RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Dr. Sarah King
Winter 2011
Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:00 – 2:20 pm
Syllabus (DRAFT Dec 8, 2010)
Purpose
Welcome to RE308. So far, in your study of Religion and Culture, you will have learned
about religion from books and films (and, if you’re lucky, poetry, music, art and
architecture). The purpose of this course is to allow you to learn about religion as a part
of people’s daily lives, what we call “lived religion.”
You will be learning about lived religion by conducting fieldwork – going out into the
community and participating in the lives and work of others, and then returning to WLU
to develop a structured, academic analysis of this experience. This course is linked with
Laurier’s Centre for Community Service Learning, and through CSL you will have the
opportunity to sign up for a volunteer placement with a local community group.
(Alternatively, you can arrange your own CSL placement, if you prefer.) Your placement
will become the focus of your research and reflection over the semester. We will be
reflecting together upon what you are learning, and also upon how you are learning it
(not to mention the relationship between what and how). This engaged reflection is
what fieldwork (and this course) is all about.
In this course you are required to take responsibility for your own learning and research.
Your work in this course will not only affect your learning and your grade, it will also
affect the person or organization you are serving. For these reasons I encourage you to
plan ahead, and manage the demands this course places on your time carefully.
Service Placements
You are required to complete at least 20 hours in a community service placement,
developing the groundwork for your own research project. In these placements, you will
be a “participant observer” – you will provide a service that an organization needs, and
while you are doing so you will be observing lived religion within the organization, or
among individuals whom you encounter there.
Your final paper will be an analysis of lived religion based upon your research as a
participant observer. Your paper will focus on what you discover about lived religion
while carrying out your placement; you will develop a research plan and take field notes
as a part of the course requirements. Academic sources will be necessary as develop
your analysis of your subject matter. You will likely carry out shorter, targeted
interviews with key informants towards the end of your project.
1
RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Draft Syllabus W10
Dr. Sarah King
Assignments
Research Ethics and
Required
Administrative Paperwork
In order to address the requirements of Community Service Learning and the Religion
and Culture Department Research Ethics Committee, you are required to submit the
following paperwork on or before the indicated dates. This paperwork is NOT optional,
and is required in order to complete your project (and therefore the course)
A. Placement Agreement due MONDAY JAN 24
B. Interview Purpose & Questions due MONDAY MARCH 7 (or at least three days
before proposed interviews)
C. Placement Report due MONDAY MARCH 21
Research Plan
10%
Monday Jan 31
The Research Plan will outline your research goals in the context of your placement,
including: methodology, timeline and key research questions, annotated bibliography,
and discussion of ethical issues that may arise
Field Notes
10%
Monday Feb 14
Monday March 21
Students are required to make written notes after each placement visit, detailing
events, observations, and questions arising. Copies of these notes will be submitted on
the above dates, along with transcripts of any interviews.
Research Presentation
15%
March 21, 23, 28, 30;
April 4.
An in-class presentation outlining your experience in your service or life history
placement, and your analysis of lived religion in that context. This should be based upon
the initial draft of your final paper.
Final Paper
40%
Due approx. two weeks
after the end of classes
This major paper is based upon your analysis of lived religion in the context of your field
research.
Participation
25%
Participation in this class is based upon three components:
 Six critical reflections to be submitted in weeks 3, 4, 6 – 8 & 10;
 Attendance in class and at placement;
 Engagement with the course.
Critical reflections are due at the beginning of class in the weeks they are assigned. They
should summarize the key ideas of the readings assigned for that week, and then relate
these ideas to your own fieldwork experience. Our discussion in class on these days will
be based upon these reflections.
RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Draft Syllabus W10
Dr. Sarah King
How should you spend your time?
This course is scheduled to meet twice weekly. During weeks 3-10 (inclusive) we will
meet on Mondays only, to allow you time to complete your placements.
I expect in addition to your 20 hours of field research, you will ALSO be:
 making field notes and/or transcribing interviews
 gathering ephemera related to your topic (brochures, flyers, event posters etc)
 preparing for your weekly placement
 preparing for class
 conducting academic and library research related to your topic
 managing the digital recordings and images you gather
 preparing for your final presentation and paper.
There is plenty of time to get everything done, as long as you don’t leave anything until
the last minute.
Weekly Schedule (with assignment due dates)
Week 1 (Jan 5): Introduction/Lived Religion
Wednesday:
Introduction
 to the course,
 to the idea of Lived Religion
Week 2 (Jan 10/12): Getting at Lived Experience
Monday:
Wednesday:
Ethnography and Community Service Learning Understanding Lived Religion
– getting the details.
“Chapter 1: What is Ethnography?” in
Designing and Conducting Ethnographic
Research Margaret D. LeCompte & Jean J.
Schensul. AltaMira Press, 1999.
“I. Everyday Religion as Lived” in Lived
Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life.
Meredith B. McGuire. Oxford, 2008.
“Everyday Miracles” Robert Orsi, in Hall, David
D. ed. Lived Religion in America: Toward a
History of Practice. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1997.
RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Draft Syllabus W10
Dr. Sarah King
Week 3 (Jan 17): Ethics, Plans and Relationships: developing a framework for field research.
Service and Life History Projects commence this week.
Formal class meetings will be on Mondays. We will not meet on Wednesdays for the next 8
weeks; you will use that time to complete your placements – approx. 20 hours total service.
