June 27, 2025 Shan Hsieh, Rona Mohsini, Zoya Nasir, Yasmine Sleiman, Alison Wardley, Yao Xiao, Cody Yoon Introduction Our site of interest, Fort York, is a historic site that maintains the military garrison that was established by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1793, who then named it York, favouring English names to local Indigenous ones … Continue reading
Author Archives: Emily Hertzman
On Decolonizing A House Museum: Diversifying Storytelling and the Gap of Communication
June 24, 2024 Yiran Li, Yunshan Li, Georgia Hanson, Alperen Demirci, Lukey Lu The Spadina Museum is one of ten Toronto History Museums sites operated by the City of Toronto, used to be owned by the Austin Family, an affluent and influential family in Toronto during late 19th Century and early 20th Century. The museum … Continue reading
Decolonizing Museum Spaces: An Ethnographic Study of Indigenous Representation at Fort York National Historic Site
June 24, 2024 Edward Yuan, Matteo Halewood, Ella Altena Karina Herrera Cardona, Yihang Xu Introduction The site for our research project on the anthropology of tourism was the Fort York National Historic Site located beside the Gardiner Expressway. Amidst towering glass condos and a busy expressway, a 43-acre site with the largest collection of original … Continue reading
In ANT465 Ethnographic Practicum: Toronto Tours, students have been examininghow visitors experience the City of Toronto History Museums’ new initiatives todecolonize and diversify their stories. This course provides students with anopportunity to conduct ethnographic research to understand the diverse experiencesof various visitors. In this intensive summer course, students work in teams andconduct weekly fieldwork at Fort York and Spadina … Continue reading
Writing Fieldnotes: Essential Skills Workshop Friday, June 20th 10-12
Calling all graduate students . . . Join us . . . .
Upcoming Event May 7: On Friendship
The Beautiful friend shows up unexpectedly and a worlding can begin. In this talk, we move from making friends on a quiet street in Denmark to friendships in Jordan and finally to friendship and the possibility of transformative solidarity in the research process. When invisible, affective gestures are captured ethnographically in all their singularity, can … Continue reading
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography
Student Engagement: Concretized Student Leadership
A Final Report By Yunshan Li My research question is generated from my interviews with Student Engagement (below refers to SE) employees on the topic of their work related to student clubs. One interviewee said, “Could they do these things without us? Probably.” Then he explained the difficulty students could meet without their support, but I … Continue reading
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates
“It’s so hard to get information out to students.”
By Yunshan Li As one division in Student Life, a main challenge that Student Engagement (responsible for clubs and leadership development relevant matters) meets is they find it difficult to let students know what is happening. One main reason is they do not have their own social media accounts. If they want to announce something, such … Continue reading
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates
Working Styles in the University
By Yunshan Li As a department in a higher education institution, Student Life’s working habit is quite different from that of academia. According to our professor, there is no clear hierarchy of faculty in academia. Of course, some professors are more reputational, but there is no such concept as superior and subordinate. Furthermore, the work handover of faculty is mostly … Continue reading
Ethnography Lab 