Methods

ANTH 4122/5122: Ethnographic methods
Tuesday 5:30-8:15pm
Fretwell 419

Instructor:           Dr. Nicole Peterson
Office:                 Barnard 219
e-mail:                npeterson [at] uncc [dot] edu (please allow 24 hours for a reply, except during student hours)
Student Hours:    M 1-2 pm & Tu 2–3 pm or make an appointment by email.
Office Phone:      704.687.5094 (email is better)
Online connections: Moodle2 site at moodle2.uncc.edu
Moodle support: Students may get Moodle and other computing help by visiting the IT Service Desk in Barnard and 1st floor of the Student Union or by calling 704‑687‑5500, option 2. You can also submit your question to the HelpDesk Online and track the status.

You are responsible for assignments and policies included in this syllabus. Please read it carefully and ask for any needed clarification early in the semester.
The instructor may modify the standards and requirements in this syllabus at any time. Notice of such changes will be announced in class and posted on the Moodle site.

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the variety of methods used by socio-cultural anthropologists. The focus is on ethnographic methods (those methods used to write ethnographies), but we will also introduce other qualitative and quantitative methods. Mastery of these methods will be achieved only through a research project that uses these methods; in addition, students are encouraged to take a statistics course to gain experience with quantitative analysis. This course will also cover basic research design in the social sciences, including developing research questions and literature reviews, evaluating the ethical concerns of research, strategies for minimizing biases and data storage, and the role of theory in methods.

Course format

This course requires substantial time for readings and assignments. As a combined upper-level undergraduate course and graduate course, you will be expected to read up to a hundred pages a week and complete assignments for class (including essays and methods assignments like interviews and surveys) in addition tothe time spent in class each week.

However, this class offers skills you cannot learn on your own or in other anthropology courses, and it is to your advantage to work hard. If you do not complete the assignments and readings, you will not master the skills you need, and you will be unable to use them for future employment. For those students who complete the class successfully by showing outstanding effort, I will happily write recommendation letters that show that you can use these methods in a variety of settings. 

Required Texts (bold indicates how reading is indicated in syllabus)

  • Bernard, Russell. 2011 Research Methods in Anthropology. Fifth Edition. AltaMira Press. (Fourth edition also acceptable). Marked as B in the reading schedule.
  • Online readings, indicated by author’s last name(s), available on Moodle

Course objectives:

By the end of this course, the student should have learned the following:

Knowledge

  • knowledge of methods used by anthropologists.
  • knowledge and familiarity with the way anthropologists employ research methods.
  • ability to understand the methods used in most anthropological papers and books.
  • the ethical issues involved in anthropological research and familiarity with the ethics guidelines followed by the AAA and SfAA
  • ability to critically evaluate research

Skills

  • Formulate research questions and design research
  • Conduct a literature review
  • Observation
  • Interview
  • Survey
  • Data analysis
  • Report writing
  • Presentation of research

Products for future

  • Research design for senior seminar paper or graduate research project

Assessment of student progress towards the knowledge and skills will be done at various points in the semester, including both finished projects or reports, and drafts or progress along the way.  Grades will be given as determined by performance in the following categories:

  1. 10% Attendance and participation during class discussions: On-time attendance at every class is required. Students are expected to participate in discussions each day by having read all assigned readings for that day and completed all assignments. Students who feel uncomfortable discussing in class for any reason should meet with the professor in office hours during the first few weeks of the semester.
  2. 20% Reading responses (called essays in syllabus): For some weeks, students will write a reading response essay of 400 words or more. Essays will be a few paragraphs of reflection on the readings due for that day, often with an online prompt. Topics:

a)    Essay 1: social science research
b)    Essay 2: Ethics
c)    Essay 3: Observations
d)    Essay 4: Interviews
e)    Essay 5: Surveys

4. 50% Assignments: Each week, students will have an assignment due:

a)    Ethics: Ethics and IRB CITI certification: students must take the web-based ethics training course for all UNCC research with human subjects and upload their completion certificate to Moodle.
b)    Observations: Fieldnotes on ethnographic observations: students must spend an hour observing at one of several fieldsites, compile ethnographic fieldnotes, and write a short reflection about their experiences.
c)     Interviews: students will conduct and record interviews of one hour with a preselected informant. Students will write a short reflection about their experiences.
d)    Interview transcript: Students will transcribe their interviews
e)    Interview coding: Students will code their transcriptions and write results about the key themes in the transcripts and a reflection about their experiences with interview analysis.
f)     Research question proposal: Students will compose a research question which they could attempt to answer using methods from this course.
g)    Literature review: Students will examine the anthropological literature for the key ideas, methods, and results related to their personal research questions.
h)    Survey questions: Students will draft survey questions based on the class interview assignment outcomes. For each question, students will assess the potential for bias.
i)     Survey collection: Students will collect survey results from research participants in an identified fieldsite, enter the data, and write a short reflection about their experiences.
j)      Survey analysis: Students will analyze the quantitative data using data analysis software.

