fbabb@wst.ufl.edu

This graduate seminar will consider issues in qualitative research methodology through reading and discussing feminist ethnographies as well as critical assessments of feminist scholarship and methods. We will ask challenging questions about interdisciplinarity and the dilemmas of field research, including the fundamental question of whether there is indeed a feminist ethnographic methodology. Moreover, we will discuss the feminist politics of ethnographic representation (by the researcher depicting the researched) and of positionality (of the researcher in relation to the researched). Case studies from a wide range of societies will present opportunities for students to consider the relative merits of various approaches in feminist anthropology and related fields in the social sciences. Seminar participants will be expected to try out their own feminist ethnographic writing, which will be shared with others in the course as a way to refine analytical and writing skills.