First, it is important to understand that Cultural Inquiry=ethnography, so that when you see the word 'ethnography' you understand that it means Cultural Inquiry.
From today's assigned reading comes a relevant quote that will guide your projects:
As Harry F. Wolcott says in Ethnography: A Way of Seeing, “Ethnography begins with a researcher’s ability to frame an appropriate question or to recognize what contribution ethnography can make toward understanding some larger issue” (242). As a researcher and writer, then, you must examine the potential significance of your [subject-culture]. That significance can be personal (local) or public (global), but you have to consciously and actively raise questions about what that significance might be.
Each of you must actively create questions and look at your culture from various angles. We want sharp points that tear through the surface, not dull "stock" questions that keep us from seeing underneath the skin of a culture.
To do so, we will go over The Ethnographer's Tool Kit, Source Report 2 and go over some techniques from using the Columbia Library website to find all possible texts.
Homework for 2/12: We will be meeting on the third floor (3rd) of the Columbia College Library. Come prepared with a working Cultural Inquiry project "thesis." Include both the subject-culture and a specific area of humanity (that's so broad!) that you want to look into.
This "thesis" is to be a focus-area for you to start looking into your culture.
Some examples: Gender politics in on-line gaming communities; Alternate personas in bar culture; Competition for attention in the college dating scene; Non-verbal communication at Hardcore Concerts; Dressing the Part of an Artist at an Art School: a human artistic statement.
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