Ethnographic Project (6)

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North Carolina State University *

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252

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Anthropology

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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Ethnographic Project (Unessay Assignment) Deadlines: 1) October 16: Proposal (submit online through Moodle) 2) November 13: Submission of “unessay” with notes and reflection. Prompts: Choose ONE of the following prompts to answer in whichever medium you find best: 1) How would you describe your own positionality through a deeper historical account of who you are? Draw on texts from the course to think through this. 2) What is an example of class distinction in the United States or another country of your choosing? Study this phenomenon ethnographically and use the texts from the course to reflect on your observations. This could be through the angle of how one conducts fieldwork, media representations, questions of positionality, representation etc. Proposal (due October 16, submit through Moodle) Not more than one page. Let me know: • Which prompt you are answering. • How you intend to go about answering it (what topic, object phenomenon you will study, why you are looking at that, what kind of research you will need to undertake, how you plan to present your findings) • As a note: Your research could be participant observation, online search, listening to music, analysis of art. Just remember, you need to explain how researching something in a particular way will generate the kind of data that will help you answer the prompt you have chosen. Final submission (due November 13) 1) Some notes and reflections on the research process (if you did participant observation, these could be a selection of your written notes and some thoughts on them, if you focused on music maybe some examples of tracks and your reflections on them). I am interested in seeing some of the process of how you got from that rough collection of objects and thoughts to the final product. This should not be more than a few pages/1000 words etc… it depends a bit on the medium you used. 2) Your “unessay” (or essay): the product of your research. See the document on “unessays” for more examples, but just a note that you could put together a family album, a song, an artistic work, a website, a podcast, it just must be a product of research deriving from the prompt and must reflect the question asked in the prompt as well as some of the themes raised in the class.

3) Reflection/Interpretation: Your final submission should be accompanied by a two to three page reflection/interpretive piece. This reflection must include: - A title for the piece as a whole. - An explanation of the piece that helps the observer understand its relation to the prompt. This should especially guide the grader regarding how it links to certain themes and texts in the course. This is your opportunity to show how you link concepts from the course, to your research/methods, to your final submission. - A brief discussion of methods you used. - A brief discussion of what you learnt. - A bibliography of the sources you used. You must make use of readings from the course as part of your conceptualization of the project . If you are submitting something that can be submitted online, then submit through Moodle. If you need to hand in in person, then drop off at my office by the deadline. Please do note split submissions up, so if you are dropping something off at my office then the written work must be printed out and submitted with it. Grading Considerations I understand that when it comes to a format that might be unfamiliar to many people there can be anxieties about how assessment will work. Below is a guide both to what will be considered when grading and finally a more specific rubric. I have drawn these from other professors who have used the Unessay and referenced accordingly. Guiding questions for unessay and reflection (adapted/taken from Emily Contois: https://emilycontois.com/2019/05/10/unessays/) 1. Conceptual Adherence | Do the unessay and reflection clearly and compellingly respond to the prompt? 2. Depth of Theoretical/Argumentative Application | Does the unessay and its reflection effectively build upon the knowledge learned in this class from our readings, our discussions, and this project’s related research? 3. Invested Effort | Does the project, whatever format it might take, represent the energy and performance expected for a course project that culminates our learning about methods and is worth 20% of the course grade?

Grading will consider how compelling and effective the unessay and its accompanying reflection paper are: (https://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Teaching/the-unessay) An unessay is compelling when it shows some combination of the following: • it is as interesting as its topic and approach allows • it is as complete as its topic and approach allows (it doesn’t leave the audience thinking that important points are being skipped over or ignored) • it is truthful (any questions, evidence, conclusions, or arguments you raise are honestly and accurately presented) In terms of presentation, an unessay is effective when it shows some combination of these attributes: • it is readable/watchable/listenable (i.e. the production values are appropriately high and the audience is not distracted by avoidable lapses in presentation) • it is appropriate (i.e. it uses a format and medium that suits its topic and approach) • it is attractive (i.e. it is presented in a way that leads the audience to trust the author and his or her arguments, examples, and conclusions). Grading Rubric (Adapted from: https://esclark.hcommons.org/the-unessay/ ) An “A” unessay : This unessay constitutes a critical and active engagement with the course material that shows insight and creativity and demonstrates time and effort devoted to creating something thoughtful. The chosen medium works persuasively with the design and polish of the unessay. The project’s structural and formal elements productively serve the core concept of the unessay. The unessay includes a clear and insightful connection between your research, methods, presentation and course concepts. An “A” unessay come with a clearly stated explanation. This will include an explanation of how your unessay responds to the prompt. A “B” unessay : This unessay meaningfully engages course material and shows an effort to creatively evaluate the information with some degree of clarity. It reflects some time, effort, and forethought. The chosen medium works with the unessay presentation, but some additional design forethought would have helped. The unessay’s structural and formal elements serve the core concept of the project. The unessay includes a clear connection between research, methods, presentation and course concepts. Accompanied statement provides some clarity to the piece but not complete explanation. A “C” unessay : This unessay shows some engagement with the course material but it is unsustained, uncreative, and inconsequential. It fails to developed a critical and reflective perspective. The chosen medium doesn’t work with the unessay’s presentation. The unessay identifies a vague connection between the selected choices and thus fails to offer a clear thesis statement. Both it and the explanation will appear to be thrown together at the last minute.

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A “D” or “F” unessay : This unessay lacks any serious effort to accomplish the assigned task. The unessay idea and execution are ill-defined, lack focus and clarity, and contains no main argument or engagement with the course concepts. Any unessay not discussed with me before the deadline will automatically receive no higher than an D. Check your assignment guidelines for that deadline.