Research Methods in Anthropology Online
The Research Methods in Anthropology program is taught by top instructors in the field of anthropology. It is designed for current anthropologists and those seeking to become anthropologists, who are looking to strengthen their skills in research methods. The emphasis in each course is on skills for collecting and analyzing the many kinds of data that anthropologists work with. For more information, including how to apply and registration dates, click the tabs below.
About
The University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Anthropology Department believes that social researchers should be fluent in the full range of methods for collecting and analyzing data. This online graduate certificate program aims to help researchers choose the right tools, emphasizing the integration and complementary applications of qualitative and quantitative data and analysis. Courses in this online program were developed with support from the National Science Foundation's Program in Cultural Anthropology.
Courses
Starting in 2012, the University of Florida will offer a series of online courses on research methods in cultural anthropology. The courses carry graduate credit and are open to upper division undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. The emphasis in each course is on skills for collecting and analyzing the many kinds of data that anthropologists work with.
Two digital learning courses are offered in 2012.
Each course has 12 hours of lecture and 33 hours of online, interactive instruction. Courses are limited to 18 participants.
Geospatial Analysis in Cultural Anthropology
This intensive course introduces different components of geospatial analysis and their applications in Anthropology: Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and their integration. The course covers basic concepts necessary to work with geospatial data. We pay particular attention to research set-up and design, and the use of specialized software, such as ArcGIS, Erdas Imagine, and Multispec via hands-on activities.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants should understand how to:
- add a geospatial component to traditional anthropological questions (ex. resource use, disparities, adaptation)
- understand how anthropologists can improve geospatial analysis research
- generate data (for example, change detection) using remotely sensed images
- integrate data sources from paper and electronic maps and tables
- analyze geospatial data
- create maps for presentation or field work
Text Analysis in Cultural Anthropology
This graduate seminar surveys methods of text analysis. The focus of the course is on developing skills that students can use to do systematic analysis of textual data, including written texts, photos, and audio or video data. The course will explore a range of inductive and deductive approaches and will cover analytic skills that cut across traditions, including theme identification, code definition, and construction of codebooks, and teamwork in text analysis. Advanced topics covered will include schema analysis, grounded theory, classical content analysis, content dictionaries, word-based analysis, and semantic network analysis.
Course Objectives
Students taking this course will:
- develop a working familiarity with a wide range of methods used to analyze text data
- be able to select appropriate methods for a variety of research questions
- acquire hands-on experience using analytic techniques
- apply these skills to their own independent projects.
Apply
These courses are open to graduate students and upper-division undergraduate students of anthropology, to professors of anthropology, and to practicing anthropologists. The courses each carry three graduate credits at the University of Florida. The cost of the course is the same to all participants.
Applying for Courses
To apply to either of these courses, click here and choose "THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES - CLAS - RESEARCH METHODS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY" from the "College" drop-down box. Be sure to enter the course information for the course(s) that you are requesting registration for.
ANG6930 section 01HB Geospatial Analysis in Cultural Anthropology
ANG6930 section 01G6 Text Analysis in Cultural Anthropology
Tuition
The cost for each course is $2,500.00, plus a $33.63 fee per course.
Text Analysis in Cultural Anthropology: May 28-June 29, 2012
Geospatial Analysis in Cultural Anthropology: May 14- June 15, 2012
- Advance Registration: March 26 - May 8, 2012
- Regular Registration: May 11, 2012
If your would like to receive a reminder to register for these courses, please email your contact information to Dr. H Russell Bernard.
Requirements
Computer Requirements & Support
Am I required to have any special computer skills for these online courses?
You must have regular access to a computer and be familiar with routine computer skills, such as Windows, email, basic typing, and internet browsing. The use of specialized software for data collection and data analysis is part of what you will learn in these courses.
What computer programs and equipment do I need?
Consult the official University of Florida computer and software requirements for general recommendation and a sample computer configuration. A computer with Microsoft Windows operating system and Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher will be sufficient for these online courses. This includes Mac with Bootcamp or Parallels installed with a copy of Microsoft Windows. Online students will also need a high-speed internet connection. e-Learning in Sakai requires one of the following web browsers:
- Firefox (Windows, Macintosh, or Linux) - free download
- Netscape 8 (this is the same as Firefox) or other Mozilla browsers
- Internet Explorer for Windows, version 6 or higher - available through Windows update
What type of internet connection do I need to access the course content?
