Reviewing the Literature and Forming a Research Question
Tuesday, September 13: Introduction to the Course
Thursday, September 15: No Class (SC at Gates Foundation meeting). Independent project reviewing quality senior work.
Optional Reading: Bernard, Chapter 4: The Literature Search
Tuesday, September 20: Framing and Hypotheses: What Makes a Great Research Question?
Part I: Foundational Methods
Participant Observation and Fieldnotes
Thursday, September 22: Participant Observation
1) Malinowski, from Argonauts of the Western Pacific
2) Geertz, from Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight
3) Optional: Bernard Chapter 14: Field Notes: How to Take Them, Code Them, Manage Them
4) Optional: Bernard Chapter 13: Participant Observation
Tuesday, September 27: Taking Fieldnotes
Thursday, September 29: No Class (SC at Polio Eradication Independent Monitoring Board meeting). Independent participant observation work.
Interviewing (Unstructured and Semi-Structured)
Tuesday, October 4: What makes a great interview?
Thursday, October 6: Professor Peggy Nelson will speak about interviewing.
1) Peggy Nelson, Single Mothers and Social Support
2) Optional: Bernard Chapter 9: Interviewing, pp. 210-232
Analyzing Qualitative Data
Tuesday, October 11: Qualitative Data Analysis
An Introduction to Structured Interviewing and Analyzing Quantitative Data
Thursday, October 13: Creating and Administering Questionnaires
Bernard Chapter 10, Structured Interviewing I: Questionnaires, pages 270-277
required, rest of chapter optional
Tuesday, October 18: Introduction to Statistical Analysis
Part II: Research Design
Research Design
Thursday, October 20: Validity, Reliability, and Bias
Elizabeth Pisani, “The Honesty Box,” from The Wisdom of Whores
fall break
Thursday, October 27: Theories of Research Design
1) Geertz, Thick Description
2) Bernard Chapter 5: Research Design: Experiments and Experimental Thinking (required)
Tuesday, November 1: Professor Michael Sheridan will speak about the IRB (combined class with other SOAN methods class, location TBA)
Due: First draft of hypotheses and lit review
Thursday, November 3: Ethical Considerations in Research
1) American Anthropological Association Statements on Ethics
2) Deloria, Custer Died for Your Sins
Sampling
Tuesday, November 8: Sampling: Theory and Method
Thursday, November 10: Exploring Additional Sampling Techniques
Optional: Bernard Chapters 6 and 8
Part III: Exploring Additional Methods
Focus Groups
Tuesday, November 15: Running Focus Groups
Document Analysis
Thursday, November 17: Content Analysis
Optional reading: Bernard pp. 232-239 (focus groups)
No required reading; work on your project proposal!
Cultural Domain Analysis
Tuesday, November 22: How to Map Things that are In People’s Heads
Thanksgiving break
Direct Observation
Tuesday, November 29: Watching What People Do
Discourse Analysis
Thursday, December 1: Analyzing Naturally Occurring Speech
Optional: Bernard Chapter 15 (direct observation), Chapter 18 (cultural domain analysis) 484-492 (discourse analysis)
No required reading; work on your project proposal!
Writing and Representation
Tuesday, December 6: How to Turn Experience into Something People Want to Read
Thursday, December 8: Reflexivity: How Much Should You Be in the Text?
Rosaldo, Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage