Studying Online Cultures: An Introduction to Digital Ethnographic Methods
Course Code
SOSC 20224 91
Course Description
"Virtual worlds are places of imagination that encompass practices of play, performance, creativity and ritual.” – Tom Boellstorff, Ethnography and Virtual Worlds
This course is designed to provide students in the social sciences with a review of ethnographic research methods in an online environment, exposure to major debates on virtual ethnographic research, and opportunities to try their hand at practicing fieldwork virtually.
We will analyze and problematize enduring oppositions associated with ethnographic fieldwork – field/home, insider/outsider, researcher/research subject, expert/novice, ‘being there’/removal—and we will debate epistemological, ethical, and practical matters in online ethnographic research.
Expect a lot of hands-on activities: you will formulate a preliminary research question at the beginning of the course, and conduct a few weeks of ethnographic research in a virtual field site of your choosing. Each week you will be asked to complete short ethnographic assignments, and to produce field notes to be exchanged and discussed in class.
Course Criteria
Students who have taken Digital Ethnography with Prof. Fugazzola should not enroll in this course due to content overlap.
This course is cross-listed with Anthropology (ANTH 21432/31432), Environmental Studies (ENST 20224), Global Studies (GLST 26220), and Sociology (SOCI 20515), and Social Sciences (SOSC 30224.) This course is open to all undergraduates and is included in the Summer Institute in Social Research Methods.
This course is an approved elective for students in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies major and in the Health and Society minor. It also satisfies the methodology course requirement for the Sociology major and the Anthropology major. It counts as a methodology elective for the Global Studies major. It is an approved elective course for the ENST major and minor requirements, but students must petition with relevance to course of study. It may be approved as an elective for additional majors by petition.
Instructor(s)
Cate Fugazzola
UChicago Registration 1Visiting Application 2Other Courses to Consider
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