Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) organized an in-house workshop on “Qualitative Research: Ethnography and Note Taking” on May 6, 2022.
The event was moderated by Dr. Anushiya Shrestha, Research Director, SIAS who explained about the workshop on qualitative research methods, focused on ethnography and also introduced the presenters.
The workshop had four presenters. Dr. Dil Khatri, Executive Director, SIAS presented the major observations from the popular book on ethnographic research called “Deep Play” by anthropologist Clifford Geetz and discussed what made the author able to write the book. The session was interactive where everyone expressed their understanding of the importance and methods of ethnographic research and their experiences of undertaking it. During the session, the history of the ethnographic studies, ethnographic methods and considerations for ethnographic research were majorly discussed.
Ms. Gyanu Maskey, Program Director of SIAS gave an insightful presentation on taking ethnographic field notes. She highlighted the importance of writing details (general observations, surprising/interesting observations, gestures, changing attitudes, methodological understanding) before they get out of memory. She also elaborated on context identification, daily journaling, consideration of time and place, creating photo stories and group discussion to broaden the understanding.
Dr. Mani Ram Banjade, Senior Research Fellow, SIAS presented about the do’s and don’ts of field research. He first explained how social aspects need to be discovered first in social science research and the need for macro, meso and micro system analysis. He also emphasized that researchers should know how much is enough and maintain factual accuracy. He stressed being careful about falsification, fabrication, suppression or misinterpretation of data. He also focused on gaining the trust of the respondents through positive indebtedness as well as maintaining certain levels of boundaries.
Ms. Kanchan Lama, SIAS Board Member gave a lively session on “Gender Sensitive Organization” through “Onion Peeling Exercise” where the staff were divided into four different groups each having a different topic- symbols and artifacts, champions, rituals, management.
Each group worked to identify the gender sensitiveness of the organization in terms of social interaction, inclusion and participation, champions and villains and highlighted the good aspects of the organization, points to be improved, the difference in activities from other organizations, etc.
