Field Methods in Ethnomusicology (Winter 2011)

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Classes: Mon 9:00-11:50 Arts Building A403

Instructor: Federico Spinetti www.ualberta.ca/~spinetti

Office: 3-34A Arts & Convocation Hall; office hours: Tuesday 11:00AM – 1:00PM; tel. 492-7534; email: spinetti@ualberta.ca

Course description

This course is an introduction to ethnographic fieldwork in ethnomusicology. It aims to provide students with theoretical and practical tools to undertake field research and ethnographic writing in preparation for their graduate theses. The course entails the exploration of fieldwork techniques and technologies, and active engagement with theoretical debates and critical perspectives on fieldwork and ethnographic representation involving ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology and critical theory.

Prerequisites: the course is for graduate students only.

Aims and objectives

  • To become acquainted with a variety of practical fieldwork methods and develop or refine skills in participant observation, fieldnotes, interviewing, data organization and analysis.
  • To develop familiarity with the possibilities offered by a variety of multimedia technologies and introduce basic principles of use.
  • To develop an understanding of fieldwork as a site of both practical and theoretical concerns, and to develop familiarity with and critical interest in theoretical issues, the ethics and politics of the ethnographic enterprise, reflexivity and advocacy.
  • To carry out a small fieldwork project as part of a larger ethnographic project design which may or may not be related to the students’ graduate research proposal.
  • To regularly monitor and report on the methodological and practical steps taken during your fieldwork project, and to produce a final short piece of ethnographic writing.

Course requirements

  • Regular class attendance
  • Participation in discussions and presentation of readings. You will be asked to do weekly readings and discuss them in class and, occasionally, to present on one or more individually assigned readings.
  • End-of-term paper (2,000-2,500 words): critique of an ethnographic book of your choice. The book to be chosen must be relevant to ethnomusicology (due on Week 12).
  • Fieldwork project, including:

1) Submitting a field-research proposal (due on Week 3).

2) Conducting fieldwork with individuals or a community of your choice in Edmonton or surrounding areas.

3) Completing step-by-step fieldwork tasks, including design and planning, interviews, fieldnotes, audio-visual rough edits, etc. These need to be submitted to me as well as presented in class for discussion and feedback.

4) Final, oral class presentation of your fieldwork enterprise (Week 14).

5) Submission of final ethnographic piece, due April 20th, including text and audio-visual materials. The text should not exceed 5,000 words.

Academic integrity

You should be familiar with the Code of Student Behavior as published in Section 26 of the 2008-2009 Calendar and available online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/governance/studentappeals.cfm.“Policy about course outlines can be found in section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar”. (GFC 29 SEP 2003) “The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/governance/studentappeals.cfm.) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.” (GFC 29 SEP 2003)

Assessment

Each assignment will be marked according to the numeric scale of evaluation given below. Individual assignment marks will be combined to obtain a final numeric grade, which will be rounded so as to obtain a corresponding final letter grade as shown below.

A = 4.0

A- = 3.7

B+ = 3.3

B = 3.0

B- = 2.7

C+ = 2.3

C = 2.0

C- = 1.7

D+ = 1.3

D = 1.0

D- = 0.7

F = 0.0

The relative weight of each assignment on the overall grade is as follows:

  • Attendance, participation in class discussions and presentation of readings: 15%
  • Presentation and submission of partial fieldwork results: 30% (7.5% per submission)
  • End-of-term paper (critique of a chosen ethnographic book): 20%
  • Class presentation of fieldwork project: 10%
  • Final ethnographic report: 25%

Resources

  • There are no required textbooks for this course. All class readings will be on reserve at the Music Library. Some of the readings are available online as well through the UofA Library databases. Relevant bibliographic or audio-visual materials that may not be available in University Libraries will be handed out in class, included in this course mediawiki or made accessible in my office.
  • The course mediawiki will be an important resource for reading assignments, bibliography, media and other materials. I will use it also to communicate changes of schedule, further assignment details or other messages to the class.
  • Audio and video equipment at the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology / Folkways Alive!, 347D Old Arts Building.

Class schedule and readings

In the list of weekly readings for this course, Reference indicates readings that must be done and prepared by everyone for class discussion. Assigned indicates readings assigned to individual students for short class presentations. Additional indicates suggested readings for students who wish to expand on a particular weekly topic; additional readings are not part of course requirements.

Week 1 – Monday, January 10: Introduction to the course

Week 2 – Monday, January 17: Fieldwork and ethnography: an overview of approaches, methods and critical perspectives; Planning fieldwork

Week 3 – Monday, January 24: Fieldnotes; Participant observation.

Week 4 – Monday, January 31: Ethics 1: Research with human participants; Emic / Etic issues in ethnographic research.

Week 5 – Monday, February 7: Interviewing.

Week 6 – Monday, February 14: Video and photography: equipment and editing software.

Reading Week - February 21-25

Week 7 – Monday, February 28: Audio recording: equipment and editing software.

Week 8 – Monday, March 7: Fieldwork and ethnography: critical perspectives 2; Video and photography: philosophy and representation.

Week 9 – Monday, March 14: Guest lecturer: Dr. Anne Rasmussen, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, College of William and Mary (VA).

Week 10 – Monday, March 21: Analysis and Writing

Week 11 – Monday, March 28: Ethics 2: Ownership, repatriation and dissemination of ethnographic materials.

Week 12 – Monday, April 4: Course review and open discussion

Week 13 – Monday, April 11: Class presentations of fieldwork projects


Final ethnographic reports due on April 20th

Bibliography

Bibliography - Music 666 2011