Ghostwriter ANT465H1 F Ethnographic Practicum: Toronto Tours Summer 2024 SyllabusHelp With

Faculty of Arts and Sciences - Department of Anthropology

ANT465H1 F

Ethnographic Practicum: Toronto Tours

Summer 2024 Syllabus

Course Overview

This course provides students with field experience by conducting ethnographic research on visitor tours in partner organizations in Toronto with faculty supervision. The project will be developed in collaboration with partner organizations to offer students partnership-based experiential learning opportunities. Students will produce detailed ethnographic descriptions of tourist experiences, analyze how media representations and tourism infrastructure shape diverse visitor experiences, explore how existing infrastructure can be repurposed for a decolonial or inclusive tour, and develop skills to communicate their findings to the broader audience.

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Develop ethnographic research skills.

2. Learn how to work collaboratively with a partner organization.

3. Gain deeper knowledge of the anthropological knowledge production process by experiencing partner-based collaborative fieldwork.

Prerequisites: ANT380H1 or permission of the instructor.

Recommended Preparation: ANT324H1

Credit Value: 0.5

This year’s partner is the City of Toronto Museums, in particular, the Spadina Museum and the Fort York National Historic Site. The City of Toronto has implemented a new strategic plan to diversify the perspectives and stories presented at the museums. While this new plan is an exciting and innovative project, the museums are facing various practical challenges. Our research will focus on the visitor experiences at the time of museum transformation. In partnership-based research, it is integral to understand the partner organization’s goals, interests and situations. We will explore how to design research that is helpful for the partner organization while also contributing to anthropological knowledge.

This is an advanced field research-based course. The class requires students’ collaborative spirits, cooperation, initiative, creativity, reflexivity, adaptative research participation, ethical conduct and integrity as researchers.

Students in this course work in a team and conduct participant observation, ethnographic interviews, take fieldnotes, analyze data, and write up a report for the partner organization.

Students are also given an opportunity to individually and critically reflect on the ethnographic research process and deepen their understanding of anthropological knowledge production.

The weekly class consists of two parts. The first session of the week (Monday) is an in-class   workshop. The second session (Wednesday) is fieldwork at a partner organization for at least two hours. Students are encouraged to conduct additional fieldwork during the weekends to obtain ample data for rich analysis. The actual time of the additional fieldwork should be consulted with the partner organization. It is recommended to conduct fieldwork at least four hours per week from Week 3 to 6. In the workshop, students will share their findings and questions from the fieldwork in previous weeks. We will discuss research design, field methods and strategies, ethics, and theoretical and analytic issues. It is an opportunity to collectively reflect on the research findings and brainstorm the strategy for the next step.

The assigned reading is front-loaded as we need to understand the basic aims and challenges of the partner organization and academic discussions related to these topics. Students are encouraged to find relevant literature to contextualize their findings. Additional readings will be provided throughout the course.

Course Schedules and Materials

All the academic journal articles and book chapters are available from the U of T Library system. You are responsible for finding and reading them before the class.

Week 1

Mon. May 6      Introduction

Partnership-based Ethnographic Fieldwork:  Aims, Approaches, and Ethics

.     How do you contribute to the partner organization by doing anthropological research?

Wed. May 8      Orientation Meeting & Preliminary Fieldwork @ Spadina Museum

Weiss, Margot

2016   "Collaboration." Correspondences, Fieldsights, September 23.

https://culanth.org/fieldsights/series/collaboration

Urry, John and Jonas Larsen

2011 “Theories.” In The Tourist Gaze 3.0, 1-20. London: Sage.

Handler, Richard

1986. “Authenticity.” Anthropology Today 2(1): 2-4.

City of Toronto, Toronto History Museums

n.d.      Spadina Museum.

https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/muse- ums/spadina-museum/

Toronto History Museums

2020    Strategic Plan: Laying a New Foundation 2020-2022

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8fa8-11X8.5-2021- WorkplanAugust-18.pdf

City of Toronto, Economic Development and Culture

2022    Report for Action: Advancing Reconciliation, Equity and Inclusion: Re- imagining a New Future for Toronto History Museums

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ec/bgrd/backgroundfile- 227775.pdf

Goddard, John

2014   “Spadina House” In Inside the Museums: Toronto’s Heritage Sites and Their Most Prized Objects,169-193. Toronto: Dundurn Press.

Toronto History Museums

2023    Awakenings Dis/Mantle Reflections: Spadina Museum Part I-IV

Part I Honouring Mrs. Pipkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg5wnUWZvNg&t=4s

Part II  The Journey to Dis/Mantlehttps://youtu.be/iq5NZmnKknw  Part III Life Story and Artistic Growth https://youtu.be/db3jz81gjn0 Part IV Representation Matters https://youtu.be/ao47jLtz96g

TD Stories

2023    How One Black Artist Transformed a Historic Toronto Landmark, and the

Connection to TD

https://stories.td.com/ca/en/article/dismantle-spadina-house

Week 2

Mon. May 13   Workshop: Research Design, Plan and Ethics

.     REB

.    Mock interviews

.    Team allocation

*Read the ANT465 Course-based Research Ethics Protocol and Consent Forms uploaded on Quercus Files before class. You will explain the protocol to the research participants before the interviews.

Macdonald, Brandie

2022     “ Pausing, Reflection, and Action: Decolonizing Museum Practices.”

Journal of Museum Education 47(1): 8-17.

Scott, Monique and Salam Al Kuntar

n.d.       American Anthropologist Podcast Season 01 – Episode 04: Museum

Anthropology: Research, Design and the Public

https://www.americananthropologist.org/podcast/museum-anthropology- research-design-and-the-public

Wed. May 15   Orientation Meeting & Preliminary Fieldwork @ Fort York

City of Toronto, Toronto History Museums

n.d.      Fort York National Historic Site

https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/museums/fort- york-national-historic-site/

Goddard, John

2014     “Fort York National Historic Site” In Inside the Museums: Toronto’s

Heritage Sites and Their Most Prized Objects, 195-214. Toronto: Dundurn Press.

Toronto History Museums

2023     Awakenings Dis/Mantle Reflections: It’s Been A While - Fort York National Historic Site

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvUf7r7k198&t=285s

2022     Awakenings: We Remember

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoviqsGf97o&t=2s

Week 3

Mon. May 20     No Class – Victoria Day

Wed. May 22     Fieldwork 1 @ Spadina Museum/ Fort York

                          *Additional Readings Specific to the site will be provided.

Week 4

Mon. May 27     Workshop: Fieldwork Practices, Puzzles and Findings

Garneau, David

2016     “Imaginary Spaces of Conciliation and Reconciliation: Art, Curation, and

Healing.” In Arts of Engagement: Taking Aesthetic Action in and beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Edited by Keavy    Martin et al., 21-41. Wilfred Laurier University Press.

Wali, Alaka and Robert Keith Collins

2023     “ Decolonizing Museums: Toward a Paradigm Shift.” Annual Review of Anthropology 52: 329-345.

Butler, Sally

2018     “Repurposing Cultural Heritage Collections: The Aesthetics and Meaning of Reuse.” In Subverting Consumerism. Edited by Robert Crocker and     Keri Chiveralls, 53-70. London: Routledge.

Boukhris, Linda

2017     “The Black Paris Project: The Production and Reception of a Counter-

Hegemonic Tourism Narrative in Postcolonial Paris”. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 25(5):684-702.

Wed. May 29   Fieldwork 2 @ Spadina Museum/ Fort York

Marking Scheme