Required in stage
Optional in stage
First term
Second term
Both terms
Not organised
This year
Next year
Alternating years
External
Prerequisites
Taught by
Language of instruction
Duration
Identical courses
Cannot be taken as part of an examination contractAims
After completing this course, students will be able to:
- Define the principal research methods of anthropology, including participant observation, life history and in-depth interviewing.
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of ethnographic research conducted by anthropologists in the past (attitude)
- Produce a review of a key ethnographic text
- Explain the aims, possibilities and limitations of ethnographic research methods and the kind of knowledge that is produced
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the power relations in the field and related ethical considerations in ethnographic fieldwork
- Develop their own research portfolio, by organizing the following: a field observation, including field notes and a reflection, an in-depth interview, and an ethnographic vignette.
These aims will be communicated to the students at the start of the course.
Previous knowledge
There is no specific previous knowledge required for this course.
Students have to be registered in the Master of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Order of Enrolment
This course unit is a prerequisite for taking the following course units:
S0K34A : Ethnographic Design: Planning and Modelling a Fieldwork Project
S0K35A : Ethnographic Fieldwork
Is included in these courses of study
Activities
6 ects. Ethnography Lab (B-KUL-S0K32a)
Content
What ethnographic methods do anthropologists use to understand the various ways in which people live, experience and understand their lives? What is 'fieldwork' and what methods can be used in what contexts? What is 'the field' and what are the power relations inherent in anthropological research?
In this Ethnography Lab, students will get to know and experiment with different ethnographic methods. In a first phase, we discuss a selection of examples of ethnographic studies by anthropologists. In a second phase, students practise and apply these methods to carry out independent research projects on a topic of their choice: they set up participant observation, take field notes and write reflexive journals, conduct an in-depth interview or work on a life history; finally, students write an ethnographic vignette and discuss each other's work.
During our seminar sessions, we discuss ethical and epistemological issues that ethnographers have to deal with, as well as issues of responsibility, positionality, class, commitment, gender and race when engaging in the field.
Course material
Will be offered on Toledo:
Readings
Slides
Multimedia
Format: more information
The teaching format comprises:
- seminar-style workshops with break-out groups
- student blogs and peer-to-peer discussions and assessments
- exercises in ethnographic field work
Students are expected to attend and actively participate in the classes independent of the different interaction formats. They are supposed to prepare the sessions and autonomously keep a portfolio.
A detailed planning of the different sessions, as well as what is expected in terms of preparation, will be communicated well in time on the Toledo platform.
Evaluation
Evaluation: Ethnography Lab (B-KUL-S2K32b)
Explanation
Active participation during contact moments is mandatory.
Every student is expected to prepare the contact moments (reading and processing the compulsory literature) and to actively participate in the discussions during contact moments.
No specific feedback will be given for this component, but the lecturer will address the student should problems arise.
The total grade will be calculated based on an evaluation of the following components:
1) 2 discussion notes written on the Ethnolab Forum (Toledo): 10% (1/20 for each note submitted; max 2/20)
non-submission: 0/20 for this task (or 1/20 if 1 note was submitted - the notes will not be assessed)
second examination session: not possible
2) Portfolio (80%) consisting of:
Observation + notes + reflection
Interview + reflection
Ethnographic vignette of 2 pages
Reflection on the entire Portfolio
-if not submitted, the student will receive an NA.
-resubmission in the second examination session is possible, but only on condition that the deadlines for the draft versions of the tasks were all met, i.e. that the deadline for the draft of the oberservation task AND the deadline for the draft of the interview task AND the deadeline for the draft of the vignette were all met.
3) Peer review: 10%
non-submission:the student earns a 0 for this task
resubmission during second examination session is not possible.
All information regarding these assignments will also be made available on Toledo. Details (modalities, formal requirements, deadlines,…) will be clearly communicated at the beginning of the Lab. An electronic version of each component needs to be uploaded to Toledo.
Students are fully responsible for submitting assignments free of fraud and plagiarism (www.kuleuven.be/english/education/plagiarism/) and are requested to read the Faculty’s relevant regulations. Plagiarism will be sanctioned with the sanctions mentioned in the University’s Regulations on Education and Examinations (http://www.kuleuven.be/education/regulations/).
Determination of the final result
The course is evaluated by the lecturer as communicated on Toledo and in the exam regulations. Scores are always represented with whole numbers on a scale from 0 to 20, with 10 being the passing grade.
Information about retaking exams
Second Examination session:
Students are only given a second examination opportunity for (parts of) the portfolio which were already passed at the first deadlines: resits are therefore possible, but only on condition that the deadlines for the draft versions of the tasks were all met, i.e. that the deadline for the draft of the oberservation task AND the deadline for the draft of the interview task AND the deadline for the draft of the vignette were all met.
A second examinations session is not possible for the Forum and peer-assessment, and the student scores a 0 for this part in case of non-submission.