Ethnographic Methods for Peace Research
IIPS 60800/ANTH 60800
W 12.30-3.15
Corbett Family Hall 289
Professor Catherine E. Bolten
Office: 317 Hesburgh Center for International Studies
Phone: 1-5099
E-mail: cbolten@nd.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 10-11.30 or by appointment
In this course, students will learn to use methods, insights, and techniques from anthropology to
enhance effective field research, with special emphasis on conducting research in situations of
violence, suffering, and injustice. We will cover a broad range of topics concerning the field
experience and fieldwork itself, and the course will culminate in an ethnographic paper resulting
from students’ own independent research undertaken throughout the semester. The course
includes topics that are fundamental to conducting ethnographic method, including identity and
access in the field, bias and worldview, “truth” and fact, analysis of meaning, and writing. We
will also conduct workshops on different aspects of ethnographic method, which include
producing ethical research designs, polished fieldnotes from participant observation, and
interview and focus group transcripts. Throughout the course we will learn to be mindful of how
one conducts precise and humane research in socially delicate or unstable settings. As the
semester progresses, you will keep track of how your engagement with your subject matter and
the people with whom you work evolves, and learn to assess your methods, bias, and
positionality with respect to your work.
Through this course you will split your time between readings and conducting ethnographic
research, so that you are familiar with the methods and perils of field research, and spend time
honing your own skills as a researcher. Because this class is designed to prepare students for
field-based projects, a locally based field research project is the major component of the course.
Course Requirements
Course requirements include class participation, an IRB-formatted research design, a portfolio
(which includes a research journal, polished fieldnotes, and transcripts), and a final ethnography.
I have designed the work for this class so that we incorporate both workshopping your ongoing
projects and discussing the readings, which cover theories, methods, personal experiences, and
philosophies of ethnographic research. All the readings listed for a particular day must be
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completed before coming to class. Research techniques, once introduced, should then be
incorporated as you can into your ongoing ethnographic research. Assignments with set due
dates are due by 5pm.
IRB-formatted Research Design
Any research designed to generate scientific knowledge must obtain university approval from the
human subjects board, known as the IRB (Institutional Research Board). A course requirement is
becoming certified as a human subjects social science researcher through completing the CITI
examinations and submitting a ethically sound research design (either for your semester project
or your field project) guided by the questions asked in an IRB protocol. Submission to IRB is
optional, and I will provide assistance if you choose to submit a protocol. The initial paper is due
March 4th and is worth 10 points.
Research Portfolio
Throughout your research this semester you will generate polished fieldnotes from participant
observation, transcripts from interviews and focus groups, and a running journal (of at least 3000
words) documenting and meditating on your experiences in the field and their relationship to
class discussions. Your portfolio of research materials will be due on April 8th, and is worth 20
points.
Ethnographic Research Project
Your final paper for this semester is an ethnographic analysis culminating from your research
portfolio. Keeping in mind your understandings of truth, distance, ethics, and meaning, you must
first assess how well your notes allow you to write what you consider an honest and thoughtful
analysis. This paper must be 4800-5000 words long. In our final meeting of the semester, you
will spend ten minutes presenting your research to the class. This is due May 6th (after the end
of classes) and is worth 40 points.
Class Participation
This is a small seminar in which active participation is required for success, both your personal
success and the success of the course. I expect you to come to class having completed the
readings and exercises, being prepared to discuss both, and ready to participate in classroom
exercises. I will not provide any alternatives to active in-class participation. If you want to
work in a field setting, you must be prepared to interact with people in a relaxed and involved
manner, and if you cannot do it here, you probably cannot do it anywhere. If you have never
spoken up before, you will learn to do it in this setting. Participation is worth 30 points.
Grading
The class is based on 100 total possible points. The class components are worth the following:
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Assignment Due Date (5pm)
Research Design 10 points 3/4
Research Portfolio 20 points 4/8
Research Ethnography 40 points 5/6
Class participation 30 points ongoing
Grading Scale
There is no grading curve for this class. Your work will be graded on its individual merits, so if
everyone earns enough points for an “A” grade at the end of the semester, everyone receives an
A. For individual assignments, you will only see numbers on your papers.
A 94-100 C+ 77-79
A- 90-93 C 73-76
B+ 87-89 C- 70-72
B 83-86 D 60-69
B- 80-82 Fail 0-59
Texts
The following items can be found at Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore, and can also be found
used online at www.bookfinder.com.
Catherine Bolten 2020 Serious Youth in Sierra Leone New York: Oxford
Albert Camus 1989 The Stranger New York: Vintage Books
Kathleen and Billie DeWalt 2011 Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers
Second Edition. New York: Altamira Press (PO)
James Davies and Dimitrina Spencer 2010 Emotions in the Field: The Psychology and
Anthropology of Fieldwork Experience (EF)
Robert Emerson, Rachel Fretz, and Linda Shaw 2011 Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Second
Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (WEF)
Lynne Hume and Jane Mulcock 2004. Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant
Observation New York: Columbia University Press (AF)
The parenthetical abbreviations are used in the course schedule below. There will also be an
extensive selection of shorter readings posted on Sakai. At the end of the syllabus are
recommend additional readings for students interested in pursuing particular topics further.
