AFAMAST 7754 - 010

Methodological Perspectives in African-American and African

Studies
Instructor: Dr. Tanya L. Saunders Office: 386N University Hall
Course Location: TBA Office Hours: TBA
Course Time: Th 1:15-4:00 pm Email: [email protected]

Course Description

“This course is a critical and trans-disciplinary examination of methodological approaches

employed in the study of the Black experience in its convergent and divergent manifestations
across the world.” – What does this mean? Well, in the beginning part of this course we will
figure this out. By means of introduction, this is the required research methods course for AAAS
M.A./PhD students, and anyone interested in research methods that takes into consideration race,
gender and sexuality: both as a researcher, in terms of your research interests, theoretical
orientation and, as we’ll see, methodological approach. This course starts from the perspective
that everyone is raced, gendered has an assumed sexuality and histories that may or may not be
visible – such as class background, gender identity and sexuality. One of the benefits of a
Qualitative Methods Course in Black Studies is that one can address all of these issues, even if
your disciplinary focus in not “Black,” “Africana,” “African Diaspora,” “African American,”
“Afro-(Brazilian, Cuban, Boriqua – insert national identity here) Studies.

This is a one-semester course. As such, the goal of this course is to give you a solid foundation
for qualitative research methods, so that when you leave this class, you will be able to design a
research project, whether it be an M.A. thesis, a doctoral thesis, or a qualitative project for a non-
profit or another institution outside of the academy. Meaning, this course is centered on giving
students the tools to DO research using qualitative research methods. Since this is a one
semester survey course, I suggest those at the PhD level, and encourage those at the M.A. to use
this course as an opportunity to develop your dissertation/M.A. prospectus.

In the course, you will be reading examples of texts so that you will be able to get a sense of
what researchers do in the field, how folks develop/utilize surveys and other methods. I have
also included a list of suggested texts that we may not have time to get to in the course, but are
excellent readings for your research methods tool box. You’ll have everything you need, when
you leave this class, to go into the field with confidence, or to develop that amazing interview
instrument that will help you collect insane amounts of data.

The course is strategically focused so that we can both 1) focus primarily on being in the field,
and 2) through reading peer-reviewed examples of qualitative research get a sense of how
researchers analyze and present their data for others. We will focus on who to select which type
of methods are useful for the questions you are asking, how to collect data, and think through the
issues that come up in research and in analyzing data.

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If you are working on a project proposal for an M.A. Thesis/Dissertation prospectus, please let
me know by the second class, and we can schedule some time later in the semester for you to get
feedback from your peers.

This semester will be divided into five themes:

Theme 1: What is “Qualitative Research?” Multi-Disciplinary perspectives

Topics Include:
A focus on Qualitative research method theory from the disciplines of: African American,
African Studies and African Diaspora Studies, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Sociology
and Anthropology
Taking an intersectional approach to qualitative research methods
Positioning the researcher in the field
Why and when to take a specific qualitative approach to your work

Theme 2: How to Do Grounded Research and Ethnography

Topics Include:
Research Design: How to Develop Research Questions
Decide when to use focus groups or not
Thinking about participant observation and other research tools in the field

Theme 3: How to Collect Data via Life Stories, Oral History, Autoethnography
Topics Include:
Why and how to use Life Stories or Oral Histories
Why and how to use Autoethnography
The importance of thinking about and addressing the presence of the researcher in the field
Benefits and limits of the qualitative research methods covered in the course

Theme 4: Alternative Research Methods * Coding

Topics Include:
Video ethnography
Soundscapes
How to use Atlas Ti

Theme 5 – if there is time: Navigating the IRB and grant applications as a researcher
utilizing qualitative research methods

The texts are all interesting readings, but in this course you will approach them with an eye
towards method: What is this researcher doing? Why are they doing it? It is a good idea, or
appropriate for this context/research question? How does the researchers’ race, gender, class,
sexuality etc. play out in the field and in their analysis?

Required Texts:
Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interviewing by Robert S. Weiss
Writing Ethnographic Field notes by Robert M. Emerson
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story by Ruth Behar

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Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets By Sudhir Venkatesh
Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes by Don Kulick
Flaming Souls: Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Social Change in Barbados by David A.B.
Murray
Black Women against the Land Grab by Keisha-Khan Y. Perry
Sexual Revolutions in Cuba: Passion, Politics, and Memory by Carrie Hamilton

Suggested Texts
Transcribing and editing Oral History by Willa K. Baum
Writing for Social Scientists by Howard Becker
Tricks of the Trade: How to Think About Your Research While You’re Doing It by Howard
Becker
Text or videos on Atlas Ti

Grading:

Attendance & Discussion: 30%

Arrive on time, no cell phones, disrespectful behavior – the general stuff you should know by
now. Disruptive students will be asked to leave. The attendance grade is higher than normal
because we only meet once a week, and this is the core methods course – so missing one class is
actually missing 2.

In-Class/Take-home exercises: 30%

In-Class/Take-home are exercises that are designed to give you some very basic hands on
experience using some of the methods we will talk about in the class. There will be 4 outside of
class assignments in total, which will include a short 3 page paper response about the experience.

