Tag Archives: elevator ethnography

Going Public: Ethnography’s Challenges

In an overflowing room at the American Sociological Association meetings in San Francisco last week, Alice Goffman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and daughter of the late Erving Goffman, faced her critics and supporters as they discussed her new book. There were far more critics than supporters in the room, and many came with the express intent of making their criticisms known. For those of you who don’t know the book (and the controversy that surrounds it)… read more…

  • dateAugust 26, 2014
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  • posted byAnne
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Getting Real and Making it Relevant: Teaching Introductory Anthropology

I survey my students on the first day of class to find out why they’ve come and from that data I know to treat their arrival as a gift. I’ve got just one chance to make anthropology relevant to their lives. If I try to treat them as potential colleagues—as anthropologists-in-the-making—I risk alienating them. That risk rises if I require them to read textbooks thick with hundreds of pages of abstract or alien information. Will all that “stuff” survive a few months’ brain storage let alone a lifetime? If not, then it might be better to get something anthropological to stick for their lifetime. In this blog post I provide a few concrete examples of the pedagogical approaches I use. read more…

  • dateFebruary 27, 2014
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  • posted bySarah Mahler
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