5. 20% Research proposal: The final assignment for the class will be a research proposal, which will be a two-page essay that will include the research question, research plan, anticipated results, and literature citations. Students will have 5 minutes to present their proposals during the final exam period, Dec 10.

Class research project:

We are working for a Charlotte NGO this semester in a professional capacity. You are expected to treat this experience as a job or internship, with the level of respect and decorum appropriate for an applied anthropologist, including your dress, language, and general behavior while on the project. If you cannot behave appropriately, you will be removed from the project and will receive a zero for those assignments related to the research project (including many of the assignments in #3 above, or 22% of your grade).

Note on the course:

This class is a lot of work. However, you will get out of it what you put into it. Even if you do not expect to be hired as an anthropologist (and most of you won’t), you will learn valuable skills that you can use in a variety of settings, and which can help you apply for and get jobs. The value of the course is thus not in the grade you earn, but in the skills you learn along the way.

Schedule of Topics, Readings, and Assignments

Topic Reading Assignments due Activity

20-Aug

 Introduction

27-Aug

 Social Science Research B1-2, Peterson et al Essay

3-Sep

 Ethics B3, Lassiter, AAA, Romero-Daza, Emerson Ethics, essay

10-Sep

 Observation B12-14, Rosing Essay

17-Sep

 Theory B15, Zarger, Guthman Observations Analysis

24-Sep

 Interviews B5,7-8, Fazzino, Counihan Essay

1-Oct

 Interviews 2 B18, Zenk et al, Block p 1-34, 40-51, DeWalt Interview Initial Analysis

8-Oct

 no class

15-Oct

 Research qs LeCompte, B19, Hubert, Quinn, Saldaña Interview transcript, NVivo orientation More analysis

22-Oct

 Lit review Machi and McEvoy, Medina, Phillips (grads read M&M ch3-4 too) Interview coding, research questions draft Literature review

29-Oct

 Survey 1 B9,11, Block p 51-59 Essay

5-Nov

 Survey 2 B6, 20, Hadley Survey questions Revise survey

12-Nov

 Survey 3 B21 Lit review Finalize survey

19-Nov

 Survey 4 B22, Hadley&Wutich, Survey collection

26-Nov

 Writing Light Survey initial analysis

3-Dec

 Other methods O’Brien, Buckingham Research proposal  

10-Dec

 Final exam 5pm  

Proposal presentations

 

Readings (indicated by last name above)

AAA Statement on Ethics – Principles of Professional Responsibility. 2012 version. Located at http://www.aaanet.org/profdev/ethics/

Block et al 2008 Finding Food in Chicago and the Suburbs: The Report of the Northeastern Illinois Community Food Security Assessment. Report to the Public.http://www.csu.edu/nac/documents/reporttothepublic060308.pdf Part B. See also http://www.csu.edu/nac/neil_community_food_security.htm for appendices

Buckingham, David. 2009. ‘Creative’ visual methods in media research: possibilities, problems and proposals. Media, Culture & Society July 2009 31: 633-652

Counihan, Carole M. 2009. A Tortilla Is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. U Texas Press. Chapter 1.

DeWalt, Kathleen and DeWalt, Billie. 2010. Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers. Second Edition. Alta Mira Press. Ch 10: Analyzing Field Notes.

Emerson,  Robert. 1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press. Chs 1-3.

Fazzino, D. V. and Loring, P. A. (2009), FROM CRISIS TO CUMULATIVE EFFECTS: FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGES IN ALASKA. NAPA Bulletin, 32: 152–177.

Guthman, Julie. 2008. Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies October 2008 15: 431-447.

Hadley, C., Belachew, T., Lindstrom, D. and Tessema, F. (2009), THE FORGOTTEN POPULATION? YOUTH, FOOD INSECURITY, AND RISING PRICES: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS. NAPA Bulletin, 32: 77–91.

Hadley, C. and A. Wutich. 2009 Experience-based Measures of Food and Water Security: Biocultural Approaches to Grounded Measures of Insecurity. Human Organization (2009).

Hubert, A., 2004: Qualitative research in the anthropology of food: a comprehensive qualitative/quantitative approach. In Researching food habits: methods and problems Edited by Helen Macbeth and Jeremy MacClancy. Berghahn Press. pp. 41-54

Lassiter, Luke Eric. 2005. The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethnography. U Chicago Press. Excerpt. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/468909.html

LeCompte, Margaret, and Schensul, Jean. 1999 Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research: An Introduction Altamira Press. Ch 5.

