Fieldwork: 3 credits -- Anthropology / Geography
One of our fundamental pedagogical principles is that "inventory enables interpretation." This means that before we can develop arguments or ideas or even "figuring-something-out" questions about something, we need to know what that something is, in clear and specific detail. The inventory -- the raw data -- is the necessary prerequisite for the interpretation. Furthermore, and this is not always as apparent as might seem to be the case, we do indeed need to start with something to inventory, some "text" (whether written or otherwise). The idea is to avoid vague, over-generalized thinking that, lacking a body of evidence to analyze, amounts to untethered philosophizing.
Building on these premises, the aim of this course is twofold. First, for the students to build up a body of food for thought: raw data, evidence, "texts" and "primary sources," in a firsthand and experiential/empirical manner. Second, for the students to develop their abilities to see -- to narrow their focus, to examine closely, to notice and attend to specific details, to recognize anomalies and openings for analysis, and so on.
The class will meet weekly. Each meeting will consist of a 90-minute excursion and a 45-minute period for processing, inventorying, and reflecting (discussions, writing exercises such as focused and detailed description, sketching, and various other activities), with an emphasis on the questions that are arising in the students' minds.
Each excursion will have a focus, all of which may be generally classified as anthropological/sociological (culture and society), geographical (physical places and features), or some combination of the two. On as many excursions as possible, we will be accompanied by a subject-matter expert, who will guide us in not only specific features and phenomena but also in particular disciplinary lenses -- particular ways of seeing and of collecting data. Frequent emphasis will be placed on guiding students to a recognition of some phenomenon, and then on asking them to figure out how it came to be.
The course will culminate in an essay that draws connections between and develops a set of "figuring-something-out" questions about a selection of data points from the semester's excursions. In order to emphasize and reinforce the primary necessity, and the challenge, of developing real and productive questions, this essay will seek not to answer a question, but rather to develop a set of strong, viable questions -- in other words, the essay will take the form of a proposal, laying out possible directions for future inquiry.
• Grading: Participation 50% + Essay 50%