Viennese workshop of Ethnology
"Go and get the seat of your pants dirty in real research"
Robert Ezra Park, the Chicago precursor of urban research, aimed to inspire his students for ethnographical field research in 1927.
At the Department of European Ethnology of the University of Vienna field research enjoys a high profile. For that purpose, the department founded the research group “Wiener Werkstatt Ethnographie”, with the aim discussing fundamental questions of ethnographic research, exchanging views on current projects, and ensuring continuous exchange.
Ethnographic research in the sense of fieldwork demands active engagement and participation with places and situations, the establishment of contacts and interaction with people. This does not only happen “in the field”; in a reflexive cultural science such as European Ethnology, there is a demand for an accompanying reflexivity with other researchers, which we would like to meet.
The “Wiener Werkstatt Ethnographie” meets several times a semester. The workshop is open to both graduates and researchers with ethnographic concerns and ambitions. In a variety of modalities, we focus on different theoretical as well as practical aspects of the ethnographic research process.
The Vienna Workshop on Ethnography is open to all advanced undergraduates, doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, and those otherwise engaged in ethnographic research within the context of the Institute.