Anthro104 - FWP2 (3)

Anthropology 104 Fieldwork Project 2 | Participant Observation This material is the intellectual property of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. All rights reserved. Project Journal Name: Katie Scheer TA Name: Andrea G Discussion Section Number: 336 Semester and Year: Fall 2023 Getting Started Welcome to your journal assignments for Fieldwork Project 2! Please add your information to this template (above), rename and save it in Microsoft Word .docx or .doc format. Make sure the filename includes your name and the name of the assignment (FWP2). (Example) FWP2F Wendy Liu.docx Submission: The project journal will be completed in several steps. You will be submitting this same journal file multiple times in different stages of writing, in response to each journal assignment below. If you do not submit the file to Canvas by the deadline you will not be awarded points for that journal assignment. For example, for the first assignment you are only expected to complete Journal 2.1 (the others will still be blank). By the end of the project, all the assignments in your journal will be filled in. Journal 2.1 | Reading Response Instructions & Expectations Before you begin this writing assignment, read the excerpts from Shapeshifters by Aimee Cox (available as a Word Doc on Canvas). Write 2-4 sentences in response to each of the questions below. The first question has been completed as an example. DUE DATE: This assignment needs to be completed by 11:59pm the day BEFORE your Discussion Section in Week 5 . (Example) Why did the girls at the Fresh Start Homeless Shelter think that no one would notice if aliens descended on their shelter and that the aliens wouldn’t even want to stay there?

The girls drew from their experiences of feeling excluded as citizens in American society. As young, Black, poor, homeless, female Americans (and more than all of that), they understood that not all human life was perceived as equally valuable. 1. Based on Cox’s statements on pages 2-4, can you reconstruct her main research questions when she started her research with the Fresh Start Homeless Shelter (FSHS)? How does listening to the perspective of Black women, with the intent to educate, benefit one’s understanding of existence within society? How does listening to the perspective of Black women help shift the focus from their obstruction to making a change socially, politically, and culturally? 2. Why did Cox think the FSHS would be a good place for her to conduct research? I think Cox thought FSHS would be a good place because she would be able to connect as a young Black woman herself. I also think that she chose FSHS because the women there choose to look at their race through a different narrative than society bestows on them and are empowered by it. 3. How did Cox’s identity and position within GGC impact her research? Cox’s identity (as a young Black woman) and her position (as a higher educated) influenced the type of interactions she had with both the GGC staff and participants. Her identity conflicted with her role as program director and her position as a doctoral student to produce identity within Fresh Start led to the projection of ideas of race, class, and gender authenticity. However, the interactions Cox had between the staff and young women ultimately depended on who they believed she was despite the situation. 4. Throughout Shapeshifters , Cox reveals the working of racial and gendered scripts within U.S.-American society. She illustrates how the residents of the FSHS seem acutely aware of these scripts and are adept at responding to them. What scripts are in play during the girls’ outing to the ranch? Explain. Do you see any class-based scripts in play during girls’ outing to the ranch? Explain. I think that racial scripts might’ve been in the works during the outing at the ranch because of two instances - when the girls first showed up at the ranch, and when Randy brought his family near the end of the day. This is because of the initial reactions that the people at the ranch had towards the young girls (bemusement, awkwardness, wide-eyed, speechless, and more), which made Cox and the girls feel like they were just entertainment to them. I also think the activity of building the horse showed class-based scripts because the thought of the young girls being “some slow kids or mentally retarded” as they presented the horse displayed some kind of unbalance in opportunity. And also when the young girls improvised a story about the horse because it represented their class/perceived place in society (the ghetto). 5. Based on this article, what do you think are some of the strengths and limitations of participant-observation as an anthropological research method? What did Cox learn through participant observation that she could not have learned from interviews alone? Some strengths of using participant-observation as a research method are obtaining a holistic understanding of a group’s culture, gaining the perspective of the participants rather than holding one’s own interpretations and judgements, and having close and ethical relationships can lead to

DUE DATE: This assignment needs to be completed by 11:59pm the day AFTER your Discussion Section in Week 5 (e.g. if your discussion section meets on Monday, your Research Questions are due by 11:59pm on Tuesday). Research Question 1 How does gender stratification shape the oral participation in an Education Psychology class? Activity & Location For my participation observation I will be going to my Tuesday/Thursday Ed Psych 320 class and observing my professor and peers. Research Question 2 How does students’ gender influence their study habits in the quiet section of the campus library versus the talking section? Activity & Location For my participant observation I will be doing homework at College library on the UW campus. Journal 2.3 | 1 st Fieldnotes Instructions & Expectations Participant Observation It’s now time to conduct your first participant observation based on your research question and the activity/location you have chosen. · Do your activity for one hour. · Next week you will return to the same location for a second round of participant observation. Taking Field Notes Field notes are what anthropologists write down in response to what they do, see, hear, and think. They are a form of recorded data, and anthropologists can continue to analyze them long after they have completed their participant observation. · Take field notes while you do your activity, or immediately after completing the activity. Everyone writes field notes differently. Some anthropologists make very detailed notes. Others just jot down quick points to help jog their memory later. Some people's notes describe what they observe quite literally , while others are more abstract (for example, they might include drawings or charts). It's up to you to decide how to take field notes and you may want to experiment with different styles. Succeeding in your Participant Observation Here are some questions & ideas that may help you: · What's the space around you like? How do the characteristics of the space – for example, if it’s inside or outside, big, or small – shape what people are doing there? What are the sights, sounds, and smells? · What is your activity like, physically? How do you feel doing it? How might the way you are experiencing this activity be different from the ways other people experience it?

