About Debating Ethnography
What you need to know
Ethnography is the study of culture, based on a qualitative research method that comes from the discipline of anthropology but is applicable to other disciplines. ‘Debating Ethnography’ fosters dialogue within and beyond Modern Languages and explores the pedagogic, scholarly and socio-political relevance of ethnography and its role in trans-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration.
Debating Ethnography has its roots in a staff-student group in MLL established in 2014. It brings together staff and PG students who work at the interface of the Humanities and Social Sciences (in areas such as Modern Languages, English, History, Archaeology, Social Sciences, Medicine and Web Sciences) who use ethnographic methods to conduct context sensitive empirical research and explore the role of culture in their fields of study. We organise regular open seminars, workshops and training sessions, exploring the role and potential of ethnography in the context of our research and the societal challenges we face. Members of the research group employ ethnographic research in a wide range of areas, including language use, multilingualism, education, globalisation, capitalism, migration and mobility.
About the Team
Beginning in 2014, we had intense discussions on the nature and scope of the field, as well as on the links of ethnography with associated and cognate subjects. By establishing a Research Group in Interdisciplinary Ethnography, we want to develop these initiatives further, garner more visibility across the University and strengthen cross-disciplinary and cross-faculty dialogue, including among PG students. The Research Group will create a space for shared methodological and theoretical debate, including with PGR students, and seek dialogue and collaboration amongst colleagues at the University who have active research and teaching interests in anthropology, broadly defined (socio-cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, anthropological archaeology, linguistic anthropology, visual anthropology and films, material culture studies, ethnomusicology). Ethnography is understood in many ways, but its practitioners have a common interest in putting people back at the centre of the study of social life. It produces a ‘bottom-up’, people-based, context-sensitive understanding of society, culture and politics. Its core methods are observations in the field and in-depth interviewing. Such knowledge is an invaluable supplement to problem-driven’ research and complements the methodological pluralism associated with analysing “real world problems”.
Meet The Team
Dr. Heidi Armbruster
Heidi Armbruster is an Associate Professor in German and Social Anthropology in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. She is a trained social anthropologist specialising in migration and diversity issues. Her past and present research interests address two broadly intersecting themes: post-migration identities from the perspectives of migrants in the German-speaking context, and post-unification and post-colonial inquiries into German identity. More recently Heidi has begun to look comparatively at Germany and the UK in respect of diversity and refugee reception in small towns and rural regions and started collaborating with artists to develop participatory research. She teaches on German social and political studies, multicultural Germany, transnational mobilities and ethnographic methods.