UGLB
3112

Ethnographic Writing Workshop: Spaces of Home

Schools of Public Engagement: Global, Urban, & Environmental

Liberal Arts
Undergraduate Course
Degree Students
Ethnographic Writing Workshop
Spring 2024
Taught By: Rachel Heiman
Section: A

CRN: 13742

Credits: 3

This intensive writing workshop will provide students an introduction to ethnographic writing, a key mode of description, analysis, and expression in anthropology and related disciplines. The theme for this semester is home, a space that took on new dimensions during the most intense times of the pandemic. Our dwellings became everything: sites of work, school, and citizenship; gym, bar, and DJ dance floor; pew at weddings and funerals; audience seating at public events and political rallies—our portal to the rest of humanity. Even though we are back in the world, why not use the coldest months of winter, when we spend more time at home, as an opportunity to hone our ethnographic writing skills and transform our homes into rich sites of anthropological exploration? Ethnography—spending dedicated time in everyday life to deeply understand social conditions—does not require us to go out into the world; we can subject our most familiar spaces to the same kind of observation and analytical inquiry. In this course, we build on the intense thinking about our homes that we are already doing. Each session will include in-class short writing exercises, break-out-group peer workshops, and close analysis of exemplary ethnographic writing by anthropologists, essayists, and creative writers. Exercises and assignments require us to reflect on the spaces we’re inhabiting, with particular attention to materiality, intimacy, movement, boundaries, infrastructures, equity, habits, senses, sociality, and grief. During the dark days of winter, we will create together an intimate, peer community of exploratory writing and ethnographic inquiry. NOTE: This intensive writing course will be held on Zoom on Fridays and Sundays over the course of four weekends in late January and February.

College: Schools of Public Engagement (NS)

Department: Global, Urban, & Environmental (GLUE)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Studio (S)

Modality: Online - Synchronous

Max Enrollment: 9

Add/Drop Deadline: January 28, 2024 (Sunday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Friday)

Seats Available: Yes

Status: Closed*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 7:26pm EDT 3/28/2024

Meeting Info:
Days: Friday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 1/26/2024 - 1/26/2024
Days: Sunday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 1/28/2024 - 1/28/2024
Days: Friday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 2/2/2024 - 2/2/2024
Days: Sunday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 2/4/2024 - 2/4/2024
Days: Friday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 2/9/2024 - 2/9/2024
Days: Sunday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 2/11/2024 - 2/11/2024
Days: Friday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 2/23/2024 - 2/23/2024
Days: Sunday
Times: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 2/25/2024 - 2/25/2024