ANTH 95a Anthropology Research Lab

Spring 2017, Professor Sarah Lamb

This fieldwork/research lab class offers a 2-credit Spring 2017 course opportunity for students enrolled in ANTH 111a in the fall of 2016. Enrollment is limited to 8 and is by application. Potentially interested students may contact Professor Sarah Lamb () for more information or to apply.

ANTH 95a Anthropology Research Lab

Professor Sarah Lamb

Spring 2017

Prerequisite: ANTH 111a Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective in the fall of 2016

This research lab course will provide firsthand experience conducting anthropological research on a topic related to the base course, in this case the social-cultural study of aging. A minimum of three and up to eight students and the instructor will work together on a chosen research project emerging from questions left unanswered in the scholarly literature on aging explored in ANTH 111a. The specific focus of the team research project will be honed during the first two weeks of the semester as we think together as a group about what unanswered questions in the existing literature most excite us that can be effectively answered through a one-semester team ethnographic research endeavor.

Potential topics for Spring 2017:

Option 1:

Missing voices in the successful aging literature:This project would respond to the call in the February 2015 special issue of The Gerontologist on “Successful Aging” for more qualitative ethnographic and interview-based research with older people themselves, to discover older adults’ own subjective definitions of how to live and age meaningfully--the key “missing voices” in the major successful aging paradigm that has dominated gerontology for the past four decades. We would conduct research with a range of older persons in the Waltham-Boston area, of diverse class, racial/ethnic, religious/secular, gender and sexual identity, age (older and younger), and health-status backgrounds.

Option 2:

Performing being (not) old / resisting aging: “Performance theory,”inspired by Judith Butler and other scholars, has made a major impact on gender studies, helping us understand how gender is not a direct outgrowth of biological sex, nor a core identity or essence that precedes expression, but is rather created through daily life practices, including division of labor, sexual acts, body language, modes of dress and comportment, and interactions with others. Performance theory might also be a productive lens through which to examine the ways persons in our societyconstruct age. Like gender, age is not a simple biological category; rather, age identities are crafted through daily modes of practice and experience. One dominant way of performing one’s older age in the contemporary U.S. is to strive to perform not being “old.” Participant observation and interview research with older adults in the Waltham-Boston area would aim to investigate the varied ways older persons (of diverse class, gender, racial/ethnic, age, and ability/health) backgrounds strive to perform, both consciously and unconsciously, identities they define and experience as “old” or “not old.”

As part of this project, we might also extend Jane Ward’s (2010) work on “gender labor,” to examine the labor others perform in helping older people achieve the age identity they are striving for, which in many cases, we will likely find, isan identity other than “aging” or “old.” In her provocative piece, “Gender Labor: Transmen, Femmes, and the Collective Work of Transgression,” Jane Ward coins the phrase “gender labor” to refer to the emotional, physical, sexual care-taking, and discursive daily acts friends, partners, kin, and community members perform that help others achieve the varied forms of gender recognition they long for. Extending this concept of labor—the work others do to help create the identities of others) to the study of age—could prove quite illuminating. We in the contemporary U.S. all perform acts of what could be termed “age (or anti-aging?) labor” as we—very often quite unconsciously as a mode of courteous interaction—strive to support others in their attempts to be or seem not old, such as by telling an older person in a flattering tone how young or good they look or that they don’t look their age, or looking politely away if an older dinner companion is having trouble managing her utensils, or protesting if an older person says he has gotten to the age that he may well die within the next five or ten years. By conducting ethnographic research on age and aging through a performance lens, this project could uncover a wealth of revealing data related to the ways persons in the U.S. think about, value, practice, and experience being older.

Option 3:

Health and aging as a moral project:comparing the perspectives of Brandeis students and elders:Conduct fieldwork, interviews, and public discourse analyses to extend ideas explored in the successful aging part of the ANTH 111a syllabus, particularly questions raised in the discussions and readings for 9/27: Exploring the ways older people themselves may or may not perceive pursuing health in later life as a moral project, and comparing anti-obesity and anti-aging projects. We could conduct comparative interviews and fieldwork among both older and younger generations: such as attitudes towards health, wellness, body,appearance, and exercise among both Brandeis students and an older population, such as members of the Brandeis Lifelong Learning Institute, or a running or swimming or triathlon club for older athletes.

Each project has the real potential to result in significant data worthy of wider dissemination in venues such as a scholarly journal article, blog posts, and student conference presentations.

Other potential options to focus on in the research lab class will be brainstormed during the first few meetings.

The research lab course activities will include the following: gathering data through participant observation and interviewing;collecting relevant popular cultural materials; conducting literature searches through the library and internet; learningdata management and analysis skills; helping to prepare research reports for a journal article, blog, and public presentation; and developing and pursuing students’ unique research questions.

Learning goals:

  • Develop a deep and hands-on understanding of research methodologies in social-cultural anthropology, including research design,data-gathering techniques in participant observation and interviewing, and coding and analyzing qualitative data
  • Gain a deeper understanding of the lives and perspectives of older people in the Boston area, and how actual people’s lives connect to theory and scholarship in gerontology and anthropology
  • Honecritical thinking, writing, and oral presentation skills

Course requirements: This is a graded class.

