Doctoral courses
We are regularly involved in various PhD-courses, both in Sweden (e.g. Uppsala and Stockholm) and abroad (e.g. Niamey, Roskilde, Brussels, and Aix-en-Provence). Our PhD-students - and our research networks more generally - do benefit from these initiatives. On a more irregular basis we also develop PhD-courses. In the following we describe two examples of joint-doctoral courses developed by the staff at the department.
The Craft of Ethnography
A PhD course on Anthropological Research Methods,
October-December 2010
The doctoral course ‘Craft of Ethnography’ constituted a cooperation between the Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University. It was also part of the post graduate research school ‘Nordic Rural Areas in Transition’, a trans-disciplinary research school at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The course ‘Craft of Ethnography’ focused on different aspects of how to conceive of, plan, and conduct ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, how to collect data, how to conduct and analyze distinct forms of interviews, how ethnographic data is structured and conveyed into text, and how to comprehend and tackle methodological and ethical questions. Furthermore, the course emphasized the interdependence between methodology and ethnographic research methods.
The participants conducted an ethnographic fieldwork during two or three weeks, which was presented in both written and oral forms at the end of the course. During the fieldwork the participants applied various forms of ethnographic methods, such as participant observation, interviews and reflective approaches. The lecturers will consist of experienced anthropologists and ethnologists, specialized in methodological issues and ethnographic methods.
Course team:
Dr. Örjan Bartholdson, Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) & Dr. Charlotta Widmark, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University.
New Perspectives
on Methods and Theory
in History and Anthropology
A PhD course at Uppsala University,
Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology,
and Department of History
April – May 2004
The course targeted common problematics and central theoretical and methodological questions in the disciplines of history and anthropology. Students were encouraged to reflect upon issues such as disciplinary identities of historians and anthropologists, and the historiographical trajectory of the two disciplines. Further, the course focused on differences and similarities in approach to the subject of research, for example, in terms of what constitutes a context, the role of memory, structure–actor analysis, discourse, materiality, and how the global, national and local is conceived in the analysis. Students were expected to bring their own topics of research into the discussions.
Students had the opportunity to communicate with invited guests in lectures and tutorial seminars. Among the invited guests were Prof. Emeritus Elizabeth Tonkin, University of Belfast, Ireland; Prof. Filip de Boeck, the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; Dr. Kim Esmark, Roskilde University, Denmark; and Dr. Linda Oja, Department of History, Uppsala. The course further presented a round-table discussion with scholars from the Uppsala–Stockholm region.
The course was partly conducted in English and examination took place in seminars and in the form of an essay.
The course team: Prof. Maria Ågren, Department of History; Associate Prof. Sten Hagberg, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, and Dr. Gunnel Cederlöf, Department of History and Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology.