This class introduces students to fieldwork in ethnomusicology through
reading, conversation, and practice.  It is designed with an optimistic
attitude of integrating the best of ethnographic history, theory, and
practice.  We will move back and forth between learning from others'
experiences in the field and learning from our own experiences.  While the
conduct of "real-time" fieldwork may appear to have an order--a
progression from formulating a research plan to going to the field to
publishing the results--it does not work out so neatly in practice.
Decisions about research foci, intended results, theory, method, and so on
seem to be reshaped at each stage.  In class, therefore, while we are
formulating ideas for projects or questions to ask, we will also be
reading about the writing of ethnography.  The class will consist of
lecture and discussion (primarily the latter); we also will hold at least
one workshop outside of class (TBA; on the basics of preparing funding
proposals).

Readings and discussion will cover what the discipline has made into
"classics" as well as newer orientations which question the most
fundamental aspects of fieldwork as it has been conceived and practiced.
Our texts include readings in "metatheory" and intellectual history,
practical guidebooks, and selected musical ethnographies.  Apart from a
Reader of selected articles, our primary texts will be (tentatively):
Gregory Barz and Timothy J. Cooley, eds., Shadow in the Field: New
Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology (1997); Ruth Finnegan, Oral
Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (1992); and
John Van Maanen, Tales of the Field (1988).

Assignments will provide practical fieldwork and professional writing
experience as well as opportunities to build on ideas from our class
readings.  Each student will write a review of a musical ethnography.
Considerable flexibility is built into short assignments which, to a
certain extent, compartmentalize a larger field project into several short
assignments (including proposals, interview reports, and evaluation
essays).  Final papers will be based on fieldwork; students will present
"mini conference papers" on their results.  To facilitate class
discussion, readings and assignments must be done prior to the class for
which they are assigned.  To facilitate collegial work, several
assignments will involve working with other class members to plan research
and improve written work; collaborative field projects are permitted but
not required.