Universität Wien

240533 SE Ethnographic Theory (P2) (2017W)

Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung

Participation in the first session is mandatory!

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 40 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

  • Montag 09.10. 09:45 - 13:00 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Montag 16.10. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Montag 23.10. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Montag 30.10. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Montag 06.11. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Montag 13.11. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

What do the practices of ethnography (participant observation, qualitative interviews of various kinds), permit us to know about other lives? What are the possibilities for the truthful portrayal of others? Ethnographic theory seeks to break down the distance between ‘our’ world and ‘their’ world to generate a ‘new’ world in which the strangest of meanings and actions feels familiar, and the more familiar ones turn queer. How do we know kin and stranger, exchange and value, witches and shamans, divine kings and unruly citizens, as their actions unfold in ‘event-rich’ phenomena, regardless of whether they live across the sea or down the street? Sherry Ortner has written that the ambiguities and doubts generated by the clash of worlds (in the ethnographic encounter) leads to novel insight. The aim of engaging the writings of anthropologists on these issues is to explore how ethnography offers the means for discovery, both of the other and of the self.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

Information on course requirements:
* attendance in 80% of all course meetings (up to 2 hours may be missed)
* active participation in course discussions, presentations, etc.
* preparation of handout for own presentation (1 to 2 pages)
* circulation of handout of own presentation to all course participants including instructor; handout has to be sent 24 hours before the respective presentation
* submission of a seminar paper via the KSA Info-Center only. Final deadline for paper submission will be December 4, 2017. No extension will be granted!!!

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

Information on Grading:
1. Participation in seminar discussions 30 % (Includes the reading responses and active participation in the seminar discussions. Active participation (talking) is evaluated in each session as "shaping", "contributing", or "present.")
2. Seminar Presentation 25 % (Depending on the size of the seminar, students will do one or two presentations.)
3. Seminar paper 45 % (Every students submits a seminar paper as described below)

Possible Grades:
Sehr gut 100 % to 91 % of possible points
Gut 90 % to 76 % of possible points
Befriedigend 75 % to 61 % of possible points
Genügend 60 % to 51 % of possible points
Nicht genügend 50 % of possible points

Prüfungsstoff

Reading Responses: Responses of a single paragraph are required for each article assigned to a class meeting. Each response should include the author’s claim, the evidence presented, and the reasons for your response, supporting or critiquing, that claim. Responses must be completed before the class meeting. Seminar presenters are exempt from reading responses for the articles they are presenting. Responses are not graded, but a recorded as completed (or not). The grade is determined by the total number of responses recorded.
Seminar Presentation: Student presentations consist of the summary of an article and a set of initial discussion questions for 20-30 minutes of the seminar. In addition to the questions in an ordinary reading response (see above), the presentation raise a set of (3-5) questions that connect the paper to the theme of the seminar meeting. These questions then serve as the basis for conversation during the student’s presentation time segment. The seminar meetings are structured around these presentations with the instructor adding information, context and background as necessary to keep the conversation going.
Seminar Paper: The final essay requires you to connect as many of the ideas of the course as you can to an ethnographic problem you are dealing with. You need not solve the problem. Instead you should show how your understanding of the problem is changes because of your encounter with the ideas of the seminar. The topic of the essay should be negotiated with instructor. For students who believe they have had no prior ethnographic experience, the consultation with the instructor is crucial. The seminar paper should be written in English. It should cover approx. 4000 words without bibliography (that is approx.18 pages in 12 pt. fonts, 2.5 cm margins, and double-spaced). Word count has to be written on front page of paper. Papers in excess of 4500 words will not be accepted. The essay should contain at least three sections, not including the introductory paragraphs and the conclusion or reference list.

Literatur

Selections from HAU: The Journal of Ethnographic Theory (https://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/issue/archive) will be assigned for each class.

Readings for the first meeting (Monday 9.10.17): Setting the Table of Ideas:

McGranahan, C. (2014). What is ethnography? Teaching ethnographic sensibilities without fieldwork.Teaching Anthropology,4(1), 23-36.

Graeber and da Col, (2011), Forward: The Return of Ethnographic Theory. HAU 1(1)

Geertz, C. (1994). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture.In Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, 213-231.

Ingold, T, (2014) That’s Enough about Ethnography HAU 4(1)

Topic for Second Meeting (Monday 16.10.17): Making Meaning across Communities (selections from the "Translating Worlds" section of HAU 4(2).

Topic for Third Meeting (Monday 23.10.17): The "G" factor (Rethinking Kin(g)ship as an ethnographic problem: Themed Articles: HAU 1(1)).

Topic for Fourth Meeting (Monday 30.10.17): Materiality and Ethnography (selected articles from HAU 4(1) and "Anthropology and STS" in 5(1), and B. Larkin "The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure" Annual Review of Anthropology. 2013. 42:32743).

Topic for Fifth Meeting (Monday 6.11.17): The Problem with Witches (Rethinking sorcery and witchcraft beyond Evans Pritchard "Witchcraft and Doubt in Indonesia" in HAU 6(1).

Topic for Sixth Meeting (Monday 13.11.17): Value as Theory (articles to be selected: HAU 3(1) and 3(2).

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Letzte Änderung: Mo 07.09.2020 15:40