Subject Area: Sociology and Anthropology
This course can also be studied in the following specialisations: Archaeology; Australian Studies* & Women's and Gender Studies*

In this course students engage with theory and method in the social sciences. Through direct instruction in sociological and anthropological methods, the course charters topics relating to field based research. Students will train qualitative research methods and reflect on processes of gaining access to and participating in the social worlds of others. We will discuss and practice techniques of observation, engage in reflections about research ethics, and the politics of fieldwork. Through direct hands on experience and exercises of applying methods you will come to understand and appreciate the role of the researcher in the construction of knowledge and cultural understandings in sociology and anthropology. By exploring the broad range of methods in sociology and anthropology this course will prepare you well for the practice of doing social research. It allows students to develop a clear vision of methods, methodology, praxis and ethics.

Module: "Ways of Knowing and Doing the Social"(Semester 2, 2011)
* Note: Only this module contributes to Australian Studies & Women's and Gender Studies minors

This course is about methodology and methods. It encourages you to think about the political, theoretical and philosophical implications of making particular choices of method when doing a research project. To this end, we deal with the relationship between research and social justice, the politics of representation and the philosophy of social science, subject position and method. Students in this course will develop an understanding of their ‘subjective positions’ and inter-subjective encounters. A contemporary dimension of researching culture and society involves developing an appreciation of the power dynamics involved in cultural (particularly cross-cultural) exchange. To do this we engage with a wide source of documented information and knowledge and address grounded theorizing, ethical issues in research, and the role of the researcher in the research process.

Module: "Anthropology Fieldwork Experience"
Introduces students to the experience of social anthropological fieldwork, in this instance in the Pacific Islands. We may define “fieldwork” as the gathering of data through direct experience, with all the philosophical problems such an activity involves. This “direct experience” may be through interviewing “informants”, people who provide research information either in response to a structured questionnaire (a list of queries) or a research schedule (a list of topics, not specific questions, to be covered in an interview). In social anthropology, the most common field technique is “participant observation”, which involves actually taking part in the daily activities of a community, observing what they do (as opposed to asking them) and carefully recording the results.