Monday:
Community Service/Life History project
“Ch. 9 Ethical Treatment of Research
commences
Participants and Care for Human
(initial relationship building underway)
Relationships” in LeCompte Schensul.
“Writing about “The Other”, Revisited” Karen
McCarthy Brown. In Spickard, James V., J.
Shawn Landres, and Meredith B. McGuire eds.
Personal Knowledge and Beyond: Reshaping
the Ethnography of Religion. New York
University Press, 2002.
“Ch. 3 Designing a Qualitative Study” in
Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design 2nd Ed.
John Cresswell, Sage, 2007.
Week 4 (Jan 24): Ethics, Plans and Relationships II
Monday:
Service and research continues
“Ch. 5, Have you ever prayed to St Jude?” Orsi,
Robert. Between Heaven and Earth: The
Service Agreement and Research Plan (10%)
Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars DUE Thursday by 4 pm.
who Study Them. Princeton University Press,
2005.
Week 5 (Jan 31): Research Plans
Monday:
Service and research continues
Research Plans Due (these plans must be
signed off on by your placement supervisor,
and include all relevant ethical review forms).
RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Draft Syllabus W10
Dr. Sarah King
Week 6 (Feb 7): Insiders and Outsiders
Monday:
“Between the Living and the Dead: Fieldwork,
History and the Interpreter’s Position” Thomas
Tweed in Spickard et al.
Service and research continues
“Introduction” in Duncan, Carol. This Spot of
Ground: Spiritual Baptists in Toronto. Wilfrid
Laurier Press, 2008.
Week 7 (Feb 14): Gender
Monday:
“Ch. 7 Gendered Spiritualities” in McGuire.
Service and research continues
Field Notes
DUE in class Monday
Week 8 (Feb 28): Place & Space
Monday:
“Greening Ethnography and the Study of
Religion” Laurel Kearns in Spickard et al.
Service and research continues
“Getting (not too) Close To Nature: Modern
Homesteading as Lived Religion in America”
Rebecca Kneale Gould in Hall (2007).
Week 9 (March 7): Data Analysis and Interviews
Monday:
“Ch. 6 Processing Field Notes: Coding and
Memoing.” In Emerson, Robert M., Rachel
Fretz and Linda Shaw. Writing Ethnographic
Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1995.
Interview Purpose & Questions Due.
Service and research: begin wrap-up.
Interviews commencing; service virtually
complete.
RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Draft Syllabus W10
Dr. Sarah King
Week 10 (March 14): Reflecting Lived Experience - the challenges of writing and analysis
Monday:
“Telling a life through Hatian Vodou: An essay
concerning race, gender, memory, and
historical consciousness.” Karen McCarthy
Brown in Susan L. Mizruchi, ed. Religion and
Cultural Studies. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Service and research: final week. All service
time should be wrapped up by the end of this
week.
Hernandez-Avila, Ines. “Meditations of the
Spirit: Native American Religious Traditions
and the Ethics of Representation.” In Native
American Spirituality: A Critical Reader, edited
by Lee Irwin. University of Nebraska Press,
2000.
Week 11 (March 21/23): Presentations of Research
Monday:
Wednesday:
Presentations
Presentations
Final Placement Report and Field Notes DUE
Week 12 (March 28/30): Presentations of Research
Monday:
Wednesday:
Presentations
Presentations
Week 13 (April 4): Presentations of Research
Monday:
Presentations
Final Paper (40%) due approx. two weeks after the end of classes.
Lateness
The assignments in this class are an integral part of the process of research and learning, and
have an impact on your field placements and on your participation in class. For this reason, late
assignments will only be accepted by special arrangement with the professor, or due to a
documented emergency situation such as illness.
RE308 Conducting Fieldwork
Draft Syllabus W10
Dr. Sarah King
Student Conduct
Any misconduct (e.g. falsifying attendance records) during the course of your placement that
compromises the valuable relationship between Laurier and our community partners may result
in disciplinary measures from the University. This may include being assigned a failing grade for
the course.
The University has an established policy with respect to cheating on assignments and
examinations, which the student is required to know. Students are cautioned that in addition to
a failure in the course, a student may be suspended or expelled from the University for cheating
and the offence may appear on one’s transcript, in which event the offence can have serious
consequences for one’s business or professional career. For more information refer to the
current Undergraduate calendar (University Undergraduate Regulations).
Students are expected to be aware of and abide by University regulations and policies, as
outlined in the current on-line Calendar (see http://www.wlu.ca/calendars).
Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required
to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism.
Students are to adhere to the Principles in the Use of Information Technology. These Principles
and resulting actions for breaches are stated in the current Undergraduate Calendar.
The Fine Print
Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier's Accessible Learning Office for
information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to review the Calendar for
information regarding all services available on campus.
Students must reserve the examination period of April 7-28. If you are considering registering for a special
examination or event, you should select a time outside the examination period. Consult with the
Undergraduate Calendar for special circumstances for examination deferment.
Please note: Students’ names may be divulged in the classroom, both orally and in written form, to other
members of the class. Students who are concerned about such disclosures should contact the course
instructor to identify whether there are any possible alternatives to such disclosures.
The up-to-date and official version of the Calendar can be found at www.wlu.ca/calendars