am |
Each student will be expected to participate actively in class discussions and presentations of research design issues and projects. Problem sets that apply principles covered in class will be assigned throughout the semester. There will be two take-home essay-type exams.
This is the key assignment of the course. It is your opportunity to choose a research problem, formulate a design for solving the problem, and collect the data. See the project guidelines for details and deadlines.
The course materials are best learned by applying them. There will be 8 homework assignments. Feel free to discuss the homework problems with other students but I want to see your work, not a group consensus. I also want to see the details of your work, but don't hand me a 2 cm thick printout and expect me to explore it to find your answer. If I cannot reconstruct from your homework papers how you came up the results or answers you turn in, then you will receive a low grade for the assignment. No late homework will be accepted for grading.
Why exams in a course on research design? Because I want to make certain that you read, study, comprehend, and take seriously the course materials. Each exam will an essay-type, take-home test worth 15% of your final grade.
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Bailey, Kenneth D. (1994) Methods of Social Research. 4th edition. Free Press, New York. |
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Institutional Review Board. (1995) Handbook for Investigators: For the Protection of Human Subjects in Research. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. (copies will be distributed in class) |
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Gould, Stephen J. (1996) The Mismeasure of Man. Revised edition. W.W. Norton, New York. |
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Other assigned articles will be accessible from links on the class web pages or will be on reserve in the Anthropology Reading Room (193 Davenport Hall). |
Instructor: Barry Lewis
Hours: 1-2 MW, 11-12 F
Office: 209f Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-3501
Email: blewis@uiuc.edu