Course objectives
During the course students will gain understanding of the anthropological theories and approaches to multimedia ethnographies, their applications, and productions for academic and public consumption. Students will familiarize with seminal works concerning audiovisual/performative/fiction/digital ethnography and will learn skills how to design, develop, and present ethnographic data through the selected media. Students will learn to analyze and work with these various media from anthropological perspectives. They will learn about the use and impact of these media vis-รก-vis academic productions and disseminations of anthropological knowledge, and will learn to critically reflect on the political dimension of the choices involved in anthropological multimedia production.
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Contents
The course introduces students to the history and variety of multimedia approaches to ethnography, exploring different forms of multimedia as tools for understanding anthropological concepts and theories and enhance mainstream ethnographic methods. The course approaches to the study of selected media are: photography, film making, theater, poetry and fiction, digital platforms and social media, art installations and museum displays to convey anthropological knowledge about a variety of themes including representation of non-western cultures, contemporary migrations, colonialism, religious and political conflicts, mental health, and emotions in the field. In addition, the course examines the ethical and anthropological debates about the objectivity and specific engagement of the selected media, about the power relations inherent in the ethnographic gaze, and about the politics of inter-cultural representations.
Note that the course is about multimedia, but it is not a crash course in film-making and it is also not about watching and discussing visuals or films about actuality topics. This is an advanced-level academic course that presupposes knowledge of the history and main theories of cultural anthropology.
Working methods
Lectures, working groups and practica.
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