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Prof Mathijs Pelkmans Old.5.08

This course is available on the MSc in Anthropology and Development, MSc in China in Comparative Perspective and MSc in Social Anthropology. This course is not available as an outside option.

The aim of this course is to provide students with insight into the process by which anthropological knowledge is produced, and to train them in the collection, analysis, and presentation of qualitative data. The course is centred on the ‘participant observation’ approach, and uses this as a starting point for discussing various aspects of the research cycle, including project design, ethical research, observational techniques, fieldnote taking, ethnographic interviewing, sensory ethnography and narrative analysis. Throughout the course, students will test their grasp of methodological issues by carrying out fieldwork exercises, about which they will report in seminars, and which will form the basis for assessment alongside knowledge of the literature.

10 hours of lectures, 15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of help sessions in the WT.

The lectures will be offered asynchronically online, in the format of mini-lectures, interviews, debates, demonstrations, and task descriptions. Help sessions are optional, offering students to informally discuss aspects of their project.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.

• Amit, Vered. 2003. Constructing the Field: Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Contemporary World;
• Atkinson, Paul. 2015. For Ethnography;
• Cerwonka, Allaine, and Liisa H. Malkki. 2008. Improvising theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork;
• DeWalt, Kathleen, and Billie DeWalt. 2010. Participant observation: A guide for fieldworkers;
• Faubion, J., and G. E. Marcus (eds.). 2009. Fieldwork Is Not What It Used To Be: Transition in Anthropology's Culture of Method;
• Ghodsee, Kirsten. 2016. From notes to narrative: Writing ethnographies that everyone can read;
• Konopinski, Natali (ed.) 2014. Doing Anthropological Research: A practical guide;
• Robben, Antonius and A. Sluka (eds.). 2007. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An anthropological reader;
• Spradley, James. 1980. Participant observation.

Essay (50%, 2000 words) and essay (50%, 2000 words) in the ST.

Students will write two 2,000-word essays (each worth 50%).

The first essay draws on the course literature to address a broad methodological question in anthropology, titles for which will be provided by the course convener.

The second essay  will consist of a descriptive analysis of the phenomenon that the student focused on in carrying out their fieldwork exercises.