Course Description
Choose your own adventure: Students will identify a topic of personal interest to work on in Athens, GA in small teams. Action: Students will identify an approach for learning more about the topic and go out into the community to apply it in dialogue with a community advisor or partner. Anthropology: Students learn how to practice anthropology in the process.
Athena Title
Action and Adventure Anth
Non-Traditional Format
Practicum.
Prerequisite
ANTH 1102 or ANTH 1102E or ANTH 2120H
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- By the end of the course, students will be able to use anthropological expertise to address an issue of local concern in the Athens, GA community.
- By the end of the course, students will be able to identify and apply the soft skills necessary for working effectively and respectfully in teams and with community partners to identify, work towards, and evaluate progress towards a desired product or outcome.
- By the end of the course, students will develop an appropriate social scientific methodology to address the question of mutual concern and apply it to gain a deeper understanding about the topic of interest.
- By the end of the course, students will learn how to solicit the unique concerns and views from identified stakeholders in the Athens community on the topic of interest, and to interpret the information collected based on individuals’ identities, lived experiences, and/or positionality.
- By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze the data collected to reveal insightful patterns in the data (e.g., alignment or divergence in views).
- By the end of the course, students will be able to compile findings and develop effective means to communicate them to an identified audience (peers, community partner, wider public) in written, oral, and/or visual form.
Topical Outline
- Week 1 - Course overview
- Week 2 - The application of anthropological expertise to community concerns: Methods, community engagement options, examples
- Week 3 - Community visits
- Week 4 - Constitution of Project Teams and Community Consultation Plans
- Week 5 - Finalize Project Goals, Audience(s), and Products through Community Engagement
- Week 6 - Methodology
- Week 7 – 9 - Project Implementation (with peer and mentor support, troubleshooting)
- Week 10 - Data analysis: Coding
- Week 11 - Analyze the relationship between identities, lived experiences, and/or position in society and the views expressed around the topic of interest
- Week 12 - Share draft findings with community partner and explore their implications; finalize plan for final product and audience
- Week 13 - Develop draft of final product in dialogue with community partner(s)
- Week 14 - Share draft product, solicit input (peers, mentor, partners), and revise
- Week 15 - Final presentations and product launch
- Week 16 - Individual and group reflection on lessons learnt, evaluation of the process and product
Experiential Learning Outcomes
Creative
Articulate, implement, and reflect on a substantive application of their academic foundations to a real-world setting and/or challenge
