Digital Reading Room 2.0 -- ANTH 402: Ethnographic Research Methods

ANTH 402: Ethnographic Research Methods Report a Broken Link

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to a variety of ethnographic research methods and, with the guidance of your tutor, help you apply these methods to a research project of your own choosing.

Unit 1: Introduction to the Nature of Ethnographic Research

Pandian, A. 2019. “Introduction: An Ethnographer among the Anthropologists.” In A Possible Anthropology: Methods for Uneasy Times, 1–14. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Pandian, A. 2019. “Chapter 1: The World at Hand between Scientific and Literary Inquiry.” In A Possible Anthropology: Methods for Uneasy Times, 15–43. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Unit 2: Ethics and Decolonization

Panel on Research Ethics. 2018. Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.

Athabasca University. 2016. Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans Policy. Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University.

Unit 3: Conversing, Yarning, and Storytelling

Bessarab, D., and B. Ng’andu. 2010. “Yarning about Yarning as a Legitimate Method in Indigenous Research.” International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 3 (1): 37–50.

Datta, R. 2018. “Traditional Storytelling: An Effective Indigenous Research Methodology and Its Implications for Environmental Research.” AlterNative 14 (1): 35–44.

Unit 4: Writing and Drawing Fieldnotes

Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. 2011. “Chapter 2: In the Field: Participating, Observing, and Jotting Notes.” In Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. (2011). "Chapter 3: Writing Fieldnotes I: At the Desk, Creating Scenes on a Page." In Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Unit 5: Images, Sounds, and Films

New, D., dir. 2009. Listen. National Film Board of Canada.

JAF. 2017. “The Possibility of Spirits.” Filmed September 28, 2017. Vimeo, 1:11:21.

Unit 6: Entanglements and More-Than-Human Ethnography

Baker, Janelle. 2021. “Do Berries Listen? Berries as Indicators, Ancestors, and Agents in Canada’s Oil Sands Region.” Ethnos 86 (2): 273–294.

Mathews, A. S. 2018. “Landscapes and Throughscapes in Italian Forest Worlds: Thinking Dramatically about the Anthropocene.” Cultural Anthropology 33 (3): 386–414.

Hartigan, J. J. 2021. “Knowing Animals: Multispecies Ethnography and the Scope of Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 123 (4): 846–860.

Carbonell, I. 2019. “The Golden Snail Opera 2019 Edition with Subtitles.” Filmed March 20, 2019. Vimeo, 45:36.

Unit 7: Material Culture and Archives

Mol, E. 2021. “‘Trying to Hear with the Eyes’: Slow Looking and Ontological Difference in Archaeological Object Analysis.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 54 (1–2): 80–99.

Dawdy, S. L. 2016. “The Antique Fetish.” In Patina: A Profane Archaeology, 112–142. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Tamboukou, M. 2011. “Archive Pleasures or Whose Time Is It?” Forum: Qualitative Social Research 12 (3).

Murphy, F. 2011. “Archives of Sorrow: An Exploration of Australia’s Stolen Generations and Their Journey into the Past.” History and Anthropology 22 (4): 481–495.

Unit 8: Virtual Worlds and Online Resources

Boellstorff, T., B. Nardi, C. Pearce, and T. L. Taylor. 2013. “Chapter 1: Why This Handbook?” In Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method, 1–12. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Boellstorff, T., B. Nardi, C. Pearce, and T. L. Taylor. 2013. “Chapter 5: Participant Observation in Virtual Worlds.” In Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method, 65–91. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Bluteau, J. M. 2021. “Legitimising Digital Anthropology through Immersive Cohabitation: Becoming an Observing Participant in a Blended Digital Landscape.” Ethnography 22 (2): 267–285.

Luhtakallio, E., and T. Meriluoto. 2022. “Snap-Along Ethnography: Studying Visual Politicization in the Social Media Age.” Ethnography.

Unit 9: Performance and Applied Anthropology

No online readings

Unit 10: Research Analysis and Results

Varzi, R. 2018. “The Knot in the Wood: The Call to Multimodal Anthropology.” American Anthropologist website, June 5, 2018.

Burton, A. L. 2014. “Sunset Ethnography.” Filmed November 28, 2014. Vimeo, 51:41.