Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Student Ethnographic Research Experiences At The University Of Puget Sound, Andrew M. Gardner

All Faculty Scholarship

This brief essay describes programming at the University

of Puget Sound that allows undergraduate students to pursue

independent ethnographic research projects. This programming

undergirds all three of the subsequent student essays included in this

issue. The mission of this programming is to encourage “experiential

learning”—an objective that is aligned (and perhaps derivative)

of the methodological toolkit long deployed by anthropological

ethnographers. The essay describes the pedagogic goals that I

have been able to integrate into the supervision of this experiential

programming, and also discusses how we have sought to balance

independently-derived student research interests with the broader

research agendas codified …

Sociology Ethnographic Film Review, Kristen S. Addessi

Open Educational Resources

This is an assignment that gives students options of using different films as examples of ethnographies to understand key issues that occur in our society.

Savages, Deplorables, And The Promise Of Anthropological Ethnography, Andrew M. Gardner

All Faculty Scholarship

This short essay describes a longitudinal ethnographic project on which I am embarking with successive coteries of students here at the University of Puget Sound. The essay starts with a discussion of the latent power of ethnography to cross thresholds of difference on a mission of empathy and understanding. I tie this mission to the legacy and definition of anthropological ethnography. In the second section of the essay, I discuss the fractious nature of the American polity, and the caricatures of rural Americans that I've encountered in the urban and academic environs of the west coast. In the final …

Anthropology In 3d: The Use Of Photogrammetry In The Preservation And Dissemination Of Ethnographic Art, Alexander Spindler

Honors Projects

Photogrammetry is an effective tool used by archaeologists in museums and organizations by creating a 3D model from overlapping photos. This project involved a collection of ethnographic artifacts from Papua New Guinea that are currently housed in the Grand Valley State University Anthropology Department. This essay reviews the process and results of this project. Artifacts were photographed and 3D models were created using the Agisoft Metashape program. Models are disseminated via the Sketchfab website with proper cultural information. Artifacts originate from Sepik River tribes and were designed originally for the tourist industry. This project shows the utility of photogrammetry in …

A Decolonial Feminist Ethnography: Empowerment, Ethics And Epistemology, Jennifer Manning

Books/Book Chapters

A decolonial feminist ethnography is an empowering research methodology that can situate the knowledge, lived experiences and worldviews of ‘others’ who are often marginalised in management research, thought and practice. This methodology focuses on the importance of ethics and epistemology in shaping the methods of knowledge production while striving for empowerment in the research process. A decolonial feminist ethnography is a messy, bricolaged way of doing research. It is also an empowering methodology that draws attention to differences, inequalities and ‘otherness’. Reconfiguring critical ethnography to recognise the coloniality of power, a decolonial feminist ethnography enables researchers to consider and address …

Fire Otherwise: Lifeways Enhancing Fire Management In A Changing World, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

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Fire Otherwise: Lifeways Enhancing Fire Management In A Changing World, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

Fire is a daunting human ecological challenge and a major subject in science and policy debates about global trends in land conversion, climate change, and human health. Persistent environmental orthodoxies reduce complex burning traditions to overly simplistic representations of environmental destruction, degradation, and loss while reinforcing existing social inequities involving smallholders. What would a more inclusive and pluralistic fire ecology look like? How and why might we embrace diverse anthropogenic fire regimes and broader understandings of the ways humans interact with fire? Fire otherwise is the support of proactive local and regional efforts to adapt amidst continually changing social and …

Ethnography Of Reading Comic Books, Azadeh Najafian

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores why adults read comic books. This research used the ethnographic method and interviewing eleven people, four women, seven male, as its primary source. Based on information and common themes gathered from interviews, I built this thesis into one introduction, three body chapters, and a conclusion.

