Encouraging an 'ethnographic mindset' in an interdisciplinary Anthropology programme

Abstract (English)

Referring to my experiences teaching anthropology at a public university in the English-speaking Caribbean, I will discuss the various means/mechanisms for encouraging students’ interest in Anthropology, ethnography, and its wider applications with the use of technology. In teaching Anthropology to students who are not majoring in Anthropology and are likely unfamiliar with the discipline, I pitch Anthropology to students who are doing majors in various disciplines by focussing on the common concerns of anthropology—the tensions of universalism and particularism, the differences and similarities among cultures, what makes us humans, and that difference and diversity does not necessarily equate to hierarchy. I have described this engagement as non-anthropologists’ acquiring an ‘ethnographic mindset’ (Gomes 2024). This entails developing cross-cultural awareness, a social structural sensibility and an appreciation of praxis to counteract the individualism and the ever-present commoditisation of education. My examples will include the use of virtual ethnography in students' ethnographies, cross-campus activities in a collaborative online international learning (COIL), and student-led webinars on the high value of Anthropology courses and as a major field of study in undergraduate education.