North Carolina State University

2008 Summer Ethnographic Field School

Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

May 16, 2008 - July 7, 2008

 

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

 "Amazingly enough, I believe that I experienced a hefty dose of culture shock coming home... I had a hard time easing back into air-conditioning and hot showers once I realized they were truly luxuries! The field school taught me so much about the world, and quite unexpectedly, about myself.  Quite honestly, I don't think that my family and friends knew how to react to me the new, wiser, and more anthropologically confident me. Working in the field gave me greater appreciation for what classroom learning provided, and motivated me to continue my interests... The program made me more aware of other people and places.  It gave me the capabilities to bridge different perspectives to foster greater understanding and positive change." (A student's comment from the 1999 ethnographic field school.)

 

The goal of the North Carolina State University Summer Ethnographic Field School is to help students interested in ethnographic methods achieve a level of methodological proficiency that will enable them to undertake future fieldwork independently and confidently. The medium of training is an on-site research project revolving around issues associated with the environmental, socio-economic and cultural impacts of tourism. A second goal of the program is to provide students with a deeper understanding of the impacts of tourism in human societies, and the positive and negative consequences of touristic activities for local communities. This is accomplished by having the program participants design, implement and write-up an independent, ethnographic research project during the seven weeks of their participation. Although students are not required to focus their research on tourism, the pervasiveness of tourism in the communities in the research site will inevitably require students to take some note of the role of tourism in their projects. A third goal is the production of useful information and analysis concerning tourism impacts for the local community in which the student projects are carried out. Program sponsors, governmental entities, university scientists and faculty, and relevant community leaders and collaborators are given copies of the final reports of every student participant. This report is one of the ways in which the program attempts to provide useful research.  Participants are also encouraged to present their research reports at the professional, annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology.

For more information on the NC State University program, see James M. Tim Wallace, "Participating in an Ethnographic Field School." In Michael V. Angrosino, ed., Doing Cultural Anthropology: Projects for Ethnographic Data Collection, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2006.

The Director of the Program, Dr. Tim Wallace, is seen here  with a Lake Atitlan farmer from the community of Santa Catarina Palopó who also sells locally painted pictures.