Spring 2008

ANT 391 • Race and the Ethnographic Imagination

Course Description

This seminar engages anthropological thought, theory, and practice, to initiate a discussion on the dynamics and politics of conceptions of difference in the ethnographic imagination. The course is framed around the argument that processes of racialization always already underpin ethnographic practice. The goal of this seminar is to engage with this argument as we explore the nature of race in ethnography. We will begin by addressing the history and theory of ethnographic practice, followed by the history and theory of anthropology's relationship to notions of race and difference. We will then examine both "classic" and contemporary ethnographic texts (along with their critiques), and end with discussions on texts that consciously employ race as an important mode of analysis in ethnographic research. Significantly, students will see that this course is as much about the development and construction of anthropological theory as it is about race and ethnography.

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