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“Visual Anthropology of Japan” and more new blogs

Published on March 5, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, fieldwork / methods, internet, Visual Anthropology, websites

Visual Anthropology of Japan” is the name of the blog by anthropologist Steven Fedorowicz (Kansai Gaidai University). All of his students in his class with the same name are required to blog. He links to more than a dozen student blogs.

He explains:

The blog was set up in the Fall of 2006 when I began teaching the class “Visual Anthropology of Japan” at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata City, Osaka, Japan. Originally it was set up as a place where links to student project blogs were posted. Every semester the class, blog and student projects have changed, evolved and hopefully improved.

The blog is done in the spirit of collaboration, discussion, dialogue, open text and open access. It is my hope that people will check out my students’ blogs, leave feedback and advice and take part in the dialogue of visual anthropology in Japan.

Students have various backgrounds (both international and Japanese students), interests, levels and experience in anthropology. Their common goal is to explore how to represent Japanese culture through visual means, and their individual blogs serve as the medium where they present their work. Visual Anthropology of Japan also includes resources, announcements, photo essays and other information that might be of interest to a wider audience.

His own blog has blog posts with titles as Globalization Visual Anthropology Photo Essay: Japan in Hawaii, and Can you do visual anthropology with your cell phone? and Visualizing Terror in Japan.

In his most recent post, he asks:

What do all the photos in this post have in common? At least part of the picture is blurry. And why? The Japanese people pictured here are deaf. That means part of their body is being used to communicate while I was attempting to photograph them. Japanese Sign Language entails more than movements of hands and arms – it uses the entire body.

>> visit the blog “Visual Anthropology of Japan

It is getting crowdy in my blog overview, the antropologi.info Anthropology newspaper, so I’ve removed some inactive blogs. Links to blogger-blogs are corrected.

On fieldwork: “Blogging sharpens the attention”

Paper by Erkan Saka: Blogging as a Research Tool for Ethnographic Fieldwork

New Ethnography: The Deaf People – A Forgotten Cultural Minority

Visual Anthropology of Japan" is the name of the blog by anthropologist Steven Fedorowicz (Kansai Gaidai University). All of his students in his class with the same name are required to blog. He links to more than a dozen student…

Plans to study anthropological online communities and Open Access movement

Published on February 26, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, technology, University / Academia, websites

Anthropology of anthropology: How do anthropologists form online communities? How are open access publishing and other developments that have sprung up online changing community boundaries? Soon, an anthropologist will do fieldwork among us online anthropologists. http://nodivide.wordpress.com/ is the address of the blog by anthropologist Owen Wiltshire, grad student at Concordia University, Montreal, where he writes:

I am interested in collaborative research methods, and the growth of anthropology online. (…) I’m particularly interested in open-access journals, and feel that opening up academic publishing is an enormously important step for anthropology.

(…)

Delving into the interesting colonial history of anthropology, and into discussions of globalization and neoliberal economic injustice, it’s pretty easy to see how it makes sense to make anthropological work freely available to the world that it studies.

In this way I’ll be exploring ways to study online communities – in this case communities of anthropologists. Its an exciting time for anthropology online. I’ve been following anthropology blogs for a year now, and its amazing how fast its growing. Its quite inspiring, and I think reflects a very vibrant community thats just itching to work (and fight) with each other!

So while my research proposal is extremely vague, and I’ve been made aware of this, I’m absolutely confident that the internet, blogs, and the desire to liberate anthropological knowledge from the world economy are fueling a change in anthropology, and that within this excitement I’ll find an interesting “field” of study.

In an email to me he tells that he’ll be handing in a proposal in April and hopefully be doing fieldwork over the summer. He has already been investigating the ways faculty at Concordia University use the internet in classroom, and is working on getting access to an anthropological journal to investigate the publishing world “face to face”.

Owen Wiltshire worked as a web developer for a number of years prior to studying anthropology: “I’ve always followed developments in open source – so I’m excited to see how similar developments work their way into academic culture”, he writes.

>> visit Owen Wiltshire’s blog “Just another anthro blog”

antropologi.info survey: Six anthropologists on Anthropology and Internet

Professor lets students blog their field experiences: More than 20 new blogs online!

Published on February 22, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods, internet, media, websites

Anthropology professor Joe Rubenstein has started an interesting project: Students in his course “Field Methods” are expected to blog their field experiences (it seems). Their research topic is teens and adolescence.

“The purpose of writing on our blogs is to keep each other and ourselves informed and up to date on what is going on for *Adolescent* field work project”, Danielle explains.

The students are about to meet their first informants. Take a look at the long list of student field blogs on Rubensteins blog (at the bottom of the left sidebar).

Lots of interesting posts in the professor’s blog as well, for example On Doing Fieldwork where he helps us organizing one’s thoughts for the Weblog methods reflections and lists some useful fieldwork websites.

On fieldwork: “Blogging sharpens the attention”

Paper by Erkan Saka: Blogging as a Research Tool for Ethnographic Fieldwork

“Knowledge of the bigger context is crucial for successful fieldwork”

antropologi.info survey: Six anthropologists on Anthropology and Internet

Anthropology professor Joe Rubenstein has started an interesting project: Students in his course "Field Methods" are expected to blog their field experiences (it seems). Their research topic is teens and adolescence.

"The purpose of writing on our blogs is to…

Anthropological research: Online dating as disappointing as the real-life dating scene

Published on January 14, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, gender, internet, media, Northern America, technology

Sounds familiar: People on online dating sites are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene. This is one of the findings of research by anthropologist Susan E. Frohlick. She is conducting an ethnographic study of online dating among women age thirty and above.

She says the women on the one hand gained a sense of empowerment from their online dating experiences. But they still wanted the man to make the first move and expected him pick up the tab:

Women are finding it as a useful tool to enter into the dating world, they find that it’s safe, they find that they can be a little more bold than they would in face-to-face relationships. But, at the same time, they are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene.

Complaints include a preponderance of men who are looking for much younger women, as well as men who misrepresent their looks, interests or marital status, or who show little interest in moving the relationship offline, she said.

>> read the whole story on News.com.au LINK UPDATED 30.6.18

Furthermore, women are hesitant to admit that they meet men through the Internet.

Frohlick says:

One of the most striking findings so far is that there’s a huge contradiction between what women say about the popularity of online dating sites on the one hand and, on the other hand, their own sense of almost shame, and certainly secrecy about it. They talk about how it’s for losers.

Frohlick says she hopes the study will shed more light on how the online dating world might be changing women’s sexuality. She would like to find more study participants from across Canada, including women who are looking for same-sex partners.

~~>> read more in Canoe.ca~~ LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE

She is part of the project “Surfing for Love” at the University of Manitoba. The study will be completed in May, 2008, and a summary of the results will be posted online, she writes on her homepage.

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More Podcasts by the Society for Applied Anthropology

Published on January 14, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, internet, media, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, technology

Last year’s podcasts from the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) have received much attention. This year they are continuing the project, Jen Cardew writes on the SfAA-Podcast Blog. She is also looking for six team members who can participate in the podcasting project at the 2008 SfAA Annual Meeting, March 24 – 29, 2008, in Memphis, TN. The deadline for applications is January 28, 2008. >> more inforation on the SfAA-Podcast Blog

Last year's podcasts from the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) have received much attention. This year they are continuing the project, Jen Cardew writes on the SfAA-Podcast Blog. She is also looking for six team members…