AANK16013U Fieldwork: Ethnography and Analysis

Volume 2025/2026
Education

Board of Studies, Department of Anthropology

Mandatory MA course 3. Semester

Credit students and Exchange students cannot sign up for this course.

Content

Students carry out fieldwork taking a point of departure in their project proposal from 2. semester. Fieldwork can take place in all kinds of socio-cultural contexts on the condition that it is realistic to carry it through within the given time frame and that the safety of students is not at stake. Apart from this the choice of place and theme are limited by research ethics only.

Fieldwork can be carried out individually or in smaller groups, it can be part of a larger research project, or as an internship.

During fieldwork students write portfolios which are uploaded on Absalon to the teacher as well as to group members. Students can be excepted from participating in the netbased dialogue - also known as "Etivities" - only if they work in areas with no or insufficient access to the net. However, all students must write portfolios during their fieldwork. During the last part of the semester students participate in a number of workshops with focus on the collected ethnographic material and analysis. Participation in these workshops is mandatory. The duration of fieldwork is maximum 14 weeks, and the students must return in time for the workshops.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

  • describe the use of different methods in anthropological fieldwork and the knowledge they can provide.
  • demonstrate knowledge of theories and research themes, which can illuminate relevant anthropological problems in an empirical material 
  • demonstrate thematic and regional knowledge of a field

 

Skills:

  • complete a fieldwork based on an individual problem statement
  • collect relevant empirical material
  • evaluate the problem statement and research questions in relation to the empirical material and revise these where relevant

 

Competences:

  • organize empirical material appropriately and ethically
  • reflect critically on the methodological and analytical process of the fieldwork
  • give qualified feedback on others’ work

Recommended articles, peer feedback based on reading fellow students portfolio’s

For the sake of the students' safety, we cannot approve projects to countries to which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark has advised against travelling. See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' travel advisories (Rejsevejledninger), which are posted in Danish here: http:/​/​um.dk/​da/​rejse-og-ophold/​rejse-til-udlandet/​rejsevejledninger/​.
The course Anthropological Project Design must be approved before the beginning of fieldwork.
Fieldwork, either individually or in groups, plus post fieldwork workshops.
At the beginning of Fieldwork you will be allocated an e-tivities cluster supervisor who will coordinate feedback and online-dialogue between a cluster of students who are carrying out fieldwork on the basis of submitted portfolio exercises. The goal is to continue in the same cluster that you were a part of during Anthropological Project Design, albeit, this may not always be possible. At the end of Fieldwork, students attend a series of post-fieldwork workshops, where you continue working with your empirical material through a series of further portfolio exercises. Portfolio exercises that have been prepared and fine-tuned during fieldwork as well as during post-fieldwork workshops are submitted for the final exam in December.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 12
  • Preparation
  • 96
  • Project work
  • 696
  • Exam
  • 24
  • Total
  • 828
Written
Oral
Individual
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)
Credit
30 ECTS
Type of assessment
Home assignment, exam period
Type of assessment details
Portfolio-assignments

Individual or groups submissions
Contents of the portfolio:
•All the portfolio assignments handed in during the course, revised and collected as one portfolio (the specificities for each portfolio will be presented in class).
Examination prerequisites

Students must collect ethnographic material in order to be able to complete the course. Participation in post fieldwork workshops is mandatory.

Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
passed/not passed
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

1st re-exam: A new assignment must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam.

 

2nd re-exam: A new assignment must be submitted. The new assignment is submitted during the next exam period.

Criteria for exam assesment

See Learning Outcome