Maria Noun Since it was my first time writing an ethnography, I thought it was best that once I had chosen my research site, I go into the field with a concrete research topic on my mind. I knew that my lack of experience would mean that I was likely to start off my observations … Continue reading
Category Archives: Advice for future Ethnographers
Feeling at Home: An Ethnography of UTIRAN
Michael Saleki My case study for ANT380 focused on the Iranian Student Association at the University of Toronto, informally referred to as UTIRAN. My reasoning for selecting UTIRAN for my case study was not fundamentally tied to the organization itself, but rather, holistically speaking, stimulated by an aim to empirically demonstrate how co-ethnic community organizations … Continue reading
Living with the Cultural Revolution: An Ethnographic Reflection
Weiwei Li One of the most challenging aspects of this fieldwork was recognizing how strongly my initial research question shaped what I expected to find. I entered the project with a clear interest in how Chinese Gen Z encounter censored or fragmented histories, but I also carried an assumption: that exposure to suppressed information would … Continue reading
Lessons From my First Ethnography
Raine-Liette Blanchard Quick Sketch of Silent Space (the sound of a/c in the room reminded me of the river back home) Stashed away on the fourteenth floor of the University of Toronto’s most popular library; down confusing hallways, with uninviting concrete floors and cement walls, lies the East Asian Studies department. This was the location … Continue reading