Indigenous Research: Theories and Methods
Provides space to delve deeply into key Indigenous theoretical frameworks, methods, and methodologies of conducting research with Indigenous peoples and/or utilizing Indigenous modes of knowledge production in the research process. Utilizes an Indigenous research circle to consider each stage of the research process. Provides the theoretical breadth to formulate a research design, consider appropriate research methods, and reflect on ethical concerns in this area of scholarship allowing space to explore, consider, develop, discuss, reflect, and write about theories and methods students may draw from in thesis, dissertation or related research projects. Meets every week in a hybrid format, alternating in person between MIT and UMass Amherst. Students at the campus where class is not meeting in person in a given week will attend via Zoom. Students may travel between campuses but are not expected to.
Fall 2012 · Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development
This course enhances cross-cultural understanding through the discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. It includes a research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. The course is open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.
Readings
- Required Book
- [KD] = Dettwyler, Katherine. Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa . Waveland Pr Inc, 1993. ISBN: 9780881337488.
- SES #: 2 · TOPICS: Ethnography and the problem of kinship · READINGS: Hart, Charles William Merton, Arnold R. Pilling, and Jane C. Goodale. Chapters 1 and 3 in The Tiwi of North Australia . Harcourt College Pub, 1987. ISBN: 9780030120190.
- Hart, Charles William Merton, Arnold R. Pilling, and Jane C. Goodale. Chapter 8 in The Tiwi of North Australia . Harcourt College Pub, 1987. ISBN: 9780030120190.
- Gusterson, Hugh. “Ethnographic Research.” In Qualitative Methods in International Relations: A Pluralist Guide . Edited by Audie Klotz and Deepa Prakash. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN: 9780230542396.
- Fife, Wayne. “Interviewing.” In Doing Fieldwork: Ethnographic Methods for Research in Developing Countries and Beyond . Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 93–106. ISBN: 9781403969095.
- Spradley, James. “Doing Participant-Observation.” In Participant Observation . Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980, pp. 53–62. ISBN: 9780030445019.
- Stephens, David. “Analysing the Data: Finding the Meanings.” Chapter 6 in Qualitative Research in International Settings: A Practical Guide . Routledge, 2009, pp. 98–114. ISBN: 9780415280570.
- Maternowska, Catherine. “A Clinic in Conflict: A Political Economy Case Study of Family Planning in Haiti.” In Contraception Across Cultures: Technologies, Choices, Constraints . Edited by Andrew Russell, et al. Berg Publishers, 2000, pp. 103–26. ISBN: 9781859733813.
- Gupta, Akhil. ““Indigenous” Knowledges: Ecology.” In Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India . Duke University Press, 1998, pp. 234–90. ISBN: 9780822322139.
- Anderson, Mary B. “Technology Transfer: Implications for Women.” In Gender Roles in Development Projects: A Case Book . Edited by Catherine Overholt, Mary B. Anderson, Kathleen Cloud, and James Austin. Kumarian Press, 1985, pp. 57–78. ISBN: 9780931816154.
- Moore, Lisa Jean. ““All in My Bag of Tricks”: Turning a Trick with the Appropriate(d) Technology.” In Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power . Edited by Ron Eglash, Jennifer Croissant, Giovanna Di Chiro, and Rayvon Fouché. University of Minnesota Press, 2004, pp. 51–62. ISBN: 9780816634279.
- Eglash, Ron. “Appropriating Technology: An Introduction.” In Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power . Edited by Jennifer Croissant, Giovanna Di Chiro, and Rayvon Fouché. University of Minnesota Press, 2004, pp. xii–xxi. ISBN: 9780816634279.
- SES #: 21 · TOPICS: In-class time to plan final projects · READINGS: Stephens, David. “Doing the Fieldwork.” Chapter 5 in Qualitative Research in International Settings: A Practical Guide . Routledge, 2009, pp. 79–97. ISBN: 9780415280570.
- Justice, Judith. “Sociocultural Information and Health Planning Process.” Chapter 6 in Policies, Plans & People: Foreign Aid and Health Development . University of California Press, 1989, pp. 134–54. ISBN: 9780520067882.
- Kamat, V. R. “Anthropology of Childhood Malaria in Tanzania.” Chapter 1 in Anthropology in Public Health: Bridging Differences in Culture and Society . 2nd ed. Edited by Robert Hahn and Marcia Inhorn. Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 3–32. ISBN: 9780195374643.
- PROJECTS: Reduction of maternal mortality in Guatemala · READINGS: Berry, Nicole. Unsafe Motherhood: Mayan Maternal Mortality and Subjectivity in Post-War Guatemala . Berghahn Books, 2010. ISBN: 9781845457525.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: G (Spring) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2012
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.