MA Social Anthropology / Course details

Images Texts Fieldwork (ITF) explores a range of ethnographic and anthropological approaches for researching and representing social and cultural life, including participant observation, literary, visual and sensory methods, collaborative modes of research and new experimental ethnographic approaches. ITF incorporates the emergent field digital anthropology and the theoretical approaches and practical ethnographic possibilities for using digital media to understand the complexity and diversity of human experience.  

1) Plan and carry out a small research project by using or experimenting with a range of methods. 

2) Communicate and represent research findings through one or more forms of media, including text, image, sound etc.  

3) Offer a critical understanding and analysis of the research process and your own research practice, so as to develop your own research and fieldwork knowledge

On completion of this unit successful students will be able to:

• Plan, carry out and write up a small research project.

• Learning and develop a range of theoretical and practical approaches, including classic fieldwork techniques, participant observation, interviewing, visual and sensory methods, digital anthropology and experimental approaches to research and representation.

• Work as a team member to produce collaborative media outputs.

• Communicate ideas clearly to others through writing and oral presentations.

Lectures, film screenings, workshops and discussions

3000 word Final Essay based on a small research project, including audio-visual materials.

Students will receive feedback via:

• Discussions in lectures and seminars, and during presentations

• Questions you bring to the instructor during office hours

• Final essay

Cox, R, Irving, A and Wright, C 2016. Beyond Text: Critical Practices and Sensory Anthropology. Manchester: Manchester University Press

     Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. Chicago: University of Chicago  Press

     Horst H and Miller D (eds) Digital Anthropology. Oxford: Berg, pp. 3–37.

     Morphy, H & Banks M. 1999.  Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New

     Haven: Yale University Press.             

     Pertierra, A. C. (2018). Media anthropology for the digital age. Cambridge: Polity.

     Pink, S. 2015, Doing Sensory Ethnography, London: Sage Publications.