In the first chapter, I argued that comics could function the same as myths and explained this function and related examples under the “mythic effect” name. In the second chapter, I discussed how my informants use reading comics as a means to escape their everyday lives and how sometimes this escapism carries …

The Art Of Ethnography In Troubled Times, Paul Stoller

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

Many of our longstanding set of methods and denotative conventions of representation are no longer in harmony with the state of contemporary social, political, environmental and economic dysfunction. How can we create a representation that goes beyond the academic communication in a troubled world? How can we create "stories", which work as the glue that holds people together, in order to connect with them? This is the basic question in the Art of Ethnography, an idea that begins with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's, in his essay Eye and Mind. This piece suggests that the work of art is a pathway to an …

Lgbtqc: Queer Perspectives On The Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities, Robert Burke

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Cities are broadly conceived to be queer utopia when compared with rural spaces. While the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa fit this simplistic model in some ways, the region has several unique characteristics that warrant their own investigation. I argue that the social climate of the Quad Cities is generally perceived as welcoming and inclusive by the LGBTQ+ community. However, despite an assortment of community-building institutions, some find socialization and partner-seeking a bit difficult. Many advocate for investment in a variety of physical LGBTQ+ “third places” (public gathering places), which would yield a variety of benefits for this community. …

When Nature Invades: Resident Perceptions Of The Austerity-Driven "Rewilding" Of An Urban Park In Rock Island, Illinois, Christian S. B. Elliott

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In an era of rapid urbanization, changing climate, and increasing political division, parks represent increasingly important places for urban residents to interact with and feel connected to the natural environment and receive a number of mental and physical health benefits. Unfortunately, in an age of austerity politics, parks and recreation departments in Midwest Rust Belt cities often lack adequate funding to maintain such public spaces. Recently, the business-minded Rock Island, Illinois Department of Parks and Recreation has implemented a creative cost-saving management solution: “naturalizing” sections of its city parks. This interdisciplinary study uses a mixed methods approach to discover how …

Left In The Dust: How Staff At River Heights Assisted Living Facility Adjusts To Change And Covid-19, Victoria Hill

Anthropology Department Scholars Week

“Left in the Dust: How Staff at River Heights Assisted Living Facility Adjusts to Change and COVID-19”, by Victoria Hill

In this study, the Housekeeping and Caregiving Departments at River Heights Assisted Living Facility in Bellingham are being investigated. The initial research was aimed at understanding how the lax regulations of the Housekeeping Department affected its capacity to complete necessary job duties. Collected testimony pointed to the conclusion that specific individuals within the department proved to be problematic which resulted in the overall quality of work to stray from facility standards. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the employees at this facility …

Is The Risk Worth It?, Porter Mcmichael

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This is a video ethnography that includes audio from interviews with alpine climbers and footage from first ascents in the North Cascades. The topic focuses on risk, why the risk is worth it, how they come to terms with increased risk, and how they think about death. The goal of this project is to expand the understanding of how risk is approached by climbers who are pushing the limits of their mortality. The big takeaways of how climbers justify risk can be applied to everyday life and the decisions we make.

Ethnography Made Easy, Mary Gatta, Alia R. Tyner-Mullings, Ryan Coughlan

Open Educational Resources

This is an Open Educational Resource for the teaching of an Ethnography class. It was specifically designed for Ethnographies of Work taught at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College.

This currently represents a draft. We are working on ensuring that references and attributions are correct and that images, case studies and examples are representative. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please email us: alia.tyner-mullings@guttman.cuny.edu

Thinking Like An Ethnographer, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

Learning to conduct ethnographic research means more than simply learning about the different ethnographic methods and putting them into action. To gather data ethnographically, we say we need to use ourselves--our bodies and our minds--as the tool of data collection. Ethnographers use their five senses to observe human behavior and write about what they observe, however, they need to develop those senses to help them collect accurate data. Part of this process is developing what is called the “ethnographic mindset.” This chapter outline ways in which ethnographic researchers can begin to develop this mindset.

