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School of Archaeology and Anthropology · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
Anthropology as a discipline is distinguished by its use of ethnography, the intense, intimate study of a small section of human society. This method brings with it both advantages and challenges. It allows anthropologists (and, by extension, their readers, project teams, and employers) to look into human motivations, concerns, hopes, and joys – in short, to see the fine detail of life behind the numbers of government reports, economic trends, opinion polls, and other statistics. At the same time, there is an intimate relationship between researcher and researched (individuals called informants, collaborators, partners, and often friends) that does not always exist in other fields. This course will chart the emergence of anthropology as a fieldwork science, and the changing features of ethnographic practice over 100 years of disciplinary history. We then engage with emerging trends and theories related to new fieldwork contexts like corporate and design applications, and digital anthropology. Over the course of the semester we will survey and apply a broad range of anthropological methods. This course is structured as a practicum, emphasising learning by doing. Each student will develop a project and trial a variety of ethnographic approaches to data collection. Practicums will involve trialling, sharing, debating, and brainstorming applied anthropology in real world contexts.
Practicum Participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Book Club (30-40min podcast; 1000 word individual component to the group assessment)
Learning outcomes 1, 4
Three applied projects (1500 words each, 15% each)
Learning outcomes 2, 3
Final reflective essay (1000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 12 hours of lectures and 24 hours of hands-on practical; and b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing including 2 hour per week (24 hrs) of independent ethnographic research Work Integrated Learning Fieldwork This is an applied fieldwork practicum that includes a placement with a community organisation and communication of results to the field partner. Through participatory research methods, students learn to align their qualitative research skills with the needs and priorities of their partner organisation and communicate their results effectively. Other Information Students will complete individual and group-based independent research projects over the course of the semester. There is a significant self-directed fieldwork-based research component to this course.
Not applicable Preliminary Reading Ferguson, J., 1997. Anthropological locations: Boundaries and grounds of a field science. University of California Press. Sanjek, R. and Tratner, S.W. eds., 2016. eFieldnotes: The makings of anthropology in the digital world. University of Pennsylvania Press. Pink, S., 2020. Doing visual ethnography. Sage.