Summer Session I ANTH 411 Qualitative Research Fieldwork Methods

ANTH 411: METHODS OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Instructor: Dr. Alma Gottlieb (ajgottli@illinois.edu)
Summer Session I: May 18-June 11, 2015
Class meets: Mon.-Thur., 9:30 am – 12:20 pm (209A Davenport Hall)
 
·         How do you design a research project?
 
·         What is “participant-observation,” and how do you do it?
 
·          (How) do our identities shape our fieldwork?
 
·          What are the (dis)advantages of being a “native” vs. “non-native” fieldworker?
 
·          (What) can you learn about conducting an interview? Focus group? “Go-along”? Survey?
 
·         Given the uniqueness of any research project, can we learn from others’ experiences?
 
In this course, we’ll engage these and related issues both through readings and through your own fieldwork
explorations. This is a “hands-on” course: all students will conduct local fieldwork. Your project may or may
not be directly related to later research that you plan to undertake (capstone project, master’s thesis, or
doctoral dissertation). The course should help prepare you for whatever research you undertake in the future.
 
PREREQUISITES:
Grad students and advanced undergraduate majors (typically, rising juniors or seniors) in cultural
anthropology, education, or one of the other social sciences are the intended audience for this course.
Undergrads should have taken ANTH 103 or ANTH 230, PLUS at least one other 200-level course in cultural
anthropology.
 
Anyone else interested in the course: please contact the instructor!
 
ANTH PROGRAM CREDIT:
Undergrads: this course is required for majors specializing in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology.
Grad students in cultural anthropology: this class meets the program requirement for a Pre-fieldwork
Seminar.