Visual Ethnography Methods Training

This 3-day workshop supports PhD students at early as well as advanced stages of their ethnographic research.

Early stages: The workshop will introduce visual ethnography methods. Students will undertake a practical fieldwork exercise, reflect on this activity, and consider the application of methods in their PhD projects.

Advanced stages: The workshop will support students in evaluating data gathered from ethnographic fieldwork and disseminating through refereed journals

It is possible to join all three days (including fieldwork) or alternatively to join only day 1 or 2.

Program

Monday March 3 to Wednesday March 5th 2025

Day 1 – Knights Park Campus and online per individual preference

Welcome by workshop leaders Dr Christoph Lueder and Dr Dimitris Venizelos

Participants’ 3-minute introductions to their research project and themselves. Information shared in advance.

Guest speakers

o Prof. Dr. Michele Lancione, Professor of Economic and Political Geography at DIST in Turin and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at the Urban Institute, Sheffield. Co-director e Beyond Inhabitation Lab. Co-founder and Editor of the Radical Housing Journal and Corresponding Editor at IJURR.

Ethnographic research through visual methods and outputs such as film and (ethno)-graphic novels

o Dr Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, RCA London and RIPPLE RIPPLE RIPPLING collective, https://rrr.network/Team

Ethnographic research through mixed methods and film-making.

Lunch

Presentations by PhD students who participated in the 2023 Visual Ethnography training days on the use of VE in their research since

Group discussion: How might visual ethnography work for me?

Fieldwork briefing and preparation

Day 2 for students at early stages of ethnographic research – Off Campus, outdoor spaces - optional

Fieldwork - participant ethnographic exercise
This exercise will be completed independently by participants.

Identify a suitable public location / context, and plan and conduct appropriate ethnographic activities. Where will you go? What will you do? What material will you generate? Prepare a 6-slide presentation for delivery on Day 3, to include:

1. where did you go? – why there?
2. What was it like? – give details of the environment / context
3. who else was there?
4. what did you do? – e.g. questions you asked
5. what did you learn? - insights
6. How do you reflect on the experience?

Day 3 – Knights Park Campus and online per individual preference

Organising, evaluating and disseminating

Mixed methods, understanding multiple perspectives, dissemination formats and paths, restituting knowledge to participants and communities

Guest speakers

o Prof. Dr. Madlen Kobi, Department of Social Sciences, Social Anthropology Unit, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Ethnography as method for architects through research projects (in China and Europe) that unfold between architecture and anthropology. Disseminating ethnographic research.

o Dr Doreen Bernath, Executive Editor, The Journal of Architecture, Head of AAVS ‘Urbanity from the Ocean’, AA Unit Master, and Co-founder of research collectives ThisThingCalledTheory and Translocality

Visual anthropological and ethnographical research methods - disseminating findings through publication in refereed journals.

Lunch

Reporting back: participants’ 6-slide presentations

Advice from workshop leaders and from PHD researchers

Exercises:

“How might I use visual ethnography in my PhD?”

“How might I use ethnographic evaluation methods to understand multiple perspectives and voices?”