Last modified:
03/23/00

Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology: Theory and Methods

Anth 353

Professor Arlene Torres
Office: 383 Davenport Hall
Office Hours M,W 2-3
E-mail a-torres@uiuc.edu

Course Description

This course primarily focuses on theoretical and qualitative research techniques. Instruction, and supervised practice in qualitative methods of field research as a basic tool of the social sciences will be provided. An emphasis will be placed on the role of the field researcher as participant, observer and interviewer in various kinds of research settings. Approaches to and interpretations of field data as an engaging and creative endeavor will also be a critical component of this course.

Required Readings

Briggs, Charles L. Learning How To Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz and Linda Shaw Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Fog Olwig, Karen and Kirsten Hastrup (eds.) Siting Culture: the Shifting Anthropological Object. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Johnson, Jeffrey C. Selecting Ethnographic Informants. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990.

McCracken, Grant The Long Interview. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1988.

Safa, Helen I. The Myth of the Male Breadwinner: Women and Industrialization in the Caribbean. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.

Yelvington, Kevin Producing Power: Ethnicity, Gender and Class in a Caribbean Workplace. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.

A course packet will also available for purchase.

Course Requirements

Students are required to participate in a critical discussion of the class readings. An integral part of this seminar is the First Class electronic conferencing. This system allows instructors and students to share ideas, information and even files outside of the classroom.

	You are expected to engage in a self-paced tutorial to help you navigate the system in the first two weeks of class. Once you have done this, you will be ready to participate actively in this seminar.
	You are expected to post a critical commentary regarding the readings every week. We will discuss these via the conference and in class. You also are expected to post an abstract, outline and preliminary drafts of your on-going research project.

Students are expected to provide an oral and written summary of their on-going research project throughout the semester. An oral presentation of the final project is also expected. (25%)

Students are expected to conduct preliminary fieldwork this semester. A pilot field research proposal of 8 (double-spaced) pages in length and a short statement on the use of human subjects is due by the fifth week of class. (20%)

Students are expected to develop a questionnaire and obtain data for their research project by developing a focus group or by conducting long interviews with a key informant. The pilot questionnaire and a short paper of 5 -7 (double-spaced) pages in length that addresses the following issues is due by the 11th week of class. How did the questions you asked develop from your basic proposal? What question(s) do you wish you would/could have included in the questionnaire? Which question(s) do you wish you had not included? Did you have a sense that your respondent(s) were concealing important information when they were responding to your questions? How do you think the wording of your questions shaped your respondents' answers? How can the questionnaire contribute to your overall field project? What are the inherent limitations of your questionnaire? To what extent would you say your informant(s) is representative of his or her culture (taking into account age, class, gender, religion, etc.) ? If you do not know, how will you go about trying to answer this question? (25%)

A final research paper of 20-25 (double-spaced) pages, excluding tables and references based on the student's proposed plan of research and research findings is due [date]. The final paper should include a critical assessment of the theoretical and methodological approaches adopted, research results and suggestions for future research. (30%)

Course Schedule

Week #1

Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research. CA: Sage Publications, 1994. pp.1 -95.

Geertz, Clifford Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973. pp. 3-32.

Geertz, Clifford Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books, 1983. pp. 55-72.

Rosaldo, Renato Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1993. Ch. 2, 4 and 8.

Week #2

Clifford, James "Introduction: Partial Truths." in Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. pp.1-26.

Hooks, Bell "Culture to Culture: Ethnography and Cultural Studies as Critical Intervention" in Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics. Boston: South End Press, 1990. pp. 123-133.

Abu-Lughod, Lila "Writing Against Culture" in Richard G. Fox (ed.) Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1991. pp. 137-162.

Appadurai, Arjun "Global Ethnoscapes" in Richard G. Fox (ed.) Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1991 pp.191-210.

Marcus, George "Contemporary Politics of Ethnography in the Contemporary World System" in Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. pp. 165-193.

Marcus, George and Michael Fischer "Taking Account of the World Historical Political Economy: Knowable Communities in Larger Systems" in Marcus and Fischer, (eds.) Anthropology as Cultural Critique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. pp. 77-110.

Week #3

Fog Olwig, Karen and Kirsten Hastrup (eds.) Siting Culture: the Shifting Anthropological Object. New York: Routledge, 1997 (Introduction and Part 1 pp.1-103)

Week #4

Sanjek, Roger (ed.) Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1991. (Jackson pp.3-33, Clifford pp. 47-70, Wolf pp.343-355, Sanjek 385-418)

Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz and Lina L. Shaw Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Week #5

Warren, Carol Gender Issues in Field Research. CA: Sage Publications, 1988.

Bell, Diane Pat Caplan and Wazir Jahan Karim (eds.) Gendered Fields: Women, Men and Ethnography. New York, NY: Routledge, 1993. (Caplan pp.168-181, Wade pp. 199-214)

Assignment Due (Proposal and statement on the use of human subjects)

Week #6

Yelvington, Kevin Producing Power: Ethnicity, Gender and Class in a Caribbean Workplace. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.

Week #7

Safa, Helen I. The Myth of the Male Breadwinner: Women and Industrialization in the Caribbean. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995. Guest Lecture

Week #8

Briggs, Charles L. Learning How To Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Guest Lecture Professor F.K. Lehman "Coding and Interpreting Data in the Field"

Week #9

Johnson, Jeffrey C. Selecting Ethnographic Informants. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990.

McCracken, Grant The Long Interview. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1988.

Week #10

Denzin, Norman K. Interpretive Biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989.

Behar, Ruth Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. pp. 275-302.

Gottlieb, Alma and Phillip Graham Parallel Worlds: An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter Africa. New York: Random House, 1993. pp. 3-23.

Week #11

Kuper, Adam "Culture, Identity and the Project of a Cosmopolitan Anthropology" in MAN (N.S.) 29, pp. 536-554, 1994.

Fog Olwig, Karen and Kirsten Hastrup (eds.) Siting Culture: the Shifting Anthropological Object. New York: Routledge, 1997 (Part II pp.103-222).

Assignment Due (Pilot questionnaire and short paper)

Week #12

Fog Olwig, Karen and Kirsten Hastrup (eds.) Siting Culture: the Shifting Anthropological Object. New York: Routledge, 1997 (Part III pp.223-267).

Week #13

Fog Olwig, Karen and Kirsten Hastrup (eds.) Siting Culture: the Shifting Anthropological Object. New York: Routledge, 1997 (Part III pp.267- 310)

Weeks 14 & 15

Oral Presentations (Alphabetical Order)

Final Paper Due