https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/S_ERM1Knowledge and understanding. The student understands:the idea of ethnographyvarious methods to plan, carry out and analyze ethnographic researchApplication. The student has acquired the competences to:recognize and differentiate between core ethnographic approaches and methodsapply various ethnographic methodsuse ethical considerations to evaluate methods and situations in ethnographic research practiceLearning skills. The student has acquired the skills to:collaborate in small groupscritically read and debate materialAttitude. The student demonstrates:sensitivity to the expression of cultural knowledge in everyday lifethe ability to recognize their own situated subjectivityEthnographic methods are essential to anthropological research. Anthropologists constantly revisit the accuracy, analytical relevance and ethical implications of their methodological repertoire to adapt it to the contemporary world. After a comprehensive overview over the history and theory of ethnographic research, the course introduces students to core ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviewing, fieldnote-writing, multi-sited, visual, digital and autoethnographic methods. We focus both on long-standing and emerging methodologies with a particular focus on engaged, embodied and empowering methodologies. To foster research integrity, students learn to continuously reflect on practical, political and ethical issues. Finally, the course focuses on how anthropologists analyse, write-up and present ethnographic field data. During this course, students will conduct their own research project in groups and practice different parts of the empirical cycle including:research design,participant observation,interviewing and processing of the research findings,coding and analyzing of the field data andwriting up and presenting the research findings and giving each other feedback.Lectures and working groupsGroup portfolio which consists of conducting field research in groups and presenting on it. There will also be individual exercises.To be announced in the course manual (see CANVAS).1st year bachelor students in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.The language of instruction for this course is “bilingual”, which means that the lectures are held in English but the working groups are offered separately in English or Dutch. If you are following the English-language program, please sign up for the English-language working groups.Participation in 'Challenges of the 21st Century'.