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2:30 - 3:45; Tuesday and Thursday in Humanities 2251

Professor Robert Howard

rgh[NOSPAM]rghoward.com

http://rghoward.com/

6170 Vilas Communication Hall

OH: 11 AM - 12 PM, Tuesday and Thursday in 6170 Vilas Communication Hall and by appointment.
(Please email to verify I will be availabe during these hours or to make an appointment for another time.)

Course Objectives:

(1) to gain a sense of the historical development of the research practices broadly termed "qualitative ethnography;" (2) to understand and engage the ethical problems developing as a result of the history and practice of those methods; (3) to gain a first hand knowledge the actual practice of face-to-face ethnographic methods; (4) and to explore the possibilities and limitations of applying those methods to specific examples of network-mediated human communication.

 

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

Undergraduate Students

10%: discussion participation
25%: activity one: observation

2 - 5 page write up
informal presentation to the class

25%: activity two: interview

interview
2 - 5 page write up
informal presentation to the class

40 %: paper

The paper must be 5 - 8 pages/1,250 - 2,000 words.
The topic must be a response to a prompt handed out after the completion of the second activity.
The paper must be emailed to rgh[NOSPAM]rghoward.com on or before the due date via email attachment in pdf., .rtf, .or .doc format.

Undergraduates may choose to do the graduate level assingment. In that case, the grading basis will be the same as for graduate students.

 

Graduate Students

10%: discussion participation
25%: activity one: observation

2 - 5 page write up
informal presentation to the class

25%: activity two: interview

interview
2 - 5 page write up
informal presentation to the class

40 %: paper

The paper must be 15-30 pages/3,750 - 10,000 words.
The topic must be approved by the instructor in face-to-face or email correspondence.
The paper must be emailed to rgh[NOSPAM]rghoward.com on or before the due date via email attachment in pdf., .rtf, .or .doc format.

 

Required Texts:

Available at the University Book Store

Freeman, Derek. 1999. Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research. New York, New York: Lightning Source Inc.
Georges, Robert. 1980. People Studying People. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hines, Christine. 2000. Virtual Ethnography. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing.
Jackson, Bruce. 1987. Fieldwork. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
McCarthy Brown, Karen. 2001. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Markham, Annette. 1998. Life Online: Researching Real Experience in Virtual Space. Walnut Creek, California: Rowman and Littlefield Pub Incorporated.
Mead, Margaret.1971. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization. New York, New York: Harper Perennial.
Stocking, George W. 1992. Ethnographer's Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Turkle, Sherry. 1997. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster.

Course Packet

The packet may be purchased at Bob's Copy Shop in University Square. Many of these texts are also available online.

 

Attendance:

Full attendance is required of all students. Because the ideas and meanings in a course such as this emerge in the interaction between the instructor and students, students missing more than 4 lectures shall not have participated at an acceptable level and may fail the course.