[Anthropgrad] Methodology Workshops 2008

[Fay castles]

Please note that the speaker schedule may be subject to variation

 

Methodology Workshops 2008

 

The Board of Studies in the Graduate studies field in Anthropology is 
again offering a series of weekly fieldwork methodology workshops.

 

These workshops focus on the ways in which the evidence upon which your 
thesis will depend will be gathered. Anthropology is a discipline, and 
it produces disciplined knowledge -- so too is there discipline in our 
methods. There are some core methods that characterise the way that our 
discipline collects information, and knowledge of these methods relate 
directly to the key orientations of anthropology. This series will cover 
some of these core methods and their relationship to the core aims of 
this discipline, and for this reason, the series will be relevant to 
you, no matter where and among whom you wish to study, and irrespective 
of your particular theoretical orientation.

 

Of course, some of the methods we will cover over this series will be 
more or less relevant to the current concerns of your thesis -- or at 
least this might ostensibly be the case. But there are several 
compelling reasons for you to attend the entire series. First, it can 
never hurt to have a fulsome exposure to the core methods of the 
discipline in which you specialise. While your interest in and knowledge 
of some methods will be deeper than in others, you will at least emerge 
with a sense of what use some methods might be, and under what 
circumstances they might be best employed. Second, many anthropologists 
have found that methods they first dismissed might in fact be useful -- 
it is often not possible to predict every aspect of the field you'll 
work in, and it's good to be prepared if this happens to you! Third, one 
of the aspects of training to become a fully fledged anthropologist 
concerns the transferring of disciplinary knowledge to others -- and you 
may find yourself being asked to tutor in the discipline. If you are 
asked to tutor in a methodology course, you will be well served by 
having taken this course. Finally, your PhD thesis will likely not be 
your last piece of writing -- it would be good to be able to be equipped 
to activate other research methods if you need to do so in the future.

 

Because this is a short course, it is not possible to offer all possible 
methods in this course. If you have a particular method in mind that is 
not included here, it is possible that it is offered elsewhere, so 
please take opportunity to consult with your supervisor if you need to 
find out more about a specialised method that is not covered here. It is 
also possible for us to offer topics of your choice, and you should let 
me know if you think of a workshop topic that you feel would be 
particularly useful that isn't already represented in the course outline.

 

Meeting times and place 

 

All sessions will be held on Tuesdays in the Milgate Room at 11.am until 
1 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course Content  

 

 

WEEK

	

DATE

	

TOPIC

	

PRESENTER

1

	

May 6

	

Introducing Field Research in Anthropology

	

Simone Dennis

2

	

May 13

	

The taking of note and note-taking: taking note, taking notes, and 
record keeping

	

Simone Dennis

3

	

May 20

	

Interviewing

	

Francesca Merlan

4

	

May 27

	

Genealogical research and social mapping

	

Alan Rumsey

5

	

June 3

	

Life history interviews

	

Simone Dennis

6

	

June 10

	

Observing the economy

	

Jon Altman

7

	

June 17

	

Urban Anthropology and Anthropology at home

	

Ashley Carruthers and Simone Dennis

8

	

June 24

	

Mapping and household surveys

	

Andrew Walker

9

	

July 1

 

	

Working with texts and discourse

	

Andrew Kipnis

10

	

July 8

	

Disciplinary Reflexivity

	

Simone Dennis




-- 
=============================================
Fay Castles
Departmental Administrator
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
+61-2-612 52162  Fax: +61-2-612 53023
Fay.Castles at anu.edu.au
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/anthropology
ANU CRICOS Provider Number: 00120C
=============================================

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