Kumain Na Tayo! Exploring The Role Of Food In Communicating Tradition And Instilling Familial Values, Aaron Negrillo

Student Research

As a core part of Asian values, family plays a huge role in developing the individual’s identity. Family strongly contributes to the passing down of traditions and values. The expression of cultural values can be observed through many surface-level interactions such as food and meal rituals. This auto-ethnography explores the link between food and culture, specifically how it serves as a vehicle of communication that passes down traditions and values. The underlying core values of hospitality, respect, and sacrifice stand emerged from the thematic analysis conducted. Overall, food can be understood as a tangible expression of love: creating something for …

Images Of Nursing From West Michigan: A Photo Essay, Aldina Mahmutovic

Honors Projects

The image of nursing is diverse and complex, with public perceptions influenced by traditional imagery and negative stereotypes. Few recent studies consider how nurses view their professional image. My study aimed to uncover how West Michigan nurses perceive the image of nursing. Approval was given by the local Sigma chapter (Kappa Epsilon at Large), to recruit participants from members, and by Grand Valley's IRB. Via an online REDCap survey, participants submitted an original photo and written narrative. Submissions were searched for underlying patterns using thematic analysis. Themes identified were: (1) nurses establish relationships with unique and vulnerable clients, using their …

An Alternative Narrative Of Integration In Germany Through An Ethnographic Exploration Of Cuban Immigration, Ana M. Rusch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic study on Cuban immigrants conducted in Germany explored the dynamics of integration through an understudied immigrant population. Most of the research conducted on integration in Germany has overwhelmingly been on Turkish immigrants, which is Germany’s majority immigrant group. To contribute to Integration Studies, this research focused on a minority and lesser studied immigrant group, Cuban immigrants. Cuban immigrants in Germany not only have a different historical and geopolitical relationship with Germany than its majority group but they also subscribe to different cultural and ethnoreligious categories. Because of these varying circumstances, Cubans act as a counter example to the …

Misinterpretations​ ​Of​ ​Hmong​ ​Culture: Complementary​ ​Medical​ ​Frameworks, Telisha Tausinga, Madison Harmer

Student Works

Current social science literature outside of anthropology has attributed Hmong difficulties adapting to Western health care to their traditional healing practices, claiming that successful integration only occurs as the younger generation discards traditional beliefs (Franzen-Castle & Smith 2013). Ethnographic research conducted in France and Thailand refutes these claims; Hmong of younger and older generations utilize both the state medical system and traditional healing, integrating these systems instead of treating them as ontologically distinct (and thus in competition with each other). Many researchers and medical personnel studying or working with Hmong populations have ignored models of ontological holism because of the …

Ethnolinguistic Convergence And Divergence Within Dyadic Communication, Anna E. Pitman

Honors College Research

This study investigated just one dependent variable within communication: ethnicity. Ethnicity often influences language. The study examined interethnic communication behaviors through the lens of the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), as influenced by one of its offshoots, Ethnolinguistic Identity Theory (ELIT). Communication within CAT is given one of three labels—convergence, divergence, and maintenance. The study included four students at Harding University: two African American females, one Hispanic American female, and one Caucasian American female. The primary participant, an African American woman, had a recorded 20 minute conversation with each of the other three participants. Discussion questions provided were formulated to create …

On Being Trans: Narrative, Identity, Performance, And Community, Chloe Jo Brown

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis focuses on various topics related to transgender identity and culture. Through a combination of ethnographic and secondary research, I studied transgender coming out narratives, trans media representation, transgender performance and identity, and conceptualizations of group and chosen family in a community of trans students, the WKU Transgender and Non-Binary Student Group.

The three chapters of my thesis address some of the traditional milestones of a trans person’s acculturation: coming out, constructing one’s newly discovered trans identity, and finding community. Chapter 1 explores coming out as transgender, and the way in in which coming out is valued and discussed …

Two Ways Of Burning A Cotton Field, David James Lindstrom

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

TWO WAYS OF BURNING A COTTON FIELD is an ethnographic memoir concerning the narrator’s experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, South America. The plot is structured around a moral crisis in his rural Paraguayan village. The narrator’s neighbor, a man in his late twenties, threatened to kill his partner and her two children. The Paraguayan police were made aware of the situation but did nothing. Peace Corps management also instructed the narrator to do nothing.

