This is an archived handbook for a previous year. The current undergraduate and postgraduate handbooks can be viewed using the links above.
Postgraduate Handbook 2012-2013 (archived)
Module ANTH43930: Fieldwork, Ethnography and Representation
Department: Anthropology
ANTH43930: Fieldwork, Ethnography and Representation
| Type | Level | Credits | Availability | Module Cap | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | 4 | 30 | Available in 2012/2013 | None. | Durham |
Pre-requisites
- None
Corequisites
- None.
Excluded Combinations
- None.
Aims
- To give students a comprehensive view of anthropological field methods and the interpretation of ethnographic data.
Content
- Relation of explanatory theories to methods of research.
- Learning and interpreting everyday life: participant observation (everyday life as field research), noticing, querying, note-taking.
- Eliciting and interpreting texts: life histories, narratives, myths and religious texts.
- Eliciting and interpreting accounts of social life: semi-structured and unstructured interviews, questionnaires, geneologies, family histories, participatory social research.
- Eliciting and interpreting categories and symbols: participatory mapping, semantic domains, indigenous knowledge, kinship terminologies.
- Using qualitative software tools.
- Using IT resources to source methods and explinations and to create new sources.
Learning Outcomes
Subject-specific Knowledge
- A comprehensive overview of anthropological field methods.
- A thorough understanding of the ways in which anthropologists have interpreted fieldwork data.
Subject-specific Skills
- To be able to conduct, at a reasonable level of competence various methods of collecting anthropological data. nnaire techniques;
- To learn how to employ these data collection methods in researching for the Dissertation.
Key Skills
- Communication: students will be taught how to communicate clearly (both orally and in writing) their understanding of the material they have read.
- Improving own learning and performance: students will learn to use a variety of web tools for searching the primary and secondary literature.
- Use of IT programmes for collating data.
Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module
- Lectures, practicals and project work.
Teaching Methods and Learning Hours
| Activity | Number | Frequency | Duration | Total Hours | Attendance Monitored |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive lectures | 18 | weekly | 2 hours | 36 | |
| Seminars | 4 | 2 per term (Mich/Epiph only) | 2 hours | 8 | |
| Preparation and Reading | 256 | ||||
| Total | 300 |
Summative Assessment
| Component | Component Weighting | Element | Length/Duration | Element Weighting | Resit Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research Project Report | 100% | Research Project Report | 5000 words | 100% |
Formative Assessment
1000 word document on an exercise to be determined by the Michaelmas term convenor of the module
Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods
and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative
assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress
procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be
required to leave the University.