{"id":2,"date":"2025-01-01T01:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T08:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mulmod\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-01-01T01:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T08:00:48","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/multimodalethnography\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About This Open Educational Resouce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About the website<\/h2>\n
\"Cetonia
Cetonia aurata take off composition, Bernie Kohl. Image source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This site is intended as a resource for students, instructors, and anyone else who might be curious about methodological variation in anthropology, ethnography, writing, and beyond. There is no particular order in which you should look, read, or navigate it!\u00a0<\/p>\n

This project draws on differences in learning and perception, and rather than seeking to translate them into interchangeable and conventional prose, leveraging them to explore the different angles, questions, and curiosities they might offer. Broadly, this resource is concerned with the problems of representation; exploring varied forms of expression and writing; and developing techniques for engaged ethnographic accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each chapter contains \u201cwriteups\u201d detailing the history of the method; techniques for its adoption; notable, relevant, or possible applications; and what\u2014to our minds\u2014it might lend to more engaged, critical, and creative ethnographic practice. These methodological techniques emerge from tactile, sensorial, and creative dispositions which challenge detached or overly analytical academic accounts. In addition to the \u201cwriteups\u201d there are lists of resources which include works cited, authors and works that informed our own understandings; recommended readings; \u2018other sources\u2019 which consist of forms from films, podcasts, art exhibitions of note; learning activities; and for select few, \u2018insights from experts\u2019 which celebrate the use of certain techniques among graduate students in the UBC Department of Anthropology.<\/p>\n

Multimodality features the dimensions of research that recede from the conventions and constraints of writing. By exploring multiple channels of presentation and expression, it doesn\u2019t promise to make academic work more \u201caccessible\u201d necessarily, but rather to challenge the reader\/viewer in ways that are often not demanded by scholarly work, provide alternate ways of engaging with ideas, and to reveal more of the process behind creative and analytical work. This requires active engagement by both \u201cauthor\u201d and \u201creader\u201d and encourages intellectual flexibility in prose and expression. In this sense, multimodality does not serve to replace academic registers or the form of the essay, but rather add original expression and depth to them.<\/p>\n

About Us<\/h2>\n
\n

Amir Shiva<\/h4>\n

Amir Shiva teaches anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Trained as a media anthropologist, he appreciates the materiality of media objects\u2014broadly conceived\u2014and practices of media making\u2014widely construed. These interests draw him to the layered textures of multimodality in ethnographic research. He is captivated by moments when language fails and representation falters\u2014when spaces of pure possibility, rooted in excruciating limits, are revealed, affording genuine generative strength. For Amir, multimodal ethnographies linger where others might rush\u2014dwelling on surfaces, honoring literalities, defying imposition of meaning, and examining relationships hidden in plain sight within the folds of form. This approach fosters committed engagement, resisting haste, and invites joining, enduring, and working with things. Amir hopes this resource inspires anthropology students to take bold risks in their methodological approaches\u2014to craft something truly surprising: a path that breaks free from the molds of the familiar, a discovery unbound by premeditated plans.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Amelia Paetkau<\/h4>\n

Amelia Paetkau is an enthusiastic contributor to this resource. Though partial to the essay form, Amelia also dares to draw on occasion and has an affinity for experimental creative writing and the challenges it raises to conventions and reductions. Working on this project has affirmed her trust in the power of varied representational forms to expose the constraints and gaps of writing. Mostly, Amelia spends time walking and running around\u2014a state in which most of her essays are written\u2014 loves being barefoot, and is adept with select tools and materials\u2014occasionally trying to fix, build, or grow things. Anthropology\u2019s intellectual flexibility; capacity to probe ontological and cosmological questions without losing touch with the particularities of the everyday; propensity towards critical self-reflection; and potential for intimate, responsible, and active methods, draw her to the discipline.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Attribution<\/h2>\n

Multimodal Ethnography\u00a0by Amir Shiva and Amelia Paetkau is licensed under a \u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/a>, except for the showcased student work and where otherwise noted.<\/p>\n

You are welcome to reuse, remix, revise, and redistribute the content for non-commercial purposes, provided proper attribution is given. Please attribute this website in a way that recognizes the original source and any modifications made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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