2022 Ethnography Winter School
Doing ethnography as if gender and sexuality mattered
17 to 21 January 2022
Important: This module will be delivered fully online.
The annual ‘Ethnography Winter School’ hosted by the Department of Anthropology at Maynooth University will take place online from 17 to 21 January 2022. As always, the school will bring together postgraduate students, professional researchers, and others for focused reflection on ‘ethnography’ today. We have structured the module as a one-week workshop or ‘laboratory,’ enabling students, established scholars, and others to work through challenges and opportunities related to their own research and writing projects in dialogue and critical engagement with each other. We hope this format will attract participants of diverse disciplinary orientations and career stages, and we further hope that this cross-fertilization of perspectives will yield fresh insights into what ethnography can teach us about the world in which we live.
This year the Winter School will focus on the far-reaching ways in which feminist and queer scholarship has challenged and transformed ethnography. Our invited speakers’ contributions will touch on a range of subjects that explore the nature of this challenge and of the present moment of ferment. For example, there will be a consideration of the American Anthropological Association’s recently instituted Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault, which is grounded in the recognition of the consequences of gender oppression for the methods and practices of anthropology (M. Gabriela Torres, Wheaton College); a meditation on questions of gender and genre in ethnographic writing (Elisabeth Tauber, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano); and a roundtable discussion of the powerful ethnographic work of the late Sri Lankan feminist anthropologist Malathi DeAlwis (chaired by Karen Till, Maynooth University; with contributions from Geethika Dharmasinghe, Cornell University; Jennifer Hyndman, York University; Mythri Jegathesan, Santa Clara University and Ritty Lukose, New York University). Maynooth Anthropology colleagues involved in gender and sexuality research will also share their compelling work; see details below.
The Sri Lankan feminist anthropologist Malathi DeAlwis passed away on 21st January 2021. To mark the first anniversary of her death, the Winter School includes a round table session that will explore her intellectual legacy.
Module Description AN862: Ethnography Winter School
This module is a comprehensive introduction to ethnography. The course is delivered in a burst format over one week, and features the collaborative teaching of practising ethnographers, including both academics and professional researchers. ‘Ethnography’ is more than a ‘method’: it comprises a whole style of thought encompassing forms of observation, analysis, and writing. The module therefore emphasizes analysis and theory in addition to the research practices (interviewing, participant observation, note-taking) conventionally associated with qualitative research methodology. Themes covered include: culture and difference, contexts and cases (working in NGOs, clinics, corporations), styles of representation and the politics of knowledge, research ethics and ethnographic engagement. The module is also structured as a workshop, so that ethnographers at various stages of their careers -- from students planning proposals, to dissertation writers analysing previously collected material, to research professionals who may not be based in academia -- will be able to produce work within the module that relates to their respective career stages, locations, and goals. This work, such as a proposal draft or a stretch of ethnographic writing, forms the basis for module assessment. It is not necessary for this work to tie in with the theme of the current edition of the Winter School.
ANTH_Winter School Brochure 2022
The first important date to bear in mind if you are planning to participate in the Winter School is 12th January: please send in a piece of writing you are working on – be it a research proposal or a 5,000+ word chapter draft – by then to Chandana.Mathur@mu.ie.
Winter School timetable:
Monday, 17 January 2022
10 am to 12 noon
Chandana Mathur (Maynooth University)
Welcome and introductions
1 pm to 2:30 pm
Public session
Bhargabi Das (Maynooth University)
The 'guilty' daughter-researcher: Ethnography, Affect and familial ties in post-pandemic Assam, India
3 pm to 5 pm
Public session
Elisabeth Tauber (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)
Questions of gender and genre in ethnographic writing
Tuesday, 18 January 2022
10 am to 12 noon
Working session with Pauline Garvey (Maynooth University)
Epistemological possibilities/pitfalls of a comparative anthropology
1 pm to 2:30 pm
Student work clusters
3 pm to 5 pm
Public session
Round table session
Chair: Karen Till (Maynooth University)
Participants: Geethika Dharmasinghe (Cornell University), Jennifer Hyndman (York University), Mythri Jegathesan (Santa Clara University), Ritty Lukose (New York University)
Grief, memorialisation and the anthropological feminism of Malathi De Alwis
Wednesday, 19 January 2022
10 am to 12 noon
Student work clusters
1 pm to 2:30 pm
Student work clusters
3 pm to 5 pm
Public session
Thomas Strong (Maynooth University)
Shame/less: Sex, ethics, and ethnography’s indiscretions
Thursday, 20 January 2022
10 am to 12 noon
Student work clusters
1 pm to 2:30 pm
Student work clusters
3 pm to 5 pm
Public session
M. Gabriela Torres (Wheaton College)
Defining Sexual Violence as Professional Misconduct in Anthropology
Friday, 21 January 2022
10 am to 12 noon
Work cluster presentations
Presentation to the school of insights gained over the week in relation to individual projects
1 to 4 pm
Work cluster presentations
Presentation to the school of insights gained over the week in relation to individual projects
Research students based at institutions other than Maynooth University are welcome to register for the Winter School, but the procedures for enrolling in the course for credit will necessarily be somewhat complicated. You are advised to be in touch well in advance with Dr Chandana Mathur (Chandana.Mathur@mu.ie) and the Maynooth Anthropology Department Office (anthropology.office@mu.ie).