Author Archives: Emily Hertzman

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Fieldwork from above and below

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By Cameron Miranda-Radbord Walk to Simcoe Hall, arrive at 9:10am – late, because administration doesn’t function on UofT time. Listen to financial update. Ask questions. Fight a losing battle against schoolwork that could have been done last night.  I approached my ethnography of Accessibility Services from what I consider a unique standpoint – both “below” … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography

“Constructing” Community and Leadership: An Ethnography of Student Clubs and ‘Third Space Professionals’ at UofT

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Final Report By Amani Hassan “Student Life”: A New Profession for a New Institutional Priority  International university ranking systems have increasingly shaped how institutions like the University of Toronto structure their priorities. Following an observed influence of student input on universities’ global ranking, a new profession emerged in many academic institutions that specifically intends to … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Seeking Community in Normalized Isolation: A Reflection on the Importance of ‘Third Space Professionals’ in the Post-pandemic University

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By Amani Hassan ‘Student Life’ (SL) and similar student experience-focused entities in universities emerged within the last decade, partly as a response to the importance of “student experience” as a category on international rankings. However, departments such as SL’s Clubs and Leadership Development (CLD) now have an additional significance in the post-pandemic university, as they … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography

Symbiotic Ethnographies: Approaching Research at Two Connected Field Sites

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By Amani Hassan Making the strange familiar and the familiar strange is central to ethnographic research. Ethnography typically involves participant observation, where the researcher immerses themself in a community to understand it from a culturally relative perspective. But how do you approach this when you are researching two groups and are also an active member … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Are Leaders Found or Created?: The Myth of the “Ideal” Student Leader

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By Amani Hassan The concept of the ‘ideal’ student is prevalent in universities, often shaped by expectations that reflect the institution’s prestige and effectiveness. The ideal student is typically understood as diligent, respectful, and engaged—traits that align with a ‘professional’ image. Universities further reinforce these qualities as desirable through scholarships, awards, and recognition. The University … Continue reading →

Discourse vs. Practice: Ambiguity in Student Roles at Student Life
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Discourse vs. Practice: Ambiguity in Student Roles at Student Life

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By Angelina Nguyen, Norah Rahman and Richard Wu Our collective fieldwork revealed some ambiguity concerning how student roles are portrayed in Student Life (SL) discourse and how they work out in practice. Below we discuss student roles as labourers, consumers, and advisors.  Student as workers: SL employs hundreds of work-study students and spends over a … Continue reading →

A Digital Labyrinth: Navigating Information on the Student Life Website
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

A Digital Labyrinth: Navigating Information on the Student Life Website

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By Amani Hassan and Hanisha Mistry Staff at the Centre for Learning Strategies Support take pride in the resource library which offers PDF documents on various topics designed to support academic success and help students adapt to university-level learning. Accessing this library involves three straightforward steps: “Student Life Homepage > Departments > Centre for Learning … Continue reading →

What was Familiar, What was Strange?: Rediscovering the University Through a Lens of Curiosity and Complexity
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

What was Familiar, What was Strange?: Rediscovering the University Through a Lens of Curiosity and Complexity

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By Georgia Hanson, Molly McGouran an Yihang Xu If you are familiar with something, how can it be strange?  Our individual experiences with fieldwork in Student Life presented us with new avenues through which we could explore this question, each of us gaining a new perspective on the university that we had once so confidently … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

What Exactly is Participant Observation?

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By Yunshan Li and Georgia Hanson Participant observation is the foundational method of ethnographic research. It requires the researcher to immerse themselves in the field site to gain insights into a culture. However, in the case of our research in Student Life, we were limited from such immersion, barred from participation, and limited to a … Continue reading →

The Online World: Ethnography Behind the Screen
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

The Online World: Ethnography Behind the Screen

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By Molly McGouran and Lukey Lu From our first meetings with Student Life administration, it was clear that our participant observation would be different from what we expected.  Most of the staff work from home; therefore, much of the programming offered by the Centre for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS), where we conducted our work, was … Continue reading →