This course contains multimedia content that requires a high-speed internet connection to view optimally. Attempting to access this content with a dial-up internet connection might result in an undesirable experience.
What internet browser will I need to take these online courses?
e-Learning in Sakai requires one of the following web browsers:
- Firefox (Windows, Macintosh, or Linux) - free download
- Netscape 8 (this is the same as Firefox) or other Mozilla browsers
- Internet Explorer for Windows, version 6 or higher - available through Windows update
You may also require additional plugins (Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Real Player, etc.), depending on the resources you're using.
Other web browsers such as Safari, Opera, and Konqueror are known to have minor incompatibilities. Older web browsers such as Netscape 4.8 or Internet Explorer 5.5 or earlier (for Windows or Macintosh) will not work.
Where can I go for computer support?
Online help for Sakai (the computer application used to run the online courses) is available at the UF E-Learning Help page.
For more computer trouble shooting tips and login advice, please email the UF Help Desk or call (352) 392-HELP.
Will a slow typist get behind in class?
The only time a slow typist may have a little trouble is in a chat session, but even this disadvantage is not a big deal. Otherwise, slow typists should do fine, even though they may of course require a little more time to finish some assignments and/or projects.
Will I need a University of Florida email account for these online courses?
Yes. You will be given instructions on how to create your UF email account once you have been registered for the course.
Faculty
Geospatial Analysis in Cultural Anthropology
Eduardo Brondizio
Eduardo Brondizio is Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University. He is motivated by the study of rural populations and small farmers in Brazil and Latin America, their ways of life and livelihoods, their social and economic identities, and their importance to the larger society. His research approach integrates ethnographic and historical investigation, household surveys, ethnobotanical methods, and tools such as remote sensing, GIS, network analysis, and diverse modeling techniques to study socioeconomic, demographic, and land use change at multiple levels of analysis. Since the late 1980s, he has centered his work in the Amazon region studying the formation and transformation of rural families and communities as they interact with government policies and development programs, regional and global commodity markets, demographic and environmental change, and it is concerned with the local and regional social-environmental implications of these processes, including the emergence of regional rural-urban network systems. He is also involved with several collaborative and comparative international programs examining human dimensions of global climate change and sustainable development.
Tracy Van Holt
Tracy Van Holt received her Ph.D. in interdisciplinary ecology and is Assistant Professor of Geography at East Carolina University. She integrates geographic, anthropological, and ecological theories and methods in her work on human-environment issues in Latin America, particularly on plantation systems, wetlands, and the land-sea interface. Van Holt is experienced in land cover classification, change detection, topographic correction, rule-based classification, and geospatial analyses, and in the application of these methods to studies of natural resource use, environmental conflict, and harvest success in forests and oceans. She also applies content analysis, social network analysis, cultural consensus analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, and surveys in her anthropological research on landscape ecology and food-web dynamics.
Text Analysis in Cultural Anthropology
Clarence Gravlee
Clarence C. Gravlee is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. He also holds affiliate appointments in the College of Public Health and Health Professions, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the African American Studies Program at UF. Dr. Gravlee received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida and was a W.K. Kellogg Community Health Scholar at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. His research focuses on social inequalities in health, with an emphasis on racism, stress, and health in the African Diaspora. Dr. Gravlee has taught text analysis on campus at UF and as part of an intensive short course for faculty participants, funded by the National Science Foundation. He is Associate Editor of the journal Field Methods and is coeditor, with H. Russell Bernard, of the forthcoming second edition of Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology.
Amber Wutich
Amber Wutich is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University. She also holds affiliate appointments at the Global Institute for Sustainability, Center for Global Health and Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at ASU. Dr. Wutich received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida and was a postdoctoral scholar in the National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research program in Central Arizona-Phoenix. Her research examines the limits of human adaptability to water scarcity, food insecurity, and climate change. She directs the Global Ethnohydrology Study, a multi-year study of cultural knowledge of water and climate conducted in 10 countries. Dr. Wutich teaches ethnographic field methods at ASU and text analysis as part of the National Science Foundation Short Courses on Research Methods for faculty in cultural anthropology.
Resources