· What are other people doing? Why are they doing it? How are other people interacting with each other? What do you think the relationships between the other people are? How might aspects of other people’s identities (e.g., gender, age, etc.) be shaping their involvement in the activity and their interactions with one another? In other words, what social scripts are at play? · How does what you're noticing help you answer your research question? What ideas do you have at this point? · What else do you notice? Write down anything that sticks out to you as interesting or important. You have two options for submitting your field notes: You can type your notes into the space below and upload your journal to the Canvas assignment for Journal 2.3 (doc, docx, PDF) OR you can submit a photo or scan (pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, tiff) of your handwritten notes to the Canvas assignment for Journal 2.3. DUE DATE: This assignment needs to be completed by 11:59pm the day BEFORE your Discussion Section in Week 6. number of times participated (more women? men? same?) (is one gender more comfortable speaking?) Field Notes ● Lecture room - fits 237 ● Students come to attend class (for participation, knowledge, etc) ● Lecturer at the front of the room on stage presenting off of a projector, class is mainly women only a few males, not as busy/full as first week of class, people are dressed warm, sound of buzzing from the projector ● I am actively listening in class, taking notes, while also observing. I feel a little awkward observing hoping no one notices. I am too scared to participate orally because I’m afraid I might say something others perceive as dumb. Other peers might not be actively listening, and some might be thinking more critically about the material than me. ● There are students listening to the lecturer, some on their laptops (answering the in-class participation questions or doing homework for other classes), some having side conversations, and some on their phones ○ Listening to lecturer: to understand the material, to know the in-class participation questions ○ Doing homework for other classes: they want to get assignments done for other classes on time? ○ Side conversations: to talk about personal matters (friends), asking questions because they might’ve missed something the lecturer said (peers) ○ Phone: bored playing games, texting ● Lecturer opens to any questions (only women seem to ask any), has class turn and share ideas to 1-2 person(s) sitting next to them ○ Women might be involved more (answering questions and turning/sharing) because the class is required for their major/they might be more comfortable speaking, while men might not be as much because the class is only a breadth requirement/not as important to them?

DUE DATE: This assignment needs to be completed by 11:59pm the day BEFORE your Discussion Section in Week 7 . manner of interactions (women vs men) (is there one that’s treated more intelligible?) Field Notes ● · Why are the people around you participating in this activity? What's its significance to them? You can ask them these questions directly. ● Women attending class → prereq for major/grad school, men attending class → credit requirement, not participating → shy or quiet, participating → comfortable ● · How might your presence be affecting other people? What is your relationship to them? ● I always sit by myself, so I’m not sure how my presence would affect others in this case. My relationship to the other people in the class is that I am their peer. ● · How might aspects of your identity shape the ways that you're interacting with other people? How might your own identity shape how you interpret what's going on? Be reflexive. ● I feel as though my identity, as a more reserved Asian female, shapes my interactions in this class because I tend to talk very little, or not at all. This is because I fear that my thoughts and ideas may be wrong, so I figure not sharing is better and I don’t feel judged. But by being quiet, others may feel like I’m being hostile. ● I feel that my identity shapes my interpretations of what’s going on in my class because I probably hold certain beliefs. For example, I observe how some people orally participate more than others. As a woman in this class, I feel that it is because the few non-participators, who are women, feel scared to share their opinions like me. ● · How does what you're learning help you answer your research question? What new ideas do you have this time, versus during your first hour of participant observation? ● Because I’m noticing that: ○ Only women are orally participating to the whole class: I’m not able to tell if there is a difference in the professor’s manner of interaction between men or women ■ But also, women feel more comfortable with sharing their thoughts and ideas on the class material ○ Women take this class because it fulfills prereqs for major/grad school: their participation in the class may be due to the importance of the class to them ○ Men take this class because it fulfills credit requirement: their lack of participation may be due to the class’ lesser importance to them (versus women) ○ Lecturer’s manner tends to not differ among gender: It can be assumed that both genders are (aimed to be) treated equally intelligible ■ Lecturer likely keeps a neural perspective on the gender of the asker (especially when pronouns are unknown to them) ● · What else do you notice? Write down anything that seems interesting or important. ● Someone’s phone played music twice while the lecturer was talking, which seemed to create a brief awkward pause. It seemed that the lecturer was somewhat bothered, but proceeded to continue the lecture. ● Another person’s phone played music which created a small distraction in class (few turned heads)

● A third person’s phone played music, but it did not cause any disruption ● Again, when it came to the lecturer asking the class a question, women were the only ones to orally participate Journal 2.5 | Final Analysis & Reflection Instructions & Expectations Write your analysis & reflection by responding to each of the questions below. Use your field notes to help you develop your responses. Each response should be 150 – 250 words, unless otherwise noted . DUE DATE: This assignment needs to be completed by 11:59pm the day BEFORE your Discussion Section in Week 7 . 1. What was your research question? (1 sentence) 2. Describe | Describe your experience conducting participant observation (e.g. where you were, what happened, who was involved, etc.). 3. Respond | Based on your participant observation, write an answer to your research question. 4. Connect | How does your answer to your research question connect to concepts about gender discussed in class (i.e. in the lectures, discussion section, or textbook)? 5. Self-Assess | Describe the experience of conducting participant observation. What were the high points and/or challenges? What do you feel you learned? What surprised you about the experience? 6. Recognize | How might your presence and identity (e.g. your gender, age, etc.) have affected what the people around you did during your participant observation? How has your identity potentially shaped your interpretation of what you observed?