Multimodal Ethnography: Research, Pedagogy, and Politics (5 ECTS)
About the course
How does multimodality reconfigure ethnography?
This course introduces PhD students to the concept of multimodal ethnography and its use in reimagining how anthropologists do fieldwork, analyze their data, and communicate their findings. Multimodality is an umbrella term for a growing field of experimentation with more-than-textual forms of anthropological knowledge production. Rather than treating creative work as a secondary project to our research, we approach making and doing multimodal experimentation as integral to ethnography.
Through practices of experimentation and critical reflection, a central question explored in the course is: how does multimodality reconfigure ethnography? Each session will answer this question through different modalities of knowledge production. Here are some examples:
- Curatorial collections (composed of students’ choice of media, such as data visualizations, podcasts, films, photography, illustrations, etc.) as a way of introducing and presenting your work.
- Experimental forms of writing —with questions and collaborative responses to writing prompts organized around each student’s project
- Data analysis through analogical threading for weaving still-to-be structured data. This technique is imagined directly in response to the increased prevalence of Large Language Models (LLMs). The session asks students to step out of the digital —temporarily, using analogue tools as an experimental space and also opening up for sensorial engagements.
- Data analysis using digital, multimodal platforms, exploring the design and architecture of diverse data forms across fields. Media such as data visualizations, podcasts, film, photography, and illustrations, official (and unofficial) statistics, legal and bureaucratic archives, economic and sociological surveys, policy memos, essays, and interviews, all provide different compositional resources for including diverse voices, viewpoints and aesthetics.
- How do we think retroactively about multimodal practices that we used organically in the field, yet we did not consider them in our original methodology.
Teaching and assignments
Throughout the course, students will produce a series of multimodal assignments, both in preparation for and during class meetings. They will also engage in various forms of writing experimentation with form. An open mind, a willingness to experiment, and readiness to be taken in unexpected directions are essential.
A detailed program and reading list for the whole course will be circulated in advance to registered participants. To attend this course in autumn 2025, you need to be physically present in Oslo.
Examination
Within two months after the course, participants must submit the following written material for evaluation. Total length: 3-4000 Words, including footnotes.
Written materials are to consist of the following (with more detailed instructions provided after course enrollment):
- One curatorial presentation (more details to follow) (max 800 words)
- Two short experimental writing exercises based on assigned texts/multimodal resources (500 words each)
- One longer essay that uses the experiences and exercises of the course to write (or rewrite) part of the students work (2500 words max)
Full participation (and pass) equals 5 credits.
You may take part in the course without submitting an essay, and will then not be awarded credits. However, you will be expected to complete the curatorial presentation and the short writing exercises. Please inform the Department when you apply if you wish to participate in the course without submitting an essay.
Admission to the course
You must be admitted to a PhD programme to enroll in this course. The course is targeted toward PhD students in the social sciences and humanities, with a focus on Social Anthropology.
Please note that PhD candidates from the University of Oslo, NTNU and Nord University will be given priority in admissions.
PhD candidates from the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo may sign up by using Studentweb.
Other candidates must apply by webform: https://nettskjema.no/a/50715
You will be asked to give the following information in the application form:
1. A short CV (does not need to follow any formal format but make sure we get a good sense of who you are and at what stage in the PhD process you’re in)
2. Institutional affiliation
3. Short motivation statement and explanation of course relevance with a particular focus on interests and curiosities around experimental forms (300 words).
4. 5 keywords connecting your project to this course. These will be used for grouping in some of the activities, so please choose with care. These can also be theoretical concepts but don’t need to be.
Application deadline: 1 October 2025