COURSE SCHEDULE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
CYBER
SPACE
ETHNO-
GRAPHY


Dr. Max Forte

CONCORDIA
UNIVERSITY

Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology

CLASS SCHEDULE

Week #1: Monday, January 5

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

[examine the website and course requirements very closely; set up a blog (your research journal for this course); please commence reading for the following week]

 

Week #2: Monday, January 12

VIRTUALITY, CYBERCULTURE, and VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY

Readings:

  1. Hine, Christine. (2000). Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage.

  2. Hine, Christine. (1998). “Virtual Ethnography”. Paper presented at the Internet Research and Information for Social Scientists conference, University of Bristol, 25-27 March. At

  3. Hine, Christine. (n.d.). Virtual ethnography.

  4. Silver, David. (n.d.) “Introducing Cyberculture”. Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies.

  5. Shields, Rob. (2006). “Virtualities”. Theory, Culture & Society 23 (2): 284-286.

 

 

Week #3: Monday, January 19

DOING VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHIES, Part 1: VIRTUAL WORLDS

Film: AVATARA (72 mins.) -- shown in class, but you can also see it in advance by clicking on the title or watching it on the front page of this site (at the very bottom)

Readings:
 

  1. Forte, Maximilian C. (2004). Review of Avatara, (a “virtual ethnographic” film). Visual Studies, 19 (1), 116-118.

  2. Bell, Mark W. (2008). “Toward a Definition of 'Virtual Worlds'.” Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1 (1) July.

  3. Maffesoli, Michel. (2008). “Second Life and Hyperreality.” Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1 (2), November.

  4. Boellstorff, Tom. (2008). Coming of Age in Second Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Ch. 3.

Monday, January 19, 2009

• Last day to add winter term courses

• Deadline for withdrawal with tuition refund from winter term courses


 

 

Week #4: Monday, January 26

DOING VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHIES, Part 2: RESEARCH ETHICS

Readings:

  1. Ess, Charles and the AoIR Ethics Working Group. (2002). Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee. Association of Internet Researchers. (Read esp. pages 1-10)

  1. Frankel, Mark S. and Sanyin Siang. (1999). “Ethical and Legal Aspects of Human Subjects Research on the Internet”. A Report of a Workshop, June 10-11, Washington DC. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

     

  2. Danet, Brenda. (2002). “Studies of Cyberpl@y: ethical and methodological aspects.”

  • Research Paper Prospectus due in class

  • remember to include your completed ethics protocol form if you are doing an online ethnography – see the course website for the form


 

Week #5: Monday, February 2

DOING VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHIES, Part 3: METHODS, 1/2

Readings:

  1. Paccagnella, Luciano. (1997). “Getting the Seat of Your Pants Dirty: Strategies for Ethnographic Research on Virtual Communities”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3 (1).

  2. Garton, Laura; Haythornthwaite, Caroline and Barry Wellman. (1997). “Studying Online Social Networks”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3 (1) at

  3. Rybas, Natalia & Gajjala, Radhika (2007). “Developing Cyberethnographic Research Methods for Understanding Digitally Mediated Identities.” [33 paragraphs] Forum: Qualitative Social Research 8 (3)

  4. Megens, Helen and Brian Martin. (2003). “Cybermethods: An Assessment”. First Monday


 

Week #6: Monday, February 9

DOING VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHIES, Part 4: METHODS, 2/2

Readings:

  1. Kivits, Joëlle. (2005). “Online Interviewing and the Research Relationship.” In Christine Hine, ed., Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, pp. 35-50. Oxford: Berg.

     

  2. Rutter, Jason and Smith, Gregory W.H. (2005). “Ethnographic Presence in a Nebulous Setting.” In Christine Hine, ed., Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, pp. 81-92. Oxford: Berg.

     

  3. Beaulieu, Anne. (2005). “Sociable Hyperlinks: An Ethnographic Approach to Connectivity.” In Christine Hine, ed., Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, pp. 183-198. Oxford: Berg.


 

Week #7: Monday, February 16

CYBERSPACE COMMUNITIES & IDENTITIES

Readings:

 

  1. Kollock, Peter and Marc A. Smith. (1999). “Communities in Cyberspace.” In Marc Smith and Peter Kollock, eds., Communities in Cyberspace, pp. 3-25. London: Routledge.

     

  2. Turkle, Sherry. (1995). Life on the Screen. New York: Simon and Schuster.

     

  3. O’Brien, Jodi. (1999). “Writing in the Body: Gender (Re)production in Online Interaction”. In Marc A. Smith and Peter Kollock, eds., Communities in Cyberspace, pp. 76-104. London: Routledge.

Optional:

 

Nakamura, Lisa (n.d.). “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet”. Online paper archived

 


 

Week #8: Monday, February 23

Mid-Term Break

Friday, February 27

  • President’s Holiday: University closed


 

Week #9: Monday, March 2

SOCIAL NETWORK SITES: SOCIAL CAPITAL, SURVEILLANCE

Readings:
 

  1. boyd, danah m. and Nicole B. Ellison. (2007). “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (1)

     

  2. Ellison, Nicole B.; Steinfield, Charles and Cliff Lampe. (2007). “The Benefits of Facebook ‘Friends’: Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12: 1143-1168.

     

  3. Lange, Patricia G. (2007). “Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social networking on YouTube”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (1)

Week #10: Monday, March 9

ONLINE NARRATIVE NETWORKING

Readings:
 

  1. Doostdar, Alireza. (2004). “ ‘The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging’: On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan.” American Anthropologist 106 (4): 651-662.

     

  2. Schmidt, Jan. (2007). “Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12: 1409-1427.

     

  3. Baker, Nicholson. (2008). “The Charms of Wikipedia.” The New York Review of Books, 55 (4), March 20.

(presentations will be scheduled for the following weeks, on March 9)

 

Week #11: Monday, March 16

PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

  • 4-5 consecutive presentations

  • approx. 10 mins. each

  • break

  • questions to presenters and general discussion


 

Monday, March 16, 2009

• Last day for academic withdrawal from two-term and winter-term courses.

 

Week #12: Monday, March 23

PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

  • 4-5 consecutive presentations

  • approx. 10 mins. each

  • break

  • questions to presenters and general discussion

 

Week #13: Monday, March 30

PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

  • 4-5 consecutive presentations

  • approx. 10 mins. each

  • break

  • questions to presenters and general discussion

 

Week #14: Monday, April 6

PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

  • 4-5 consecutive presentations

  • approx. 10 mins. each

  • break

  • questions to presenters and general discussion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
ANTH 498C CYBERSPACE ETHNOGRAPHY
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