Workshop with Exercises

Lecturer
Christina Gabbert

Course Description
Field research plays a central role in anthropology. Good knowledge of methods is decisive for the success and quality of anthropological research and its results. Individual challenges in field research are not predictable and require a holistic set of methods and practices, starting with the formulation of research questions, the orientation of researchers in the field, data collection, and their evaluation and presentation. The current situation in times of COVID19 already holds the unpredictable in the teaching and learning field. Therefore, the workshop should include the resulting challenges both in content and practice.
We will deal with the theoretical foundations and practical requirements of selected procedures of empirical data collection in anthropological research. Students should be prepared with extended methods to be able to design and carry out their own research projects. Therefore, the prerequisite for participation is successful participation in the introductory method modules. The intensive reading and reflection of selected texts will be an important part of the seminar through guiding questions in (e)-communication in the e-Forum. The main aim is to enable flexible solutions, accompanied by group chats. The frequency of the online meetings will be decided after the possibilities of the participants have been checked.
Thematic units will deal with research environments (city, country, home), selected research situations (research in conflict areas, everyday life research) and research approaches (anthropology of the senses, acoustemology, situation analysis). A session on “Ethics and Intimacy” will be offered or replaced at the end of the semester.
The practical exercises will be adapted to the situation by developing an empirical work programme, taking into account individually different and limited research environments, which can be implemented in “stay home” mode. Survey techniques (notes, recording procedures, use of different media) and translation of empirical information up to its critical evaluation, will be carried out and prepared in study projects in order to be presented either in the e-Forum or, as far as possible, in a presence block. Exercise units include soundwalk practice, diary entries, remote interviews, as well as the questioning of anthropological research in the Pluriversum in the time of COVID 19. Multimedia diaries are to be created as exercise results, following the “Pandemic Diaries” of the American Anthropological Society or the “Corona Blogs” of Allegra Lab.