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***PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW TAKING PLACE AT MAGDALEN COLLEGE,
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD***

***PLACES FOR NON-PRESENTING PARTICIPANTS ARE FULL, BUT WE
ENCOURAGE PROSPECTIVE SPEAKERS TO SUBMIT THEIR ABSTRACTS ASAP***


Call For Papers

Learning by Example: Building Arguments Ethnographically

One-day workshop organized in conjunction with Magdalen College (University
of Oxford) and Teaching Anthropology, a journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute.

www.teachinganthropology.org

16th April 2012

Magdalen College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AU


 *Keynote speakers*: Professor Tim Ingold (Chair in Social Anthropology,
University of Aberdeen); Professor Carole McGranahan (University of
Colorado Boulder); Professor Kim Fortun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

*Confirmed speakers*: Dr David Shankland (Director, Royal Anthropological
Institute); Professor David Gellner (Head of Department, School of
Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford)

*Workshop organizer*: Ivan Costantino (University of Oxford)

*
*

‘Always start with the ethnography!’ is the admonition many a novice to the
discipline of anthropology will receive when asked to write their first
essay. Yet how does one go about it? What makes meaningful ‘data’ in an
ethnography? How do students learn to use ethnographic examples? How do we
experience teaching and learning anthropology through reading, analyzing
and citing ethnographies?



The use of ethnographic examples as a pedagogical tool in anthropology has
had a dynamic trajectory across time and space. In the US, Marcus (2009)
reports how, since the 1980s, the reading of experimental ethnographic
pieces has somewhat taken priority over that of ‘exemplary’ ethnographic
classics. In the UK, Mascarenhas-Keyes and Wright (1995) have found two
main styles of teaching and learning anthropology—one focused on acquiring
‘substantive knowledge’ and the other on ‘ethnographic imagination’—and
these imply different uses of ethnographic examples for different purposes.
Whether on paper or in digital format, in the form of monographs, articles,
or brief mentions in textbooks, ethnographic examples have remained the
signature pedagogy of anthropology and the craft of selecting, analyzing,
circulating, and communicating them is at the very heart of the discipline.
The anthropological craft is centered on working through fieldwork material
to ‘figure out what could be “data”’ (Fortun 2009) or ‘what counts as
evidence’ (Luhrmann 2010).



In the process of learning how to decipher ethnographic examples
anthropologically, a number of challenges arise. These include discerning
‘data’, figuring out how to ‘link examples with theory’, how to ‘find one’s
own voice’ in writing or re-telling examples, or how to articulate examples
for funding agencies or for the public. A further challenge is affirming
ethnography as a distinctive and valuable insight into the human condition
while ethnographic examples may be about places, things and people far
removed from the immediate experience of students. Thus, when examples are
heard or read rather than experienced in person, do they require special
cultivation of imagination, openness and empathy? Some anthropologists have
indeed argued for more participatory and experiential approaches to the
teaching and learning of anthropology.



This one-day workshop will explore the joys and the challenges for
anthropology teachers and students in their use of ethnographic examples.
The workshop will also investigate diverse ways of teaching anthropology,
including through fieldwork, museums, ‘study tours’ (Russell 2004), and
generally leaving the classroom (Ingold 2004). Contributions are invited to
explore how different instructors (A-level teachers, graduate teaching
assistants, university lecturers and professors) select and use examples in
their teaching and how they assess their students’ understanding and use of
ethnography. Students are invited to contribute with a reflexive
understanding of how they learning to use ethnographic evidence.

*Thematic questions to be addressed may include the following*:



-          What counts as an ethnographic example?

-          Is anthropology primarily defined by ethnographic practice and
writing? How do teaching and learning transform anthropology through the
production, selection, communication and circulation of ethnographic
examples?

-          What skills could support students to make use of ethnographic
examples anthropologically?

-          What are the values and limitations of the ethnographic
monograph as an anthropological teaching resource?

-          Do written, oral and experience-based examples in teaching and
learning lead to different types of anthropological knowledge? What would
be the impact?

-          How can we best use material culture as well as visual and
digital ethnographies to provide examples in teaching?

-          How could using ethnographic examples support students in
avoiding generalizations and articulating non-essentialist arguments?

-          How can students do justice to the depth of ethnography in
written assignments and exam situations?

-          How can ethnographic data be valued whilst debating the
ethnographer’s positionality?

-          Do examples from students’ personal experiences have
ethnographic value and should they be encouraged to use them?

-          How do anthropologists use their own fieldwork experiences as
examples in the classroom?



*Abstracts and attendance fees*:

Please send a title plus an abstract (no longer than *400 words*) and
author information to [log in to unmask] by *Wednesday 15th
February 2012*. Selected papers will be included in a special issue of the
journal *Teaching Anthropology*.



We are keeping the cost of attendance low at *£18 for full-time students
and RAI fellows* and *£28 for everyone else* to help us cover lunch,
refreshments and an afternoon reception. To reserve a place and arrange
payment, please email: [log in to unmask]



A limited number of bursaries are available from *ASA* for members to help
with travel to teaching and learning events. To apply please contact Ian
Fairweather on [log in to unmask]

-- 
Ivan Costantino
DPhil Candidate
University of Oxford
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, 51 Banbury Rd, Oxford, OX2
6PE
+44 (0) 7821433511
http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/people/students/ivan-costantino/

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