12/6/131:33 PM Anthropology M249A Ethnographic Methods in Language, Interaction, and Culture Winter Quarter 2014 Thursday 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. Haines 314 Class website: https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/course/view/14W-ANTHROM249A-1 Instructor: Elinor Ochs E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 310.825.0984 Office Hours: Monday 1-3PM Research Assistant: Lisa Newon E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 310-825-1092 Required Field Site: All students need to have secured signed consent to observe and video record activities and to conduct an interview with participants in a field site before the first class meeting (January 9, 2014). The consent is only to collect data to satisfy the ethnographic methods course requirements and not for other purposes. A generic consent form is posted on the class website. You can modify the consent as appropriate for your field site. Bring signed consent to the first class meeting. Required Texts: • Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Garcia-Sanchez, Inmacculada. In Press. Language and Muslim Immigrant Childhoods: The Politics of Belonging. Wiley-Blackwell (see class website). • Articles on class website Supplies: • If you are using our Digital Lab video cameras for assignments, you need a Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card: o Either 16MB (lasts 1.75 hrs): Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ECQVTM/ref=s9_k2a_gw_tr03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0 DER&pfrd_s=center2&pf_rd_r=0P9KE52HGYPS01CD7680&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_ rd_i=507846 o Or 32MB (lasts 3.5 hours): Transcend 32 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC6 http://www.amazon.com/TranscendClassFlashMemoryTS32GSDHC6/dp/B001PLIG68/ref=sr_1_1? s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1386101107&sr=1-1&keywords=transcend+32+gb+class+6 1 12/6/131:33 PM • For subtitling video footage and media presentations, you need Inqscribe, Keynote, and Final Cut Pro/iMovie (available in Digital Lab) Class Format Classes will have 2 components: 1) review of students’ ethnographic assignments for past week, 2) introduction to ethnographic methodologies relevant to upcoming week’s assignment. Assignments: • Weekly field notes: Write up 1 typed page of field notes following each field site visit. Copy and post your field notes each week as a PDF file into the “Discussion Forum” on the class website, according to weekly topic. TITLE YOUR FILE WITH “YOUR LAST NAME + TOPIC.” • Written reflections (prose): Send these assignments to [email protected] by Tuesday, 3PM following the Thursday class they were assigned. • All other assignments will be presented in class. January 9: Entering the Community Guests: Hadi Deeb, Jennifer Guzman Class Exercise: Introduction to fieldwork: field language(s), permissions, protecting the people you observe, becoming ‘invisible’ etc. Assignment for January 16: (a) Write 250 words about how you entered the community you are studying and reflect on the consequences of the choices you made; (b) Write a question or issue for class discussion that reflects upon Duranti 1997, Moore 2009, and/or Garcia- Sanchez In Press. Send in (a) and (b) by 3PM Tuesday. Readings: • Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology, pp. 84-98 • Moore, Leslie. “On communicative competence in the field,” Language & Communication 29 (2009) 244-253. • Garcia-Sanchez, Inmacculada. In Press. Language and Muslim Immigrant Childhoods: The Politics of Belonging. Wiley-Blackwell. Chapter 3. Learning about Children’s Lives.” Language and Muslim Immigrant Childhoods • AAA Goal of Ethics (http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm) January 16: Participant Observation Guests: Anna Corwin, Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein, Lisa Newon Class Exercise: (a) Discussion of reports of field entry and readings; (b) Introduction to participant observation and note-taking. 2 12/6/131:33 PM Assignment for January 23: (a) Observe an activity in your field site, taking notes; (b) Write and post your notes on class website, (c) Write 250 words describing the activity and its possible cultural meanings. (d) Specify an issue for class discussion that reflects upon the process of transforming participation observation and field notes to ethnographic description and interpretation. Send in (c) and (d) to E. Ochs by 3PM Tuesday. Readings: • Boellstorff, Tom, et al. 2012. “Participant Observation in Virtual Worlds.” In Ethnography and Virtual Worlds. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, pp64-91. • Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology, pp. 99-102, 113-116. • Bernard, H. Russell. 