North Carolina State University

2008 Summer Ethnographic Field School

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

May 16, 2008 - July 7, 2008

LODGING and MEALS

Each student will be housed with a Guatemalan family in one of nine or ten communities around Lake Atitlán. Each student will receive room, breakfast, lunch and dinner and laundry services. All of the families have worked with our program over last 6 years, some even longer as hosts for students in local Spanish language schools. Families also help our students learn Spanish and establish networks in the community. Often they provide assistance with student research projects. All the families are Mayan speakers and are committed to helping students get the fullest advantage from this unique experience.  The experience students acquire in this program approximate traditional ethnographic settings for senior anthropologists and it provides them an opportunity to develop key methodological and personal skills.  Each student is assigned to a community and family based on their research interests, their linguistic skill in Spanish and their fit with specific types of families (lots of kids, no kids, older family, young family, etc). Traditionally, the homestay experience has been one of the most popular and appreciated aspects of this program.

PROGRAM   COSTS

The tentative cost of the seven week program is $2995 and, except for airfare and personal purchases, all expenses for the seven weeks, including room and board, excursions, ground transfers, local transportation costs, program fees, instruction, tuition for six credits in anthropology, full coverage health insurance and some research supplies. Fees do not include airfare and airport departure tax, but airfare from most U.S. destinations to Guatemala City is currently around $600. Assistance in obtaining inexpensive airfares is provided. Students are very strongly encouraged to bring a laptop word processor to the field.

A participant from the 2001 field school holding a young sloth.