Special Topics Research Seminar (525-0-20)

Topic

Ethnographic Research Methods

Instructors

TJ Billard

Meeting Info

Meets in Non-General PurposeRm: Fri 9:00AM - 11:50AM

Overview of class

This course will train you to do qualitative research differently—to do it better. In this course—which is the first in a two-course sequence across consecutive Spring and Fall quarters intended to teach professional-level qualitative research skills—you will learn and practice the methods of participant-observation (often called "ethnography") and interviewing. After receiving training in the orienting logics of inquiry and standards of rigor in qualitative research, you will undertake your own original research project, producing a "pre-study" that includes a draft research plan for continuing your study across the Summer and Fall quarters. This research project will entail identifying and entering a field site; taking fieldnotes during regular (weekly or more frequent) visits to your field site; discussing your own and other students' fieldnotes; coding and interpreting your fieldnotes; designing an interview protocol; and generating theoretical insights that could contribute to a relevant social scientific literature. For those who continue the course in the Fall quarter, you will complete a conference-ready final paper that draws on your fieldwork to address how communication works in everyday life and/or the role of communication in the wider social world.

Class Attributes

Graduate Students Only