Ethnography of Boise State University Cafeteria

English 101
ASSIGNMENT FOUR: Cultural Ethnography
Length: 1200 words (about 5 pages)
Format: Double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-pt. font
Grade: 20% of Final Grade
An ethnography is a genre of writing used primarily by anthropologists to research a culture or a group of people and their practices within a certain environment. The researcher of an ethnography does fieldwork to collect information about the culture/group he/she is studying. This means the researcher enters the culture/group’s environment and observes the practices, actions, reactions, discussions, beliefs, and traditions that take place within this environment.
For this assignment, you will act as an ethnographer in a cultural space of your choice, researching this space through observation, gathering written materials at the space, asking members of the cultural space questions, and doing additional research.
Your first step in this assignment is to identify a cultural space. While the word culture means many things to many people, for the purposes of this assignment, think of a culture as any group of people who come together in a physical space and have (at least some) common practices, behaviors, and/or beliefs. Here are some possible cultural spaces:
• Church, temple, or religious space
• Community center
• Neighborhood hang-out spot
• Store in a mall
• Tattoo parlor
• Barber shop/hair salon/nail salon
• Basketball court
• Library
• Performance Venue (music, theater, etc.)
• Gym
• Museum (Art museum, history museum, children’s museum, etc.)
• Public Park
Food related cultural space
• School cafeteria
• Sit-down restaurant
• A soup kitchen
• Food pantry
• Coffee Shop/ Cafe
• Grocery Store
• Corner Store / Bodega
• Farmer’s Market
• Food Court (in a mall / an airport)
• Fast Food restaurant
• Wholesale Food Market
• Farm or a local CSA
• Specialty Food Market
One important thing to keep in mind about this assignment: an ethnographer is a researcher who is distanced or removed from what he or she studies. This means that even if you identify with or belong to the culture you choose to write about, you should pretend that you are an outsider who is looking in on this culture. While you can talk to members of this group, you must act like you don’t belong to the group as you interact with group members.
Research: Primary and Secondary Research as described below
1. All the research for this project must be based on:
• your own observation of the place/space (or memories of seeing it);
• interviews with at least two people about their experience of the space and the activities that take place there;
• artifacts or objects you are able to take from the space with you; and
• articles (provided in class or researched and found by you in one of QCC’s electronic databases.)
2. Guidelines for interviews:
• The purpose of the interview is to find out what the space means to your interviewees, what they get from the space, why they spend time there. You may ask them very direct questions, but part of your job as a researcher is to determine this from your analysis of what they say.
• Ask them to tell you a story(ies) or memories of their experience(s) in the space. This will provide evidence of what the space means to them more than asking them directly.
• Record what they say in field notes (or audio or video if they agree and if you have access to the technology)
A Sample Outline with specific elements to include in the paper - will be provided to you as we move closer to drafting the essay.