AM 376X: Life History

Joshua C. Woodfork, TLC 305A, x5027

What is your story?  How about the person next to you, what is hers/his?  Everybody has a story.  As individuals come into contact with one another, they may question each other's life stories, trying to understand how individuals engage with the world.  People operate within various micro and macro cultural contexts; how one experiences and negotiates multiple cultural traditions makes him/her unique.  Rather than focusing on studying societies or institutions, AM 376X: Life History is an introduction to ethnography that is centered on understanding people's culture, known as life history research.  This is an experientially based learning experience with emphasis placed on acquiring the skills to understand another person's culture, particularly her/his social identity, including attention to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, nationality, age, and religion.  Students will locate informants (research participants); collect data through interviewing, observing, and participating in the lives of these informants; analyze the data/information obtained; and produce written cultural portraits.

SPRING 2010 Syllabus