Topics in Anthropology (490-0-23)
Topic
Ethnographic Writing
Instructors
Adia Benton
847/491-2852
1812 Hinman #101
Adia Benton is a cultural anthropologist with interests in global health, biomedicine, development and humanitarianism and professional sports. Broadly, She is interested in patterns of inequality in the distribution of and the politics of care in settings “socialized” for scarcity. This means understanding the political, economic and historical factors shaping how care is provided in complex humanitarian emergencies and in longer-term development projects – like those for health. These concerns arise from her previous career in the fields of public health and post-conflict development in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This graduate seminar is an intensive writing workshop, focusing on ethnography as a particular genre of scholarly writing that weaves together the theoretical and experiential, description and abstraction. We will read and discuss examples of ethnographic writing as a way of prompting and facilitating our own writing practice; perform in-class writing exercises to develop evocative descriptions, meaningful analyses, and deep engagement with our data and the scholarly literature; and workshop short excerpts in ‘table readings' of works-in-progress. The course is for graduate students who have collected substantial ethnographic data (e.g. field notes, archives/primary sources, interviews/oral histories) and plan to write those data up in the form of book chapter, journal article, dissertation, or other longform medium (this includes second-year papers).
Registration Requirements
Graduate students only. Junior and Senior Anthropology majors with instructor permission.
Teaching Method
Workshop
Evaluation Method
Weekly writing exercises, participation and engagement in critically reading others' work (peer review).
Class Materials (Required)
Any required reading will be made available on Canvas.
Class Materials (Suggested)
I will provide a list of recommended texts during the course.
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Graduate students may register for this course. Juniors and Seniors by permission.