Light, Duncan. 2010 The Final Stage? Writing Up Ethnographic Research. In Ethnography in Social Science Practice. Editors Julie Scott-Jones and Sal Watt. Taylor and Francis.

Machi, Lawrence A., and Brenda T. McEvoy. 2012 The literature review: Six steps to success. Sage. Ch 1.

Medina, Xavier F. 2004 ‘Tell me what you eat and you will tell me who you are’: methodological notes on the interaction between researcher and informants in the anthropology of food. In Researching food habits: methods and problems, edited by Macbeth, H.;MacClancy, J. pp. 55-62

O’Brien, J. (2010). Building understanding: Sensitive issues and putting the researcher in the research. Anthropology Matters, 12(1).

Peterson, N. et al. 2013. Assessment of the Friendship Gardens Mobile Market in Spring 2013. Report to the public.

Phillips, L. (2006). Food and globalization. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 35, 37-57.

Romero‐Daza, N., Himmelgreen, D. A., Noble, C. A., & Turkon, D. (2009). Dealing with the Global Food Crisis in Local Settings: Nonintensive Agriculture in Lesotho, Southern Africa. NAPA Bulletin, 32(1), 23-41.

Rosing, H. (2009). ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND URBAN FOOD ACCESS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. NAPA Bulletin, 32(1), 55-76.

Saldaña, J. (2012). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (No. 14). Sage. Ch 1.

Strauss, Claudia. 2005 Analyzing Discourse for Cultural Complexity. In Finding Culture in Talk: A Collection of Methods. Ed. Naomi Quinn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Ch. 6.

Zarger, R. K. (2009). Mosaics of Maya Livelihoods: Readjusting to Global and Local Food Crises. NAPA Bulletin, 32(1), 130-151.

Zenk, S. N., Odoms-Young, A. M., Dallas, C., Hardy, E., Watkins, A., Hoskins-Wroten, J., & Holland, L. (2011). “You have to hunt for the fruits, the vegetables”: Environmental barriers and adaptive strategies to acquire food in a low-income African American neighborhood. Health education & behavior,38(3), 282-292.

Other resources (in addition to the resources listed above)

Hanson, J. (2012) Quantitative Anthropology, in Product Innovation Toolbox: A Field Guide to Consumer Understanding and Research (eds J. Beckley, D. Paredes and K. Lopetcharats), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK. doi: 10.1002/9781118229248.ch6d

LeCompte and Schensul. 2010 Ethnographer’s Toolkit, Second Edition. Altamira Press

Course policies and responsibilities

  1. All course emails will be sent to your UNCC.edu account unless you email me a different address to use. Please check it often.
  2. Class attendance is required and to your advantage, since you will not be able to complete the assignments without attending. Missing more than one class will result in a lower participation grade (and probably a lower class grade). If you have to miss class, you must get the notes from another student and check the Moodle page for class handouts, announcements, and other information.
  3. Readings are to be completed by the date they are listed in the course syllabus.
  4. Disrespectful and disruptive behavior in class will not be tolerated.
    1. Turn off cell phones before class.
    2. Computer use is allowed for note-taking only.
    3. Arrive on time; late arrivals will be counted as an absence.
  5. Participation in class discussions and activities is required. We learn by doing, and discussing.You will read the UNCC Code of Academic Integrity (www.legal.uncc.edu/policies/ps-105.html) and the UNCC Code of Student Responsibility (http://www.legal.uncc.edu/policies/ps-104.html). Violations of these codes (e.g. cheating and other forms of academic dishonesty) will result in automatic failure of the course. Cheating includes plagiarism (copying text without attribution) and turning in work that is not your own.
    1. Ask questions at any time, except when someone else is speaking.
    2. Please try to stay on topic with your contributions.
    3. You may prefer not to speak, but try to say something every week – your opinions are important.
    4. Also, you may want to speak all of the time, but try to give others a chance.
  6. Accommodation to Students with Disabilities: I am happy to accommodate students with disabilities. If you know or think you have a disability, please visit the Office of Disability Services (230 Fretwell Building/Phone: (704) 687-4355) early in the semester so that we have the necessary paperwork on file for you.
  7. Bad weather: The University’s Inclement Weather Line is 704-687-2877. If the weather is threatening, you can call that number and get a recording that will tell you if the university is open.
  8. Paper and the environment: Printing uses up valuable resources, and as an environmentalist, I encourage you to print as little as possible. I ask you to post assignments to Moodle; you will receive my comments by Moodle as well. As for readings, I hope you will either:
    1. Read them in digital form,
    2. Print on both sides of the paper, or use the back of waste paper, and/or
    3. Print two pages per sheet (if possible).