The Ethnographic Imagination · Anthropology
I learned so much about different perspectives in this course and how they apply to things I previously thought were constant, such as time.
Reading/analyzing ethnographic writing, learning "to learn to learn"
3 papers, weekly readings, discussion section (in lieu of a regular class slot). no final, no midterm. Fair for a 2000-level class.
Totally fair grading! Three 750 word "papers," a 5 page midterm, and a 10 page final paper. I got by with an A- without doing any of the readings.
Assigns books at a time, but class isn't necessarily based off them as much as what they stand for. Women's studies heavy, which is fine for me! Entire semester was 3 2-page response papers, 1 2-page ethnography, 3 in class assignments that are linked together at the end.
No final in this class. No midterm. Just three papers, of increasing weight. The papers are very vague, i.e. "Write about two of the texts we read. How do they display the evolving subjects and/or methods of ethnographies". Grading depends on your TA, but you might have Ortner.
I learned more about the politicization of the other and the importance of numerous perspectives in ethnography.
Looks on the way to looks. Particular point made on the use of quotation.
Agreed with the other two reviewers that Gustav is incredibly smart, fits the "professorial" mould, and--although a work in progress--is an incredibly exciting work in progress. Above all (and to avoid overlap with the other reviews), Gustav is here to teach and communicate. This is not just a salaried job for him, this is not just an arcane precommitment to stand in front of a class and lecture. No, he wants very much to communicate and that is (IMHO), sometime lacking at Columbia. Gustav experimented by converting a weekly "lecture" slot into smaller dicussion sections which he (or his TAs) ran. The idea was to engage the invidiual; while this meant that you can't really just sit in, not read and incessantly fudge, it also meant that you tend to get much more out of class. Also, he responded to emails reasonably well, given his self-stated lack of comfort with digitalia; he even gave out his home phone so that we could reach him if needed! Research-wise, didn't really know too much. Digital Tools (online) project was mentioned but in class, he didn't dwell too much on his (or any) particular project but was always keen to convey (as mentioned) a critical and contextualized understanding of theories and developments in Anthro. For reasons best known to Columbia, it seems that Gustav won't be here much longer at CU. It is a waste, a downright shame. I, for one, shall sadly lam…
I wish I had been able to understand what was going on because the content seemed really interesting! We just hopped around so much and talked about such useless things that it was difficult to connect the readings to anything in the application of anthropology. I wish I could take it again with another professor.