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Thematic courses

Spring 2022, CairoThematic Course

Making the Strange Familiar & the Familiar Strange

Investigating the Social behind Spirituality and the Unseen through Anthropological Fieldwork

Making the Strange Familiar & the Familiar Strange
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Course details

Cycle
Spring 2022, Cairo
Starts
Tuesday, May 17
Meets
Tuesday, 18:30–21:30
Length
8 sessions
Format
Hybrid
Taught in
English

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About the course

Anthropology is the study of people, cultures, and the human condition. This course introduces the study of anthropology in a practical hands-on manner. It’s all about “making the strange familiar and the familiar strange”. The participants will be encouraged to engage in discussions about anthropology as a field, otherness, rapport, access, among other important facets of conducting social qualitative research. They will also be engaging practically with writing fieldnotes, conducting participant observation and interviews, and editing their work to come up with a mini ethnography. This all will be covered with the theme: Spirituality and the Unseen by investigating rituals, activities, and experiences that are considered spiritual.

Course Objectives

Some of the questions we’re going to cover in this course are:

- What is anthropology as a field and mode of knowledge and practice. - How to read and analyze ethnographies. - How to conduct ethnographic fieldwork on spirituality. (Participant observation and fieldnotes) - How to conduct semi-structured interviews. - How to make the personal academic/professional. (Auto-ethnography on spiritual experiences) - How do we use our ethnographic eye to try and understand our everyday lives?

This course will help participants:

- Get introduced to ethnographic reading and writing. - Understand and use participant observation as a tool to investigate the social. - Write fieldnotes. - Understand how to make personal experiences academic. - Learn how to edit your work. - Conduct ethnographic fieldwork/mini ethnography on spirituality, the focus is the student’s choice.

Who teaches it

  • Sohayla is a PhD student, social researcher, medical anthropologist, and sexual and reproductive health and rights specialist, based in Cairo, Egypt. She worked as a research consultant at the American University of Beirut, and she is also a founding member of the East Mediterranean Federation of Sexual Health (EMFeSH). With her advocacy roles, she is focused on intersectionality, structural violence, and gender justice. Throughout her career, she worked on producing journal articles, technical reports, proposals, case studies, evaluation reports, and training manuals. Her research style merges theoretical and fieldwork approaches. She holds an M.A in Social Anthropology and a B.A in Political Science from the American University in Cairo.

Course flow

Showing 8 sessions

May 2022

  • Tuesday May 17th

    In class

    • DiscussionIn class Activity: What is culture?

  • Tuesday May 24th

    • Shane the Lone EthnographerRead together with Walsh, David. 2000. Doing ethnography. In Seale, Clive (ed.) (AND).
    • Doing ethnographyWalsh, David. 2000. In Seale, Clive (ed.). Read together with Shane the Lone Ethnographer (AND).
    • Small talkAlternative (OR) to the readings above.
    • Thick DescriptionAlternative (OR) to the readings above.
    • What is Ethnography?To watch in class.

    In class

    • ExerciseIn class Activity: Listen and Analyze the song “Tom’s Diner” and write a fieldnote.

  • Tuesday May 31st

    Choose and read one of the introductions in:

    • Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the AzandeEvans-Pritchard. Religion/Spirituality/The Unseen: choose one introduction.
    • Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An AnthropologyGreenwood. Religion/Spirituality/The Unseen: choose one introduction.
    • Spectacle and SacrificeDavid Johnson. Religion/Spirituality/The Unseen: choose one introduction.
    • Not Quite ShamansMorten Axel Pedersen. Religion/Spirituality/The Unseen: choose one introduction.
    • Miracles and Extraordinary Experience in Northern KenyaBilinda Straight. Religion/Spirituality/The Unseen: choose one introduction.

    In class

    • PresentationIn class activity: Mini presentation on the ethnography on spirituality you chose to read.

June 2022

  • Tuesday June 7th

    How to make the personal/spiritual academic/professional

    • Giving an Account of oneselfButler (2003). Alternative (OR) to The ethnographic I.
    • The ethnographic ICarolyn Ellis (2004). Alternative (OR) to Giving an Account of oneself.
    • From Skeptic to PractitionerIn Meanings of Mindfulness and Spiritual Awakening Affliction and Healing in Contemporary Cairo. Read in addition (AND) to the reading above.
    • Project proposal due.

    In class

    • ExerciseIn class activity: Write a fieldnote on a spiritual experience and share it.

  • Rescheduled Sunday June 12th

    In class

    • ExerciseEthnographic Workshop for projects.

  • Tuesday June 21st

    • EthnographyBrewer, John. 2000. In Bryman, Alan (ed.).
    • Activity for next class: Conduct a mini semi-structured interview with someone on spirituality.

  • Tuesday June 28th

    • The Craft of Editing: Anthropology's Prose and QualmsMoeran, B. (2011).

    In class

    • DiscussionIn class activity: Share interviews insights

July 2022

  • SATURDAY JULY 2nd

    In class

    • PresentationPresentations Day: SATURDAY JULY 2nd

Course reading list

  • Live and die like a manFarha Ghannam. Recommended ethnography (Gender).
  • Veiled SentimentsLila Abu-Lughod. Recommended ethnography (Gender).
  • When Men are WomenJohn Wood. Recommended ethnography (Gender).
  • Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor.Sudhir Venkatesh. Recommended ethnography (Economy).
  • Ethnography reading guide (sfcollege.libguides.com)Listed under Readings Recommendations (More ethnographies). The visible link text was not in the extracted text, so this title is the address's host and path.
  • Ethnography course page (unl.edu)Listed under Readings Recommendations (More ethnographies). The visible link text was not in the extracted text, so this title is the address's host and path.

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