2002. “Participant Observation” and “Field notes: How to Take, Code, and Manage Them.” In Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. pp.322-389. • Haraway, Donna. 1988. Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies 14(3):575-599. • Garcia-Sanchez, Inmacculada. In Press. Language and Muslim Immigrant Childhoods: The Politics of Belonging. Wiley-Blackwell. - Chapter 4. Moroccan Immigrant Childhoods in Vallenuevo. January 23: Photography, Maps, and Tracking Guest: Jeanne Arnold Class Exercise: (a) Discussion of participant observation and note-taking assignments; (b) Introduction to visual documentation of field site and systematic observations of activities and uses of objects and space Assignment for January 30: Return to your field site. (a) Use photography to document activity-relevant environments. Select 5 digital photographs to show in class (on file). (b) Draw a map of a centrally relevant place, including objects and features essential to the social life of the site. Bring digitized map to class on file. (c) Systematically track field site participants’ locations and activities every 5 minutes for 90 minutes. Graphically display the results. One figure/table should convey % of observations in which each participant is located in particular spaces. A second figure/table should convey % of observations in which each participant is engaged in particular activities. Bring in file with digitized figures/tables to class to present. Readings: • Graesch, A. 2009. Material Indicators of Family Busyness. Social Indicators Research 93: 85- 94. • Ochs, E., Graesch, A. , Mittmann, Bradbury, R., & Repetti, R. 2006. Video Ethnography and Ethnoarchaeological Tracking. In The Work and Family Handbook: Multi-Disciplinary 3 12/6/131:33 PM Perspectives and Approaches, ed. by Pitt-Catsouplhes, Kossek, E., & Sweet, S. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 387-40. • Nonaka, A. “Estimating size, scope, and membership of the speech/sign communities of undocumented indigenous/village languages: The Ban Khor case study” in in Language & Communication 29 (2009) 210-229. • Collier, John Jr. and Malcolm Collier. 1986. “Shooting Guide for a Photographic Survey” in Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 41-42. Optional Readings: • Collier, John Jr. and Malcolm Collier. 1986. “Cultural Inventory” in Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 45- 63. January 30: Videography and Sound Guest: Paul Connor Class Exercise: (a) Review photography, maps, and tracking assignment; (b) Hands-on use of video camera; ethnographic filmmaking, subjective-evidence-based ethnography (SEBE). Assignment for February 6: (a) Film establishing shots, pans, tracking shots, plus a relevant activity from 2 different angles to probe how the position of the camera and the microphone makes different phenomena salient. (b) Download video data from SDHC card to computer in Digital Lab with assistance. Be sure to follow instructions, including creating a folder and files with your last name and date. (c) Review your clips, select and label 2 brief examples of establishing shots, pans, and tracking shots and 30 seconds each from the two different angles in which you filmed an activity. (d) Transfer to class external hard drive in Digital Lab to show in class. The total footage should be less than 3 minutes! Readings: • Barbasch, Ilisa and Lucien Taylor. 1997. Cross-Cultural Film-Making. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 94-123. • Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. pp. 116-118 • Lahlou, Saadi. 2011 How Can We Capture the Subject's Perspective. Social Science Information 50(3-4):607-655. February 6: Video-editing an Activity Guest: Paul Connor Class Exercise: (a) Review filming assignment; (b) Introduction to video editing Assignment for February 13: (a) Go to your field site and film a centrally relevant activity, including interaction before it begins. (b) Download video from SDHC card to computer in 4 12/6/131:33 PM Digital Lab. (c) Create a 2-minute edited sequence of the activity that includes 1 segment showing what is happening before the activity begins, 1 segment showing the beginning of the activity, and 2 segments showing the on-going activity. (d) Export the 2-minute edited sequence to class hard drive to present in class. (e) Prepare a one-page chart that delineates key features of language, body alignment, spatial organization, and object use that mark the transition into the activity and the activity as a distinct social phenomenon. Readings: • Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. “Chapter 9: Units of Participation.”, pp.280-330. • Garcia-Sanchez, Inmacculada. In Press. Language and Muslim Immigrant Childhoods: The Politics of Belonging. - Chapter 5. The Public School: Ground