In TWO WAYS OF BURNING A COTTON FIELD, this moral crisis is explored within the contexts of post-colonial power structures, including economic and …

Ethnography Of The Library: Milner Library, Andrew Bartolone, Ana Fochesatto, Duncan Losacco, Scott Lambert

ISU Ethnography of the University Initiative

No abstract provided.

Renouncing Citizenship As Protest: Reflections By A Jewish Israeli Ethnographer, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The events of summer 2014 and the painful realizations that they invoked have led me to consider renouncing my Israeli citizenship. Contemplating what may seem like a straightforward stance of resistance, I have come to realize how complex it actually is. This short essay considers renunciation as an act of protest from the standpoint of a Jewish Israeli legal ethnographer and geographer... [The essay] foregrounds the following questions: aren’t all modern states founded upon bloodshed? And, if so, shouldn’t all citizens be renouncing their citizenship? Or from the opposite angle: why bother replacing one flawed citizenship with another? In my …

Bodylore And Dress, Amy K. Milligan

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

Bodylore includes the ways in which the body is used as a canvas for inherited and chosen identity. Bodylore considers the symbolic inventory of dress and hair, addressing a range of identities from conservative religious groups like the Amish and the Hasidim to edgy goth and punk devotees. The body is scripted in portrayals of race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, and politics, including such topics as tattoos, piercing, scarification, hair covering and styling, traditional and folk dress, fashion, and body modification. The central bodylore questions are whether individuals choose consciously or subconsciously to engage with their performative body, as well …

Environmental Decision-Making And Sense Of Place: Exploring The Effects Of Bears Ears' Shifting Status On Stakeholders' Personal Relationships To The Land, Ana Siegel

Summer Research

The aim of my summer research was to explore how sense of place is affected by environmental decision-making—whether that be on a local or federal level—examining Bears Ears, as a case study. Ever since the initial push—back in 2013—to designate Bears Ears as a National Monument, this landmark of the Four Corners Region represented a quarrel, familiar to the American Southwest: friction between those who wish to conserve Western landscapes for their sacred value, and those who would rather exploit those lands for their natural resource—and thus economic—potential. After years of advocacy and petitioning of the federal government, in 2016, …

An Ethnographic Exploration Of Pokémon Go, Ketzia Abramson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The mobile app game, “Pokémon GO” became a worldwide phenomenon immediately following its initial release in the summer of 2016. Now, more than a year later, despite its fall from social domination and decline in popularity, POGO is still at the forefront for better understanding the future of communication and socialization in today’s ever growing digital age. This ethnographic study, aided by field research, observations, and literature review of both the app itself as well as the ‘Poké-verse,’ provides an in-depth analysis of how and why a mobile gaming app that utilizes no new forms of technology (augmented reality combined …

Mourners In The Court: Victims In Death Penalty Trials, Through The Lens Of Performance, Sarah Beth Kaufman

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Research

This article presents findings from ethnographic research in death penalty trials around the United States, focusing on the role of victims and their supporters. Victim impact testimony (VIT) in death penalty sentencing has received intense legal scrutiny during the past thirty years. The ruling jurisprudence allows VIT with the explanation that it deserves parity with testimony about the defendant's background. Drawing on observations and interviews with participants in 15 death penalty trials, I demonstrate that this framing confuses the central role of victim supporters in the courtroom. Victim supporters function as mourners, which grants them a socially elevated position in …

Initiating Research On Igniting Fires In The Blue Ridge Mountains During The Autumn 2016 Conflagration, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

An unprecedented moment in the fire ecology of the Blue Ridge Mountains occurred in Autumn 2016 when severe drought, frequent anthropogenic ignitions, and seasonality in disturbed deciduous forests fueled widespread burning. As the wildfires burned, wildland firefighters from around the U.S. temporarily moved into the region to assist local land managers. As wildfire risks increased and air quality decreased, local residents became increasingly interested in fire ecology. The community shifted continuously as wildfires were extinguished, wildland firefighters returned home, and local residents disengaged. In conducting research during the conflagration, obtaining consent from community members varied depending on whether or not …

Book Review: Kirin Narayan, Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses In The Himalayan Foothills (Kirin Narayan), Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.