Program description The field school runs for 20 days, during three editions in the upcoming summer (see exact dates on the home page). The working days of the week will be reserved for fieldwork and individual guidance by our staff of academic experts and professional anthropologists.
This personally tailored setting is the framework for your own fieldwork project. The aim of this personal research project is to allow participants to learn experientially through the study of a topic of their interest, with professional help when needed. We work on a 2:1 student to staff ratio: each session has a maximum of 12 participants guided by a team of 6 staff members.
The research experience and any gathered data will provide you with the basis to write a research paper. This is done after the program and the process will be guided by your mentors. Your paper will be written with our help and submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed online journal under your own authorship and copyright.
Schedule The structure of the field-school is one of open-ended pursuit of ethnographic study. Your days will most probably be spent in the thick of it: you will be building relationships, chasing opportunities for participant observation, interviews and meetings, while exchanging with peers and consulting with your mentors. For those participants who request more direction discussions on methods and theory are offered (on demand) that place some structure around your research activities.Taking advantage of these learning opportunities might also be of use for anthropologists that are early on in their career.
You will have all the resources you need at your disposal to pursue individually tailored learning objectives with the assistance of your mentors.
Research Project The roots of the program lie in the socio-cultural spectrum of anthropology, and its focus is fieldwork practice. Participants are asked to develop and carry out an individual research project over the course of 3 weeks. This is always a challenge, no matter what topic you choose. Specific topics that are heavily dependent on the availability and accessibility of institutions and research facilities or vulnerable or closed networks, offer more challenges. Getting access, overcoming taboo and building trust in the field are crucial for this type of fieldwork, and any research project more generally. The output of this research project is twofold: an academic poster, potentially followed by a peer reviewed publication. The analyses and writing is done after the program ends through online follow-up by our mentors. The poster comes shortly after the end of the program, followed by the start of a research paper. Some participants manage to finish this in a few months, while for others it can take up to a year or longer, but we don't quit unless you do. Our most 'successful' participants have been those with the courage to choose mundane, accessible and seemingly simple topics as their research focus. The creativity they use to write their proposals, does not in the first place show through the literature they found, but rather through their ability to connect a mundane practice to their broader research interests.
Fees The price of the course is 3,750.00 euros (payment plans are possible on request).
This includes:
Accommodation during the session (apartments)
Tuition
All training activities.
Dinner (on weekdays only)
Access to a stock of food and drinks for breakfast, lunch and weekends
Official attendance certificate and credit transfer (transcript of records)
Peer reviewed publication
Supervision with fieldwork analysis and in the write-up stages (all done after the field school)
Does not include transport (airfare & local)
It is possible to extend your participation in the program by registering for two consecutive sessions. This can be done after registration. The fee for the extra session will be lower (please inquire for more information).
Extending your time in the project gives you the possibility of:
doing more in-depth data gathering (e.g. for dissertation purposes)
publishing more than one research paper
getting extra credits
meeting the requirements of your home university for independent study if those requirements exceed three weeks
having time to start with your analyses and even some writing
Certification & credits We provide transcript of records stating up to 9 credit hours at undergraduate, graduate or PhD level. 3 credits are provided for successfully completing the program and a poster, another 6 can be earned by writing a research paper after the field school.
An example of our transcript of records can be found in our FAQ section.
All research papers resulting from the summer school will be published under your own authorship the online journal Omertaa, and professionally communicated.
Directed at The field school is directed towards anthropologists and cultural scientists, but any individual who would like to learn about anthropological research and fieldwork is welcome. Previous knowledge or experience is not required. Our individually tailored trajectories can start at any level, providing guidance for projects ranging from first studies to advanced PhD research. Want to apply? Here is the direct link to our application form.