Communication Arts 976, Ethnography and

Folklore 970, Methods

2:30 - 5:30; Tuesdays in 2251 Humanities

Professor Robert Howard

rgh[NOSPAM]rghoward.com

http://rghoward.com

6170 Vilas Communication Hall

OH: By Appointment

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Course Objectives:

(1) to gain a general understanding of the utility and goals of rhetorical analysis; (2) to gain an understanding of the utility. ethics, and methods of ethnographic research; (3) to place those two methodological approaches in a complimentary relationship; (3) to enact a preliminary research project that reveals both benefits and problems of using ethnographic methods for rhetorical analysis

 

Grading and Assignments:

Grading Scale in Percents of Total Possible Earned Points

A : 100 - 93%

AB: 92 - 88%

B: 87 - 83%

BC: 82 - 78%

C: 77 - 70%

D: 69-60%

F: below 60%

 

Individual Assignments with Weights

25%: participation including:

seminar participation

informal posts to the discussion list

rotating discussion leader responsibility with write up (graded on a pass/fail basis)

75%: final paper

 

 

Please note: all written assignments must be submitted by email attachment as MS Word, WordPerfect, or PDF documents.

 

 

Required Readings:

Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1991. Mama Lola : a Vodou priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Conley, Thomas M. 1990. Rhetoric in the European Tradition. White Plains, New York: Longman.

Mead, Margaret. 1928. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization.  New York:  William Morrow.

Orsi, Robert A. 1985. The Madonna of 115th Street: faith and community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. New Haven : Yale University Press.

Taussig, Michael T. 1993. Mimesis and alterity : a particular history of the senses. New York : Routledge.

Course packet. Available at Bob's Copy Shop in University Square.

 

 

Course Schedule:

 

Section I: Rhetorical Analysis

1/20: Week #1

Lecture/discussion: Introduction. Syllabus Review. What is Rhetoric? What is Ethnography?

Required Reading: Conley, Rhetoric in the European Tradition

 

1/27: Week #2

Lecture/discussion: Rhetorical Analysis

Required Reading: Burke, "Semantic and Poetic Meaning;" Geertz, "Thick Description." Zulick, "Generative Rhetoric."

 

 

Section II: Ethnographic Methods

2/3: Week #3

Lecture/discussion: Ethnography I: History

Required Reading: Stocking, "Boasian Ethnography," Bunzl, "Franz Boas and the Humboltian Tradition."

 

2/10: Week #4

Lecture/discussion: Ethnography II: Methods

Required Reading: Farnell and Graham, "Discourse-Centered Methods," Levy and Hollan, "Person-Centered Interviewing, Hine, "The Virtual Objects of Ethnography."

 

2/17: Week #5

Lecture/discussion: Ethnography III: More Methods

Required Reading: Weller, "Structured Interviewing and Questionnaire Construction," Dewalt, Dewalt, and Wayland, "Participant Observation," Paccagnella, "Getting the Seat . . .".

 

2/24: Week #6

Lecture/discussion: Ethnography IV: The Post Modern Turn

Required Reading: Sangren, "Rhetoric and The Authority of Ethnography." Clifford, "On Ethnographic Authority," Marcus, "Beyond Malinowski . . ."

 

3/2: Week #7

Lecture/discussion: Ethics and the IRB

Required Reading: Fluehr-Lobban, "Ethics," Lawless, "'Reciprocal' Ethnography: No One Said it was Easy."

 

 

Section III: Case Ethnographies

3/9: Week #8

Lecture/discussion: Case I: Classic Ethnography

Required Reading: Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa. Freeman, "The Ides of March," and "Mead's Somoan Fieldwork in Retrospect."

 

3/23: Week #9

Lecture/discussion: Case II: Archival Ethnography

Required Reading: Silver, "Communication, Community, and Consumption." Orsi, Madonna of 115th Street.

 

3/30: Week #10

Lecture/discussion: Case III: Contemporary Ethnography

Required Reading: Visweswaran, "Histories . . .", Brown, Mama Lola.

 

4/6: Week #11

Lecture/discussion: Case IV: Guerilla Ethnography

Required Reading: Marcus, "Ethnography in/of . . .", Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity. Green, "Disrupting the Field . . "

 

4/13: Week #12

Lecture/discussion: TBA

Required Reading: TBA

 

 

Section IV: Project Presentations and Discussion

4/20: Week #13

Lecture/discussion: Theoretical Presentations

Required Reading: TBA

 

 

4/27: Week #14

Lecture/discussion: Ethnographic Presentations

Required Reading: TBA

 

Section IV: Course Cap

5/6: Week #15

Lecture/discussion: Course Review, Discussion, and Evaluations