CTSJ 340 Critical Ethnography

In this course, students learn how to do ethnographic research and writing by conducting exercises in participant-observation on or near campus. We review the history of the ethnographic method and its relation to anthropology and the colonial encounter. We also discuss what makes an ethnography critical, and the tensions between ethnography, sympathy, and critical theory. Authors we read include Malinowski Geertz, Delmos Jones, Dorinne Kondo, Renato Rosaldo, Ruth Behar, Jim Thomas, and Kamala Visweswaran.