Especially since beginning fieldwork research almost two months ago now, I’ve been desperate for more advice on doing ethnography and implementing methodological approaches (for a discussion of specific tools see here). Some blogs with fantastic resources that I came across include: Anthrodendum (and its prior home at Savage Minds), Raul Pacheco-Vega’s blog, Ethnography Matters, Footnotes, and Fieldsites, and the open access journal Anthropology Matters.
Below is a list of some blog posts, books, podcasts, and other resources that I’ve found helpful to think with for a variety of reasons, including their honesty, concreteness, and critical interrogations of what constitutes “research.”
[Yes, there’s a lot of cross-cutting articles and themes across the groupings below, and yes, there’s a lot more that could be added! This is just a selection.]
On doing (critical) (feminist) ethnography:
Brah, Avtar, “the scent of memory: strangers, our own and others,” 1999–published here (paywalled)
Conquergood, Dwight, “Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural Politics”–available in this online course packet
Davis, Dána-Ain, and Christa Craven, Feminist Ethnography: Thinking through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities, 2016–google book preview here
Gunaratnam, Yasmin and Carrie Hamilton, “The wherewithal of feminist methods,” 2017–an introduction to an entire Feminist Review issue on methods (that’s currently posted without a paywall)!
Hall, Stuart, “Avtar Brah’s cartographies: moment, method, meaning,” 2012–published here (paywalled)
Lury, Celia and Nina Wakeford, editors, Inventive Methods: The happening of the social, 2012–google book preview here
Madison, D. Soyini, Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance, 2011–google book preview here
Mattioli, Fabio, Emily Channell-Justice, and Andrew Hernann, “Back from the Field” talks, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), Anthropology Program, recorded by the GC Videography Fellows, 2014–view on Vimeo here
Yates-Doerr, Emily, “The ethnographic case: series conclusion,” 2017
On ethnographic sensibility and the FEELS involved with doing ethnographic research:
Abidin, Crystal, “Traveling Academics and the Guilt from Crises at Home,” 2017
Beatty, Andrew, “How Did It Feel for You? Emotion, Narrative, and the Limits of Ethnography,” 2010–PDF available to download here
Behar, Ruth, The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart, 1996–PDF available here
Fleischmann, Adam, “Feelings in the field: reflections on fieldwork in murk-o,” 2018
Pacheco-Vega, Raul, “On having ethnographic sensibility,” 2016
Page, Tiffany, “Vulnerable writing as a feminist methodological practice,” 2017
Pollard, Amy, “Field of screams: difficulty and ethnographic fieldwork,” 2009
Reyes-Foster, Beatriz and Rebecca J. Lester, “Trauma and Resilience in Ethnographic Fieldwork,” 2019
Stainova, Yana, “Enchantment as Methodology,” 2017
Williams, Bianca C., “What I Now Know About Completing Fieldwork,” 2011 (in Anthropology News–Section News: Association of Black Anthropologists)–published here (paywalled)
On race, gender, and violence when doing ethnographic research:
Hanson, Rebecca and Patricia Richards, Harassed: Gender, Bodies, and Ethnographic Research, 2019–Google book preview here
LeVon, Laura A., “Teaching Fugitive Anthropology with Maya Berry and Colleagues,” 2018
Me Too Anthro’s entire reading list on the issue of sexual assault and harassment in anthropology
Williams, Bianca C., “”Don’t Ride the Bus!”: And other warnings women anthropologists are given during fieldwork,” 2009–published here (paywalled)
On doing collaborative, and/or activist anthropology, and its ambiguities, difficulties, and contradictions:
Gordon, Edmund T., “Anthropology and Liberation,” 1991, in Decolonizing Anthropology, edited by Faye V. Harrison–book can be purchased here
Hale, Charles R. “Activist Research v. Cultural Critique: Indigenous Land Rights and the Contradictions of Politically Engaged Anthropology,” 2006–PDF available here
On implementing methods, taking field notes, and data management and analysis:
My post “On (digital) tools for doing ethnographic research” 🙂
& my post “On practices of writing field notes” 🙂
Crumdy, Angela, “Field Notes She Wrote,” 2019
Crumdy, Angela, “Reflections from the Field: Pt. 1” & “Reflections from the Field: Pt. 2,” 2019
Davis Portela, Rafael, “How I organize my digital library,” 2019
Friedman, P. Kerim, “Archiving for the longue durée (Tools we use),” 2016
Vivanco, Luis. A, Field Notes: A Guided Journal for Doing Anthropology, 2016 (purchase here)
Taylor, Alexander, “Cloud Security for Anthropologists,” 2018
Wang, Tricia, “The tools we use: Gahhhh, where is the killer qualitative analysis app?” 2012
On doing research with photos, sounds, digital spaces, or archives, and sensory ethnography:
My post “Recording a soundscape and in my feelings–on sensory methods and being present” 🙂
Anderson, Ryan, “Repeat photography & coastal change: From notes and ideas to research method,” 2018
Anderson, Ryan, “Tools for the field: Digital audio recorders,” 2013
Chandras, Jessica, “Our Ethnographic Ear: Using sound as an ethnographic tool and product,” 2018
Price, Davis, “Anthropologists in the Archives: A Brief Guide for the Perplexed,” 2018
Seta, Gabriele de, “Against Sonic Naturalism,” 2018
Also, super relevant–on teaching methods, the validity of qualitative research, what makes something ethnographic, and maintaining a marathon mindset:
Crumdy, Angela, “Marathon Mindset,” 2019
McGranahan, Carole, “What Makes Something Ethnographic?” 2012
Pacheco-Vega, Raul, “On the importance of teaching the mechanics of doing research,” 2018
Price, Devon, “Laziness Does Not Exist: But unseen barriers do,” 2018
I might add to or organize these resources into more subsections later; and if you have ideas to add that you’d like to share, contact me!
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