Ethnography at the University of Southampton

Dr Heidi Armbruster runs a module entitled ‘Ethnography for Language Learners’ (LANG2005 – module overview here). This module made use of the LARA materials to create a course which included 12 sessions, and was assessed with a ‘home ethnography’, in which the students selected an area of interest and conducted a short ethnographic project in their home country, before going abroad to conduct their year abroad research project (YARP). LANG2005 Course Outline

There are three anthropological undergraduate degree programmes at the University of Southampton, BA Archaeology and Anthropology, BA Archaeology and Anthropology (with a Year Abroad) and BSc Sociology with Anthropology.

The Music department at University of Southampton runs a second year module entitled ‘Music and Ethnography’ (MUSI2126 – module overview here), which allows students to examine the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches ethnomusicologists have taken to investigate and understand music in distinct social contexts. Case studies will be taken from Afghanistan, the Andes, Cuba, Mexico, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and the USA.

There is also a broader anthropological module entitled ‘Social Anthropology’ (ANTH2003 – module overview here). Students on this module study the relationship between fieldwork and ethnographic texts from the 21st century, focussing on on both theoretical perspectives and ethnographic realities of different cultural ways of life.

The Centre for Anthropology is a new, cross-Faculty, cross-disciplinary initiative, aimed at creating a space for dialogue and collaboration amongst colleagues at the University of Southampton who have active research and teaching interests in anthropology, broadly defined (socio-cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, anthropological archaeology, linguistic anthropology, visual anthropology, material culture studies, ethnomusicology).