Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 17:16
What is ethnographic writing and how do we learn to write ethnographically? This course seeks to familiarise students with the craft of ethnographic writing through a series of lectures, seminars, reading and writing exercises.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | First Term | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
| Co-ordinators |
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The course will familiarise students with a range of different ethnographic genres, such as: realist, critical, experimental, phenomenological, and historical. Through careful attention to the range and scope of ethnographic reading and writing, the course will address the ways in which anthropologists, both historically and in the present-day, have chosen to conduct fieldwork, establish ethnographic authority, and present cultural realities. We explore how, as they are read, ethnographies are able to stimulate comparative theoretical thinking. As the course proceeds, anthropology emerges as both a science and an art form.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
800 words |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Factual | Evaluate | Understand how theoretical and anthropological positioning determines the shape of ethnographic knowledge production and analysis. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | Learning different ways to provide and receive peer evaluations. Students are required to offer useful and constructive feedback on short creative ethnographic writing assignments of their peers. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 40 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback | Word Count | 2500 | ||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Understand | Hone students’ knowledge of ethnographic writing styles through an in-depth reading and evaluation of a range of ethnographic writing. |
| Factual | Evaluate | Understand how theoretical and anthropological positioning determines the shape of ethnographic knowledge production and analysis. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | Learning different ways to provide and receive peer evaluations. Students are required to offer useful and constructive feedback on short creative ethnographic writing assignments of their peers. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
2,000 words each (25% each) |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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| Assessment Type | Formative | Weighting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
600 words |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Factual | Evaluate | Understand how theoretical and anthropological positioning determines the shape of ethnographic knowledge production and analysis. |
| Procedural | Understand | Inviting students to apply their understandings of ethnographic writing styles through experimental writing |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback | ||||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
|
|
||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Reflection | Evaluate | Learning different ways to provide and receive peer evaluations. Students are required to offer useful and constructive feedback on short creative ethnographic writing assignments of their peers. |
| Procedural | Understand | Inviting students to apply their understandings of ethnographic writing styles through experimental writing |
| Conceptual | Understand | Hone students’ knowledge of ethnographic writing styles through an in-depth reading and evaluation of a range of ethnographic writing. |
| Factual | Evaluate | Understand how theoretical and anthropological positioning determines the shape of ethnographic knowledge production and analysis. |
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