ANTHRO 503a: Ethnographic Writing

Semester: Fall 2009
Class: Wednesdays 1:30 - 3:20 pm

Last Offered: -
Next offered: Spring 2006

Course Description

Writing lies at the heart of cultural anthropology. We are known for our ethnographic monographs and journal articles more than anything else (although we should also remember that our field notes and diaries are also genres of writing in their own right).

While this is not the appropriate class for me to enter into my usual tirade against a logocentric sociocultural anthropology, the truth is that we as cultural (visual, linguistic, and medical) anthropologists must write and we must write well. Whether it is our dissertations for our PhDs, journal articles for a job, or our first and second monographs for tenure, we are constantly evaluated on what we write as the primary measure of our scholarship.

Yet for all of the importance of writing in our professional careers, we receive very little training in graduate school on how to write professionally. For most of you, the last writing course you might have taken was during your first year of college. In this seminar, we will explore modes, genres, and voice in ethnographic writing through writing a lot, editing a lot, and talking a lot about writing and editing.

Prerequisites and Requirements

Graduate students from related humanistic and social science disciplines are welcome, however enrollment priority is given to doctoral students in anthropology. Students attending the first day of class will also have priority over those trying to add the course later on.

Textbooks and Course Readings

The required textbooks will be available at the Labrynth bookstore. The syllabi and course readings in the forms of articles will be distributed in class and also available through the ClassesV2 server.

Required texts:

• Faubion, James and George Marcus (2009). Fieldwork is not what it used to be. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

• Gray, Paul and David Drew (2008). What they didn’t teach you in graduate school. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publications.

• Sanjek, Roger (1990), ed. Fieldnotes, the making of anthropology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. – shared with 502a

• Van Maanen (1988). Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Wolf, Margery (1992). Thrice-told Tale: Feminism, Postmodernism, and Ethnographic Responsibility. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Library Resources

• Course Reserve List (Classes V2)
• How to cite references:
  • Anthropology Style Guide
  • Citing Electronic Resources