Summer field-training program in methods of data collection: Bolivia and Zambia

Brandeis University, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project involves summer fieldwork training in research methodology in two locations, Bolivia and Zambia. The training will be offered to graduate students studying for their doctorate in cultural anthropology, and will expose students to interdisciplinary research in progress; provide them with tools for conducting successful collaborative research; teach them to adapt and apply formal methods of data collection in the field; and provide them with a stimulating, supportive atmosphere where they can experience the realities of fieldwork while exploring their own research interests. Students will be taught to collect data in ecology, demography, experimental and household economics, cognitive anthropology, folk knowledge, natural resource use and health. Procedures for validating data and achieving inter-observer reliability across sites will be taught as well as how to deal with missing data; how to code, store and clean data in the field; how to explain human subject protection protocols to research participants; how to do preliminary data analysis and write up, how to deal with logistical and ethical problems that arise in the field situation; and how to give something back and explain research findings to the host community before leaving the research site. The broader impacts of this project relate to the enhanced education students will receive which will heighten their commitment and ability to do excellent scientific fieldwork in cultural anthropology.