Qualitative Research

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the major methodologies and techniques for conducting qualitative research with a strong emphasis upon ethnographic modes of researching and writing. In this class we will read a collection of ethnographic texts with an eye to understanding how anthropologists and sociologists frame qualitative research questions, identify and collect relevant evidence, and place that evidence into conversation with social theory. In addition to classroom discussion, students will be asked to undertake methodological exercises in which they will practice conducting interviews, participant-observation, archival research, and writing field notes, for example.