Autoethnography: Cultural Analysis, Social Change, and Introspection

Catalog description

How can researchers understand cultural change in society alongside their own experience in it? In this course, students will gain an understanding of autoethnography, anthropological research, writing, and storytelling that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political (Ellis, 2004: xix). Students will learn how to develop their own authentic ethnographic perspectives while exploring the implications of societal change on them - finding their own voices through better understanding of the intersections between participant-observation and self-observation. They will gain a better understanding of their relationship to the cultural forces which are rapidly changing society (political campaigns, social movements like BLM, the CovID-19 Pandemic, etc.). This will be a highly interactive and collaborative course guided by writing assignments alongside cultural analyses of current events.