Anthropology (ANTH) 402

Overview

This is a senior level course in anthropological research methods that reviews issues in ethnographic research. The focus is on gaining skills and practice in doing ethnographic research. The course involves learning about research methods and then applying them to a subject of each student's interest. You will gain practical experience in defining a research problem, doing background literature research, writing a research proposal, and carrying out and presenting a small independent field project. This course allows the opportunity to learn through experience, and complements Anthropology 401: Ethnography, the Writing of Culture.

Course Objectives

1. to understand the processes of ethnographic research and research design in ethnography
2. to understand the implications of methodological choices and their relationship to research questions and settings
3. to gain practical experience with ethnographic field methods and the process of creating a research proposal

Outline

The course consists of the following units.

• Unit 1: Introduction and the Nature of Ethnographic Research
• Unit 2: Ethnography as Qualitative Research
• Unit 3: Defining a Research Problem or Question
• Unit 4: Research Design—Matching Methods, Locale, and Time Frame
• Unit 5: Ethics in Human Research
• Unit 6: Documentary Research and Literature Review
• Unit 7: Research Techniques—Participant Observation and Interviewing
• Unit 8: Visual Methods—Ethnographic Film, Video, and Photography in Ethnography
• Unit 9: Organizing Data and Data Analysis
• Unit 10: Research Proposals and Project Design

Evaluation

To receive credit for ANTH 402, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) on each of the assignments. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.