Political Ethnography  Term: Spring 2012  Subject Code: GPOL
Course Number: 6196   What does it mean to study politics from
below? How does immersion of the researcher in the research
world contribute to the study of power? What are the promises,
and perils, of social research that invites the unruly minutiae
of lived experience to converse with, and contest, abstract
disciplinary theories and categories? In this practice-intensive
seminar, we explore ethnographic and other qualitative fieldwork
methods with specific attention to their potential to subvert,
generate, and extend understandings of politics and power.
Readings draw on exemplary political ethnographies as well as
discussions of methodology and method in political science,
sociology, and anthropology. Participants will have the
opportunity to craft and conduct New York City based
ethnographic research projects related to their primary areas of
interest and will be expected to make significant weekly
commitments to field research. The seminar is i