Methods of Observing Human Behavior SESP 372, Winter 2018 M/W 11:00-12:20 Annenberg Hall, Room G02 Professor: Kalonji Nzinga, Ph.D. [email protected] Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 3:30-4:30 or by appointment Swift Hall, Room 219 Teaching Assistant: Christopher Leatherwood [email protected] Office Hours: Wednesday 2-3 or by appointment Course Description & Goals Many people trace the genre of ethnography back to the genesis of the academic field of anthropology in the mid 1800s. Edward Tylor is credited with “fathering” the approach that anthropologists take to studying remote cultures, publishing the first textbook on the subject Anthropology: an Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization in 1881. The word ethnography basically describes a practice of exploring a new culture and writing some written account of it, combining the idea of ethno (culture) and graphy (writing). If we can settle on this definition; if we can agree that ethnography entails immersion in an unfamiliar culture and writing about it, then the genre traces back at the very least 1,000 years before Edward Tylor was born, to a Chinese writer by the name of Li Ao. Ao was born during the Tang Dynasty and travelled from Lo-yang to what would be modern day Guangzhou China (about 2500 miles of travel), keeping a detailed record of his travels. He was able to make this journey in the 9th Century on horseback. Ao’s Record of Coming to the South (來南) has been suggested to be the first example of a personal diary. But even Li Ao’s journey is just one of many origin stories of ethnographic writing. This learning environment (SESP 372) is meant to help develop our skills as writers of culture. In a way, this course will help us to be more reflective and systematic observers of worlds that are unfamiliar to us. In another way, this course will help us become better at writing in our diaries. All in all, this learning environment has been designed to help cultivate our ethnographic impulse, a way of being human that is way older than any Western academic field, and is constantly being innovated during the contemporary post-millennial moment by investigative journalists, documentary film-makers, and social scientists. For various reasons, it is absolutely critical to produce accurate portrayals of the other; depictions that do not rely on dehumanizing stereotypes. In this course we will work through a number of challenges that arise when we try to take the perspective of the cultural other, or when we try to capture the complexity of human life in a story, or a report. While we will never be able to distill the nuance of a human life down to a few hundred sentences, it is certainly worth the effort to produce better accounts as opposed to worse ones. Better ethnographic accounts have been responsible for bringing human beings together across boundaries, and helped us better understand the lived experience of various peoples (autistic folk, indigenous folk, secret societies, etc.) so that we can best address the problems effecting communities. Worse accounts have been responsible for producing deep misunderstandings and stereotypes of peoples that have led to justifying communities’ oppression, misdiagnosing disorder, and creating ineffective and even harmful interventions in people’s lives. Producing better ethnographic accounts requires tending to important aspects of the entire ethnographic process including research design, data collection, site observation, note-taking process, field note expansion, writing interview protocols, conducting interviews, coding qualitative data, writing analytic memos, and writing final reports. This course gives you an opportunity to practice each of these aspects of ethnography, while reading the work of various professional ethnographers. We will read both their final products in the form of ethnographic reports as well as their reflections on what they feel are best practices of strong ethnography. The following sections will lay out the expectations and agenda for the course. On the other hand, given the fluidity of the ethnographic process readings and assignments may need to be adjusted throughout the course to better support the way your projects are unfolding. Field Work: The Ethnographic Project This course is a project-based learning environment in which you will learn about ethnography by doing it. As part of a 5-person group you will be choosing a field site in the local Chicagoland area (on campus or off). This field site is a social world that will awaken your curiosity, and beckon you to spend dozens of hours observing it, trying to make sense of its allure. Perhaps you will observe the gender politics of sorority life at NU, or the underground economics of a pawn shop in Rogers Park, or the spiritual practices surrounding the Bahai Temple in Wilmette. Your group will be observing that site and attempting to better understand the dynamic people and complex practices that make it up. You will visit the site several times and take copious field notes. Remember ethnography is basically systematic journaling. You will also be coordinating with your group the aspects of the site that you should be paying most attention to. And then you will report back to them what you find. Over the course of your time in this site you will develop a research question and record information that helps you answer that question. Once you have collected this data, you will spend time analyzing it and trying to make sense of what you found. You will synthesize those findings into a final report. With your group of co-investigators, you will practice the skills of ethnography and report on an aspect of human social practice that has intrigued you. Summary of Assigned Activities: Assignment Due Date* Group or Individual Point Value Discussion (25% of your grade) Discussion Leader Post #1 Varies Individual 5 points Discussion Leader Post #2 Varies Individual 5 points Discussion Responses Every Tuesday Individual 10 points Class Participation Throughout Individual 5 points Fieldwork (35% of your grade) Casing the Joint Friday, Jan 18 Individual 4 points Field Notes #1 Sunday, Jan 27 Individual 8 points Field Notes #2 Sunday, Feb 10 Individual 10 points Interview Protocol Tuesday, Feb 5 Individual 3 points Interview Analysis Sunday, Feb 17 Individual 10 points Final Paper (40% of your grade) Analytic Memo Sunday, Mar 3 Individual 10 points Rough Draft Friday, Mar 8 Group 10 points Final Draft Monday, Mar 18 Group 15 points Presentation Wednesday Mar 13 Group 5 points * All assignments are due on the indicated date at 11:59pm CST. Discussion: Each week we will be engaged in an online discussion about the readings. During the course you will act as the Discussion Leader (DL) twice. During the week in which you are the DL you will respond to the discussion prompt giving your perspective on the readings (~500 words) by Sunday night at 11:59pm. If you are not a discussion leader that week, your role is to read the perspectives that the DLs posted. Then you can respond to one of the DLs by Tuesday night at 11:59pm with the following in mind: What did you learn from listening to the DL’s perspective (and the reading in general) that you can take back to your group project? Responses should be 1-2 paragraphs. You will also be assessed on your class participation. Please come to class on time and participate. Add to the overall participation climate of the class by making space for others to participate. Let us know if you will miss class. You are valuable to our learning experience. Fieldwork: As part of the project you will be entering the field and making an ethnographic record. This includes taking copious field notes while you are observing your social location. You will submit 2 separate sets of field notes from your time at the site. While observing you will also have to conduct an interview with an individual at your field site and submit an analysis of that interview, including an activity log, transcript excerpts, and a memo in which you analyze the interview. Final Paper: Your ethnographic observation will result in a final paper. Your group will report your research findings in a 15-20 page paper. This paper will be written collectively, which means that you can split up sections among group members, and/or use tools like google docs to collaborate on the final project. The paper must be a coherent whole with an argument (thesis statement) and supporting evidence from your ethnographic recordings (field notes, interviews, etc.). On the final week of class each group will present their projects to the course in a presentation format. Feedback: The teaching team is committed to giving you feedback about your work. You will also turn in several draft assignments leading up to the final draft so that you can receive ample feedback from the teaching team to guide you in producing your final report. We will also have face-to-face conferences with your group about your project to provide any assistance you need to improve your project. We will also institute class activities in which you are providing feedback to one another about your work (peer feedback). One component of feedback is providing grades that will accumulate in a final grade in the course. The grading scale for this class is based on the rubric for most graduate school courses: A 100-93.3% Excellent A- 93.3-90% Very good B+ 90-86.7% Good B 86.7-83.3% Acceptable B- 83.3-80% Barely acceptable C 70-80% Poor F <70% Failure (no credit) Ethics of the Learning Environment: Is this class a safe space? Well the answer to that question is complicated.