In honor of advising week (actually, advising weeks), we bring you another “Class Notes.” First, a few questions. Do you reminisce fondly about your time in Communication and Culture? Does the word “ethnography” bring back happy memories? Do you often wish that you could take the class again just so you could do another ethnography? Well, if so, you are in luck! Why, because there is an entire class offered in the fall that focuses on ethnography! What is it called? Ethnography of Communication! (No one said the title was creative!).
Professor Ho, re-reading "Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes" and playing with the audio recorded in preparation for teaching Ethnography of Communication. Seriously... I asked her to pose for a picture, and she couldn't put the book down!
Here are the details from Professor Ho, who will be teaching the class in this fall: “This is service-learning course where students work in a non-profit organization while conducting fieldwork and learning about how an organization functions and how they communicate with staff and clients. Students provide real work for the organization and serve those in the community while they practice the academic skills and theories taught in class. The best students develop internships and jobs from their service-learning experiences! Students in Fall 2010 worked at two locations: Epiphany Center and St. Anthony Foundation’s Technology Lab helping guests with computer training skills. Ali Wasserman and Kait Kenerly taught one of their introductory computer classes.
(see blog: http://www.stanthonysf.org/blog/2010/11/10/tenderloin-spotlight-kaith-kenerly/). Students also conducted audio-recorded interviews with other Tenderloin non-profits as part of a web-based audio project called Tendervoice. These participant-observation moments and recordings were then used in their ethnographic papers/projects. Also – Ali and Sarah Hirsch and I will be presenting what we’ve done in the class at the 14th Annual Continuums of Service Conference April 27-29, 2011 in San Diego, California.” (Professor Ho gave us a sneak peak into a future “Student Shout-Out”).
Ethnography of Communication is an upper-division Communication Studies major course and also gives you University Service Learning requirement (equals win-win!). Comment back if you have taken Ethnography of Communication!
Are there any classes listed for summer or fall that you want to hear more about? Contact me at edoohan@usfca.edu and I’ll feature them!
