240534 SE Doing Historical Realist Ethnography (2020S)

Students participating in this seminar will learn how the Historical Realist approach in anthropology raises specific kinds of questions for the ethnographic encounter and the resulting kinds of methods that might be used in fieldwork. Historical realism is strongly influenced by the political economy school in anthropology (Eric Wolf, June Nash, Gerald Sider et al) and by the Manchester School of Gluckman and his students. But it is distinct in its use of influences beyond the discipline: Gramsci specifically, but also Eric Hobsbawm, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and David Harvey as well as current reinterpretations of the notion Uneven and Combined Development. Each week participants will be introduced to one or more key concepts in this approach as well as selected chapters from ethnographies that exemplify their application in fieldwork research. The course can be seen as the advocacy of a particular approach in anthropology and more broadly in the social sciences.
Structure: After two sessions in which the instructor will introduce the broad outlines of the approach and its intellectual genealogy, subsequent sessions will begin with a short lecture (30 mins) followed by presentations by two students based on assigned texts (depending on enrollment) (30 mins) and seminar discussion (30 mins). Note: As this is an intensive course, participants are strongly advised to start on the reading prior to the start date.
Learning Outcomes The goal of the course is to provide students engaging in ethnography (broadly defined) the ability to construct a problematique that generates a coherent set of research questions appropriate to the production of critical theory. Participants can also expect to acquire skill in identifying different epistemological traditions in social science and the humanities.