Final “Exam”: 40%

*** For those who will be writing an M.A. thesis or dissertation prospectus – you can opt to turn
in one initial working draft of your proposal by week 9 (25%), and then turn in a final draft
at the end of the semester (25%). This would include:

 A (limited) literature review

 Research question or set of themes to be engaged
 Research Design - with a discussion of why you think this research design is the best
option for your research project
 Discussion of the methods you envision using and why you think they would be a great
idea for your work
 Sample Research Instrument – (if you plan to do the research in a language other than
English include a translation of both)
 Preliminary/Sample IRB proposal
 Make sure you use the Chicago Manual of Style for the citation format

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*** For those who will not be writing an M.A. thesis or dissertation prospectus – your
assignment is to read the book Tricks of the Trade by Howard Becker, and then select two
books from the semester. Using Becker’s book as a guide, give a critique of the books
you’ve selected, describe the methodology used, whether or not you thought this was a good
idea given the research topic, discuss the methodological issues that arise in the two books,
discuss what you would have done the same, or differently – draw from texts we used
during the semester to support your answers. You can submit an initial draft for feedback
sometime before the end of the semester. The final draft is due on our final exam day.

Format:
20-25 pages
Double Spaced
Sources Cited page
1 inch margins
Times New Roman Font
Chicago Manual of Style

Week 1: Overview of Qualitative Research Methods, first day of classes

Module 1 – Course Overview Introduction

Module 2 – What is “Qualitative Research Methods”

The NSF Workshop on Qualitative Research Methods available on Carmen

Week 2: Disciplinary Intervention: Black/Africana Studies Research Methods

Module 1 *IRB Guest Lecture*

Module 2 Theoretical Conceptualization of the Field of Africana/Black Studies
Methodological/Theoretical Interventions of the field.

Selections from the African American Studies Reader available on Carmen

Week 3: Alternative Theoretical Perspectives, Thinking About Research and Conceptual

Framing

Module 1:
Carmen Readings: “Can there be a Feminist Ethnography”
“Feminist Methodology in Social Movements Research”
“White-Knuckle Research: Emotional Dynamics in Fieldwork with Racist Activists”

Module 2:
“Pedagogies of the Sacred: Making the Invisible Tangible” from Pedagogies of Crossing:
Meditations on Feminism
Excerpts from Black Feminist Thought

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“Introduction” From Aberrations in Black
Excerpts from Queer Black Studies: A Reader

Week 4: Grounded Theory/Interviewing

Module 1:
Carmen: Module 1: Carmen Reading: “The Ethnographers’ Ball – Revisited” by Patricia A.
Adler and Peter Adler
“Contemporary Field Research: A collection of readings
“Analyzing Social Settings: a Guide to qualitative observation and analysis”

Module 2:
Read Chapters 1 and 2 of Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
“Studying Elites Using Qualitative Research Methods”
“Participatory Research: Three Models and an Analysis
“Church Based Organizing as Participatory Research: The Northwest Community Organization
and the Pilsen Resurrection Project”
“Conflicts between Activist Research and Academic Success: Participatory Research and
Alternative Strategies”
“With The Boys”

Week 5 – The Researcher in the Field/The Ethics of Research

Module 1: Carmen – “The ethics of rapport: institutional safeguards, resistance, and betrayal” \
“White-Knuckle Research: Emotional Dynamics in Fieldwork with Racist Activists”
“Outsider in: Race, Attraction, and Research in New Orleans”
“Politics of Identity in Organizational Ethnographic Research: Ethnicity and Tropicalist
Intrusions”

Module 2:
“Negotiating from the Inside” Constructing Racial and Ethnic Identity in Qualitative Research”
“Not Out to Start a Revolution”: Race, Gender and Emotional Restraint among Black University
Men”
“The Two Different Worlds of Black and White Fraternity Men: Visibility and Accountability as
Mechanisms of Privilege”
“(No) Trial (But) Tribulations: When Courts and Ethnography Conflict”

Week 6: Sample Ethnography

Read How to Be A Gang Leader for a Day

Week 7: Qualitative Research Interviewing/Autoethnography

Read Learning from Strangers Chapters 1-5

Carmen: “Race, Gender, and Leadership Identity: an autoethnography of reconciliation”
“Doing autoethnography”
“Autoethnography and Material Culture: The Case of Bill Reid”

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“Representation, Legitimation, and Autoethnography: An Autoethographic Writing Story”

Week 8: Example of Autoethography

Read Translated Woman by Ruth Behar

Week 9: Oral History

Module 1: Carmen – “Doing Oral History”

Module 2: Carmen – “Secrets, Lies, and Misremembering: The Perils of Oral History
Interviewing”
“Oral History Techniques”
“Oral History Association – Doing Oral History”
“Narrative Knowing in the Human Sciences”
“How Do I Conduct and Oral History Interview?”
“The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide”

Week 10: Sample Oral History Text

Read: Sexual Revolutions in Cuba: Passion, Politics, and Memory by Carrie Hamilton

Week 11: Trust, The Researcher, The Field and ‘Research Subjects’

Module 1:
Carmen: “Islands in the Streets”
“Establishing Trustworthiness”
“Ain’t No Making it Appendix”
“Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists”
“Feminist Insider Dilemmas”

Module 2: Read: Flaming Souls: Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Social Change in Barbados

Week 12: Which Methods do you use?/Data Analysis

Module 1:
Carmen: “Drawing and Verifying Conclusions”
“Coding, writing memos, and diagramming”
“At the Breast”
“Introduction” of Between Women
“African American Women Making Themselves”
“Stratagies of Multiple Triangulation”

Module 2:
Read: Chapter 6 – the appendix for Learning From Strangers

Week 13: Data Analysis – Visual Ethnography

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Module 1: Finish Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
Module 2: Read excerpts from Visual Ethnography on Carmen
Atlas Ti: Demonstration

Week 14: Pulling it All Together

Read Transvesti

Week 15: Pulling it all Together

Read Women and the Land Grab