Class participation @ 20%

Fieldwork and interviewing @ 25%

Composing field notes (to be shared with the group via google docs) @ 25%

Contributing analyses and insightsto the products expected to emerge from the research (including the student final projects andlikely a journal article to be written by Sarah Lamb based on the research lab data in which each student researcher would be acknowledged) @ 10%

Final project using one’s own or the group data: Each student will present or publish at least one piece resulting from the work (this can be done either individually or in small groups), such as a poster or conference presentation (at Brandeis such as at the annual spring Experiential Learning Symposium or other venue), blog post, student journal article (such as the Student Anthropologist -- ), or final presentation to our class. @ 20%

Class participation will include:

1)Class meetings: The class will meet as a group for at least one hour each week: time TBA, depending on participant schedules, and we will arrange for more meetings (as a group and/or one on one) as necessary.

2)Shared group conversations via LATTE or google docs.

3)Lively, engaged participation in the above.

Expected workload: Success in this two-credit class will require an average of six hours of research work per week (including class meetings, fieldwork, interviewing, transcribing, data analysis, writing, reading of scholarly texts, researching relevant public, media and popular cultural discourses, and preparing the final presentation).Students should keep a weekly log of their research activities and time spent on each.

This course is designated as an Experiential Learning course. Experiential learning means that you will not just “receive” information; rather, you will be actively engaged in co-constructing knowledge with your peers and instructor throughout the semester. The research lab also connects theory with practice, as our interview and fieldwork-based research with older people will explore how actual people’s lives do or do not support the themes, debates, and models examined in the base course of ANTH 111a, and how our own original data may be used to push forward theoretical models in anthropology and gerontology. Finally, experiential learning involves connecting course materials to your own personal, academic, and career goals going forward—topics we will examine and reflect upon throughout the semester.

Academic Integrity: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity (see section 4: “Maintenance of Academic Integrity”-- ). Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university. Remember, you must indicate through quotations and citation when quoting from any outside source (internet or print).

Accommodations: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please contact me at the beginning of the term.

Readings will include:

1)Review of certain core relevant texts from ANTH 111a,

2)Additional scholarly texts related to the project as needed, and

3)The two below articles written by Brandeis Professor of Sociology Peter Conrad. These two articles were published using data gathered by Conrad and a small team of Brandeis undergraduate research students working together in a similar-style social science research lab course:

Peter Conrad. 1986. "The Myth of Cut-throats Among Premedical Students: The Role of Stereotypes in Justifying Failure and Success,"Journal of Health and Social Behavior 27(2): 150-160.Abstract:This paper reports a study of the premedical student culture at a major university, based on fieldwork and interviews with 30 premedical students. The paper examines the role of stereotypes in the premedical culture; specifically, the common belief in "cut-throats" among premedical students. Cut-throats are described as excessively competitive, selfish, grade-hungry students who cheat, steal books and lab reports, and sabotage lab experiments. Despite the widespread belief, our findings suggest cut-throats are a myth. We found more evidence for cooperative than cut-throat behavior. The myth emerges from the competitive and pressured situation of premedical students and the uncertainty of the medical school admission process, and is in part a manifestation of students' collective anxiety. More significantly, it provides cultural explanations for failure and success for premedical students. We discuss its connection to the general premedical stereotype and its relation to pre-medical education.

Peter Conrad. 1994. "Wellness as Virtue:Morality and the Pursuit of Health,"Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry18:385-401. Abstract:The interest and participation in health promotion and wellness activities has expanded greatly in the past two decades. The “wellness revolution”, especially in terms of diet and exercise, has been affected by both scientific findings and cultural changes. The paper examines how a particular aspect of culture, the moral meanings of health-promoting activities, contribute to the pursuit of wellness. Based on interviews with 54 self-identified wellness participants at a major university, we examine how health can be a moral discourse and the body a site for moral action. The paper suggests that wellness seekers engage in a profoundly moral discourse around health promotion, constructing a moral world of goods, bads and shoulds. Although there are some gender differences in particular wellnessgoals, engaging in wellness activities, independent of results, becomes seen as a good in itself. Thus, even apart from any health outcomes, the pursuit of virtue and a moral life is fundamentally an aspect of the pursuit of wellness.

Outline of the course:

Weeks 1 & 2:

  • Decide on major research questions for the semester and work together to design the research agenda. Read the two Peter Conrad articles (examples of successful Brandeis undergraduate social sciences research work),and discuss together the major burning unanswered questions from the theoretical literature we explored in ANTH 111a. Do additional background reading as necessary to set us up to prepare significant, feasible research questions for this semester’s research lab.

Weeks 3-10:

  • Concentrate on fieldwork. Professor Lamb will help students find research sites and make connections. Each student will conduct both interview and participant-observation fieldwork, while also spending time transcribing interview materials, typing up field notes, reading each other’s field notes, and beginning to think about major themes emerging from the data, as well as new questions we should be asking.
  • Over this period, we will also each be paying attention to everyday conversations around us and in public media related to the project.

Weeks 11-13:

  • Concentrate on data analysis, and preparing and delivering the final research products.

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