Ethnography Practicum

This class is designed for students whose work in Cuba will include an ethnographic component. Its goal is to introduce students to a variety of methods in ethnographic fieldwork including oral and life histories, interviewing, participant observation, analysis of performance. We will also deal with the process of turning field notes into academic and popular forms of writing. Depending on students' interest we may concentrate on performance ethnography, ie, viewing performances as artistic forms that are located in particular economic, cultural, historical contexts. We will consider performance as embodied experience, as ritual, as site of symbolic meaning, as product of economic relations, as site specific, as involving political aims and power relations.