Ethnographic Research Methodology 1

Course Objective

ERM1 introduces students to ethnographic research as both a method and a form of knowledge production. Students acquire a foundational understanding of core ethnographic approaches and their epistemological underpinnings. Through practical fieldwork exercises, students learn to observe, interview and write ethnographically, while beginning to reflect on their own positionality and the ethical dimensions of research practice. The course lays the methodological foundation for independent fieldwork in the third year.

Course Content

Ethnographic methods are essential to anthropological research. Anthropologists constantly revisit the accuracy, analytical relevance, and ethical implications of their methodological repertoire to adapt it to the contemporary world — including ongoing debates about whose knowledge counts, who gets studied, and what research is for.

The course opens with a critical introduction to the intellectual debates shaping contemporary ethnographic practice, with particular attention to decolonial, engaged, and embodied approaches. Students are then introduced to core ethnographic methods: participant observation, interviewing, fieldnote-writing, visual and digital ethnography, and multimodal forms of presenting research findings.

Research integrity runs throughout the course. Students are encouraged to continuously reflect on the practical, political, and ethical dimensions of their fieldwork — including questions of positionality, consent, and the power relations that shape every stage of research.

During this course, students conduct their own research project in groups, moving through the full empirical cycle:

• research design and ethics
• participant observation and fieldnote-writing
• interviewing and transcription
• writing ethnographic vignettes
• coding and analysing field data
• writing up and presenting research findings

Course Structure

• Independent Exercises: The course opens with individual preparatory exercises (~6 hours) designed to build foundational observation and fieldwork skills before group work begins.
• Mid-term Exam: An individual written exam assessing understanding of core ethnographic concepts, methods, and debates from the first half of the course.
• Group Research Project: Working in research groups, students design and carry out an original ethnographic project involving participant observation, interviewing, and data coding. The project includes both individual and group assignments throughout.
• Final Report and Multimedia Presentation: Groups write a research report and present their findings in a format of their choice — which may include text, audio, video, photography, or other multimodal forms.

Effective time management is essential. Many deadlines fall close together by design — start early.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Lectures and working groups

Method of Assessment

Assessment combines an individual written examination and a series of individual and group assignments completed across the research cycle, including a research proposal, fieldwork exercises, a vignette, an interview transcript, a codebook, a multimedia presentation, and a final research report.

Entry Requirements

Participation in Discovering Anthropology (S_DAHTP).

Literature

To be announced in the course manual (see CANVAS).

Additional Information Target Audience

1st year bachelor students in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

Custom Course Registration

The language of instruction for this course is “bilingual”, which means that the lectures are held in English but the working groups are offered separately in English or Dutch. If you are following the English-language program, please sign up for the English-language working groups.