Visual Anthropology; Communication and Media Studies; Photography; Memory; Discourses about Race; Refugee Identity, Global Movements and Politics; Nationalism and the politics of representation; Tourism;First Nations in Canada; Human Rights; Spectacle and Performance; ETHNOGRAPHIC AREAS: Canada; Estonia; Australia,

Research Interests

Approach to Teaching

2020 Online Courses
ANTH3040 The Anthropology of Digital Media and Visual Representation
This course is about anthropology and visual representations of culture, and cultural difference. It looks at a wide variety of visual media online, including art, photography, film, and specific digital technologies (such as video games and online museums), to explore the ways in which they shape both the perception of, and the experience of, cultural difference and identity. Throughout the course, an emphasis is placed on the inherent power of digital images, and their ability to shape our own cultural experiences, to cast cultural and ethnic others in particular ways, and to act as a mode for producing and resisting stereotypes.
This course examines a wide range of readings, films, and online videos in an effort to move toward developing a theoretical framework for analyzing and reading visual images. It draws on sources from a variety of media formats that are available online. Of central concern are representations of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and “otherness.” Cultural anthropologists have a vested interest in analyses of visual representations for a variety of reasons, one being that visual images, as cultural productions, are steeped in the values, ideologies, and taken-for-granted beliefs about various cultures. Having said that, they are also produced within a political economy that is affected by class and gender hierarchies, and therefore issues concerning power and social order are central.

ANTH 4220 The Cultures of the Web
This course focuses on the fact that ethnographers enter their “fields” and conduct research in conjunction with theoretical ideas about anthropology alongside histories of experience and practice. Cultural anthropologists do “ethnography” and produce “ethnographies” through fieldwork. This course will primarily focus on contemporary cultural anthropology by introducing you to “digital ethnography.” Issues related to ethnographic field methods have been hotly debated for many years. This class will allow you learn about some of these debates as well as the personal foibles and insights of other anthropologists who have entered the digital “field.”
In order to truly understand what it is like to be a cultural anthropologist, you need to “get your feet wet” – have the experience of doing fieldwork. In this course, you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in observation, participation, and interviews concerning specific research projects as you move through the practical and experiential aspects of a digital ethnography. You will map out and complete every stage required for a full-blown research project. You will spend time (online) with research participants and learn how to analyze accumulated data. Overall, you will have the opportunity to develop a tool kit of experiences and practice that will allow you to see what it is like to be a professional, qualitative researcher wh0 is producing a “digital ethnography.”

For more information email: lmannik@yorku.ca

Visual Anthropology; Communication and Media Studies; Photography; Memory; Discourses about Race; Refugee Identity, Global Movements and Politics; Nationalism and the politics of representation; Tourism;First Nations in Canada; Human Rights; Spectacle and Performance; ETHNOGRAPHIC AREAS: Canada; Estonia; Australia,

Degrees

Research Interests

Approach to Teaching

2020 Online Courses
ANTH3040 The Anthropology of Digital Media and Visual Representation
This course is about anthropology and visual representations of culture, and cultural difference. It looks at a wide variety of visual media online, including art, photography, film, and specific digital technologies (such as video games and online museums), to explore the ways in which they shape both the perception of, and the experience of, cultural difference and identity. Throughout the course, an emphasis is placed on the inherent power of digital images, and their ability to shape our own cultural experiences, to cast cultural and ethnic others in particular ways, and to act as a mode for producing and resisting stereotypes.
This course examines a wide range of readings, films, and online videos in an effort to move toward developing a theoretical framework for analyzing and reading visual images. It draws on sources from a variety of media formats that are available online. Of central concern are representations of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and “otherness.” Cultural anthropologists have a vested interest in analyses of visual representations for a variety of reasons, one being that visual images, as cultural productions, are steeped in the values, ideologies, and taken-for-granted beliefs about various cultures. Having said that, they are also produced within a political economy that is affected by class and gender hierarchies, and therefore issues concerning power and social order are central.

ANTH 4220 The Cultures of the Web
This course focuses on the fact that ethnographers enter their “fields” and conduct research in conjunction with theoretical ideas about anthropology alongside histories of experience and practice. Cultural anthropologists do “ethnography” and produce “ethnographies” through fieldwork. This course will primarily focus on contemporary cultural anthropology by introducing you to “digital ethnography.” Issues related to ethnographic field methods have been hotly debated for many years. This class will allow you learn about some of these debates as well as the personal foibles and insights of other anthropologists who have entered the digital “field.”
In order to truly understand what it is like to be a cultural anthropologist, you need to “get your feet wet” – have the experience of doing fieldwork. In this course, you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in observation, participation, and interviews concerning specific research projects as you move through the practical and experiential aspects of a digital ethnography. You will map out and complete every stage required for a full-blown research project. You will spend time (online) with research participants and learn how to analyze accumulated data. Overall, you will have the opportunity to develop a tool kit of experiences and practice that will allow you to see what it is like to be a professional, qualitative researcher wh0 is producing a “digital ethnography.”

For more information email: lmannik@yorku.ca