Fieldwork seminar w/ Cristine Crone
Field-work as complementary empirical material - how
Abstract
I am working with a new Arab satellite news channel and most of my empirical material will be TV-programs, which I am watching from afar at my office disk. I want to complement the analysis of programs with field-work in Beirut, where the channel is based. Trying to design the field-work has raised several questions, between them:
- Which role should the field work play within my project?
- Which field will be most interesting to look at?
- How can field work complement other empirical material and how to make the different parts interact?
- How to integrate various kinds of material (the TV shows as text and image, the political context of the broadcast company and the interviews with producers, journalists) in the analytical framework?
I am looking forward to an opportunity to discuss the abovementioned considerations as well as more practical questions as how to document my data? Which questions to ask? How long a field-work?
Fieldwork in the Humanities
– a series of PhD seminars at ToRS
ECTS: 1,8 for paper presentation and 0,3 for active participation.
Fieldwork is at the core of many of the PhD projects at ToRS and a productive period ’in the field’ is crucial for a successful thesis. The time allowed for fieldwork is, however, limited and it is therefore of importance to have an opportunity to discuss plans and alternatives, to be able to share experiences after coming back from fieldwork and to have response on drafts of analysis when the thesis text is about to take shape.
A series of regular PhD seminars are offered at ToRS on the uses of fieldwork in the humanities. During the seminars there will be an opportunity to present texts (plans, reports, drafts of analysis), discuss and scrutinize various methods for fieldwork – and report experiences as well as discuss theoretical reflections on fieldwork as a method. Fieldwork can be conducted in a number of ways and from very different analytical perspectives; many of them at work in various ToRS projects. The purpose of the seminars is not to streamline your projects, but to open up a forum for discussions about how to plan a fieldwork and still be flexible, choices of documentation, follow-up and where to draw the line. In short: share and learn from others; from tentative research questions to submission of a thesis based on fieldwork.
Some of the issues that will be discussed during the seminars:
– designing a fieldwork plan and preparing for surprises and change of plans
– the relation between research questions and choice of field method
– documentation: technique, ethics and archiving
– follow-up and processual analysis
– combining fieldwork material(s) with other sources
– combining fieldwork material(s) with historical studies
– literature on fieldwork
It is strongly recommended that those of you who use fieldwork material in your thesis continuously take active part in these seminars. The seminars are intended to be a platform for discussions for every stage of fieldwork and for fieldwork in the broadest understanding of the concept. Archaeological, archival, literary and political angles are more than welcome.
Each seminar has a theme and literature (ca 50 pages) will be circulated beforehand as a preparation for the discussions. At each seminar will also one, or more PhD, candidate(s) present a piece from her/his on-going work.
The seminars are chaired by Catharina Raudvere and Esther Fihl.