Comments on: Undergraduate Seminar: Doing that 1st fieldwork project for class http://www.ethnography.com/2010/03/undergraduate-seminar-doing-that-1st-fieldwork-project-for-class/ A group blog on a wide variety of topics realted to anthropology Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:34:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: mark http://www.ethnography.com/2010/03/undergraduate-seminar-doing-that-1st-fieldwork-project-for-class/comment-page-1/#comment-4927 mark Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:32:40 +0000 http://www.ethnography.com/?p=570#comment-4927 you can never go wrong starting students with Goffman. you can never go wrong starting students with Goffman.

]]> By: Tony http://www.ethnography.com/2010/03/undergraduate-seminar-doing-that-1st-fieldwork-project-for-class/comment-page-1/#comment-4926 Tony Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:52:58 +0000 http://www.ethnography.com/?p=570#comment-4926 I will ask students to do "Goffman-like" observations in a public place. They generally like this assignment a lot! The assignment asks them to spend two hours in a single place watching and observing. The trick is to find a time when things are busy, and as a result peoples' normative antennae are up, and faux pas are likely to happen. I usually kick off the assignment with Spencer Cahill's description of behavior in public restrooms, which his student did. This is a great article to understand the technique, but a lousy one to start practicing with (hey there, why have you been in the public restroom for the last 75 mintues???) The most common places that students choose are bars, often on a Friday or Saturday night. These are great places to watch how people present themselves, and navigate social interactions, particularly as they get drunker.... Oh, and if it is part of a class project, don't forget to ask your professor about the Human Subjects clearance. Believe it or not, for American universities, anyway, these do fall under federal guidelines which require a paper from your universitiy's "Institutional Research Board." I will ask students to do “Goffman-like” observations in a public place. They generally like this assignment a lot! The assignment asks them to spend two hours in a single place watching and observing. The trick is to find a time when things are busy, and as a result peoples’ normative antennae are up, and faux pas are likely to happen.

I usually kick off the assignment with Spencer Cahill’s description of behavior in public restrooms, which his student did. This is a great article to understand the technique, but a lousy one to start practicing with (hey there, why have you been in the public restroom for the last 75 mintues???)

The most common places that students choose are bars, often on a Friday or Saturday night. These are great places to watch how people present themselves, and navigate social interactions, particularly as they get drunker….

Oh, and if it is part of a class project, don’t forget to ask your professor about the Human Subjects clearance. Believe it or not, for American universities, anyway, these do fall under federal guidelines which require a paper from your universitiy’s “Institutional Research Board.”

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