Class Schedule
1/15 Introducing Participant Observation: The Heart of Ethnographic Method
Class introduction and syllabus
3
Readings: PO, Ch. 1-2
1/22 Working in “The Field”
Readings: PO, Ch. 3-5
WEF, Ch. 1-2
Kelly, “Awkward Intimacies” (AF)
Angrosino, “Disclosure and Interaction in a Monastery” (AF)
Research goal: choose your project theme and location, enter “the field”
1/29 Researcher Positionality
Readings: PO, Ch. 6
Fadzillah, “Going Beyond ‘the west’ and ‘the rest’” (AF)
Telfer, “Dissent and Consent” (AF)
Colic-Peisker, “Doing Ethnography in ‘One’s Own Ethnic Community’” (AF)
Research goal: begin taking fieldnotes on your project, begin your journal jottings
2/5 Bias and Worldview
Readings: Camus, The Stranger
Crapazano, “At the Heart of the Discipline” (EF)
Sultana, “Reflexivity, Positionality, and Participatory Ethics” (Sakai)
Portfolio journal prompt: how are your positionality and bias (yours and your
interlocutors) shaping the research?
2/12 The Ethics of Ethnography
Readings: Coggeshall, “Closed Doors” (AF)
Robinson, “Living in Sheds” (AF)
Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones” (Sakai)
Coy, “Shared Risks and Research Dilemmas On A Peace Brigades International
Team in Sri Lanka” (Sakai)
Portfolio journal prompt: what ethical questions or conundrums are emerging in your
research?
2/19 Ethical Research Design
Readings: PO, Ch. 7, 11
The Belmont Report:
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html
Herron, “Ethnographic Methods, Young People, and a High School: A Recipe for
Ethical Precarity” (Sakai)
Assignment: begin work on your IRB-formatted research design, assemble some
fieldnotes for in-class workshopping
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2/26 Ethnographic Fieldnotes as Data
Readings: PO, Ch. 9
WEF, Ch. 3
In-class exercise: we will work through your existing fieldnotes to produce transcripts, so
come prepared with rough or semi-finished fieldnotes
3/4 Interviews and Focus Groups Research Design due today!
Readings: PO, Ch. 8
Bolten, “The Memories They Want” (Sakai)
Fabian, “Forgetful remembering: a colonial life in the Congo” (Sakai)
Hollander, “The Social Context of Focus Groups” (Sakai)
Bryant, “Planning and Moderating Focus Group Research” (Sakai)
Assignment: use spring break to conduct interviews or focus groups
3/11 No Class, Spring Break
3/18 Producing Transcripts
Readings: PO, Ch. 10
WEF, Ch. 4
In-class exercise: we will analyze your interview/focus group transcripts
3/25 Grappling with Emotions in Fieldwork
Readings: Theidon, “How Was Your Trip?” (Sakai)
Hage, “Hating Israel in the Field” (EF)
Theidon, “The Milk of Sorrow: A Theory on the Violence of Memory” (Sakai)
Smith and Kleinman, “Emotional Engagements” (EF)
4/1 Truth, Fact, Emotion, and Interpretation
Readings: Douglass and Vogler, “The Discourse of Trauma” (Sakai)
Douglass, “The Menchu Effect” (Sakai)
Young, “Between History and Memory” (Sakai)
In-class viewing: Rashomon
Portfolio journal prompt: how are truth, fact, and emotion emerging in my fieldwork?
Who do I tend to believe, and why?
4/8 Analyzing and Interpreting Data Research Portfolio Due Today!
Readings: WEF, Ch. 5-6
Deal, “Torture by Cieng” (Sakai)
Luhrmann, “What Counts as Data?” (EF)
Robbins, “Beyond the Suffering Subject” (Sakai)
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4/15 Theory and Ethnographic Writing
Readings: WEF, Ch. 7
Bolten, Serious Youth in Sierra Leone
4/22 Ethnographic Writing Workshop
Reading: Narayan, “Postscript: Writing to Be Alive” (Sakai)
Bring your outlines and writing fragments to class for workshopping
4/29 Research Presentations and Roundtable
5/6 Final Research Ethnographies Due (after the end of classes)
Recommended Reading on:
Anxiety and Doubt About Doing Fieldwork
Jackson, “From Anxiety to Method in Anthropological Fieldwork” (EF)
Muir, “Not Quite at Home” (AF)
Cook, “Ascetic Practice and Participant Observation…” (EF)
Sharing Emotions with Interlocutors
Rosaldo, “Grief and a headhunter’s rage” (Sakai)
Lorimer, “Using Emotion as a Form of Knowledge” (EF)
Smith and Kleinman, “Emotional Engagements” (EF)
Watts, “Emotion, empathy, and exit” (Sakai)
Truth and Fact
Hinton, “Why did you kill?” (Sakai)
Patton, “An All-White Jury” (Sakai)
Ethics
Tourigny, “Yo, Bitch… and Other Challenges” (AF)
Beckerleg and Lewando Hundt, “Reflections on Fieldwork…” (AF)
