Careers: Visual anthropology as a field of study?
Dear XXX -Thank you for your e-mail. I apologize that I will not be able to reply at length as I am about to leave for the field. I took the opportunity to look at your website. Your photographs are quite well done, evocative and emotional....What is ethnographic photography? As with regular print ethnography, there is no single type. However, as with written ethnography there is a purpose. Look through the print ethnographies that you have found particularly evocative (one of my favorites is Lila Abu Lughod's Veiled Sentiments) and ask what the author is trying to do in the work. Then ask yourself how you would do this in the medium of your choosing.To answer your other questions in brief: 1 2 Visual anthropology is on the margins of the discipline. Few programs offer degrees in it and there are even fewer jobs. 3 It is my own belief that photography or film work that isn't backed by participant-observation research is weaker than that that is. If your goal is to fly in, take photos, and fly out, then you might want to pursue a degree in journalism. 4 There are dwindling grants for visual social science research. You would most likely apply to standard anthropology grants -- which means that your work should speak to the discipline of anthropology in some way.Explore the reading lists posted on my course website for further direction.Warmly,Karen Nakamura
The question of visual anthropology is one that I struggle with daily. I received my PhD and was hired in my first two positions on my strengths as a regular ethnographer. My first book is remarkably non-visual for a book on deafness and sign language. Retrospectively, I think I was trying to pass or to "cover" (to use Kenji Yoshino's term) as a cultural anthropologist.
Now that I'm engaged in visual anthropology head-on (with both still and motion photography), I keep permuting my concept of what visual anthropology means for me. Right now, this is an issue that I can't answer in just a few words (supposedly I'm presenting a paper on this topic this summer, so I need to at least figure out how to say it in 15 minutes).
Anyone have anything to add?
1 Comments
By museumfreak
on May 29, 2006 10:16 AMI'm assuming you let her know about SVA & GAVA and in particular their conferences, yes?
I would seriously refer her to the University of South Carolina if she has overlap with faculty interests (Latin America, linguistic anth, visual anth, archaeo, public anth, cultural theory, and globalization are real strengths, but there are other areas they could support too; I would not recommend going for physical anth). I'm biased, but that's like the best department ever because they give a lot of attention, there's good community and it's really drama-free. It may not be prestigious, but it has a new viz anth certificate and good film program besides the great MA program and new PhD program (which is all word of mouth right now). If I don't get in anywhere else next year, I'm going home. If you're motivated, they'll mentor you a great deal and you'll be able to do quite well for yourself as far as publications and presentations, and IMO that matters more than the name of the university.
My favorite photoethnography book is Corinne Kratz's The Ones Who Are Wanted, although I can't in good conscience recommend coming here.
Careers: Tips for new faculty from OSU
I wish all departments or colleges would put together something this comprehensive. Skip over the first sections which deal with photocopying and mailing codes, and go to the meaty mentoring sections. Here's one example:
CHAPTER FIVE: RESEARCH
Yup, it’s a major part of your job here.
I. Productivity
Finish your book. Many of those of us who have been at OSU for some years sense that, along with the omnipresent discourse of “excellence” that surrounds us in OSU’s quest to improve its national rankings, the bar at tenure time has been raised. Make no mistake: you are expected to have produced a completed book manuscript in contract to a reputable press by the time of your sixth-year review. [In fact, the language is ratcheting up a bit from the College; the guideline is now to have a book ‘in production’ by the time of your sixth-year review—which means in copy-editing or proofs if not already between covers. And you’re also expected to have some journal publications by tenure time, though, happily, these can be excerpts from your book—JG.] You can dicker with this pronouncement if you care to, because everyone can produce anecdotally an exceptional case in which things didn’t go as expected one way or the other: someone without a book contract got tenure or someone who did didn’t. The basic message is quite clear though, and the days when someone can get tenure without a contract by the time of the departmental review are over. Write. Get the time off to get your research done by applying for our generous research quarters (see section II below). Do not overburden yourself with unnecessary committee work. (By unnecessary, I mean beyond what the Department expects of you. You can volunteer for extra committees till Doomsday instead of writing your book and you’ll still be doomed at tenure time.)
Do not procrastinate. Do not assume you will be an exceptional case because everyone likes you so much. Get your book written by your fourth-year review so that it can be in contract by sixth-year review. It takes a long time to submit a manuscript to a press, to wait for replies, and perhaps to have to send the ms. to another press. Don’t wait until the last minute or you might hang yourself. As Jim Phelan puts it, “don’t do brinksmanship!”
Does your department or college have a manual for new faculty? If so, post a link to this site.