Researching Fertility, Mortality, and Migration (L48 4253)
Prof. Geoff Childs
Dept. of Anthropology
McMillan Hall 330
Phone: 935-9429
E-Mail: gchilds@artsci.wustl.edu
Course Description
This writing intensive course is designed for highly motivated and inquisitive students who wish to gain first-hand experience doing research. The entire semester is devoted to the completion of a research paper, the topic of which can be decided by each student in consultation with the instructor. The only stipulation is that the topic must relate in some manner to one of the three fundamental demographic processes—fertility, mortality, or migration.
While undertaking the research project, we will meet once a week for a seminar where we will discuss the assigned readings. The first part of each discussion will center on research methodologies and students’ progress with their own projects. Readings from The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in Complex Societies will guide our methodological discussions. Ideally, some of these methods will be used in the students’ own research. The second part of the discussion will focus on theoretical readings assigned for each meeting. We will focus first on fertility, then infertility, followed by migration, and finally on issues of censuses and ethnic identity. Each student will be responsible for presenting and leading a discussion on one article on his/her own, and one article with a fellow student. Your performance in leading these class discussions is worth 10% of your total grade.
Required Readings
McCurdy, David W., James P. Spradley and Dianna J. Shandy. 2005. The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in Complex Societies.
Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Greenhalgh, Susan (ed.). 1995. Situating Fertility: Anthropology and the Demographic Inquiry.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Inhorn, Marcia C. and Frank van Balen. 2002. Infertility around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies.
Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
Brettell, Caroline. 2003. Anthropology and Migration: Essays on Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity.
Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Kertzer, David I. and Dominique Arel. 2002. Census and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Description of Writing Assignments
Each writing assignment in this course represents a component of a term paper (problem statement, theoretical background, data and methods, analysis and conclusion). The cumulative end-product of the assignments will be a carefully structured and well-argued research paper that has been critiqued and revised throughout the semester. Below is a description of each component of the paper, including their point totals. Whenever you turn in a new assignment you will also turn in a revised edition of the previous assignment. Each revision is worth 2 points. All papers should conform to the specified page limit (graduate students are exempt from this rule). Papers should be double-spaced with one-inch margins all around, and printed in a normal size font (e.g., Times Roman 12-point).
1. Problem Statement (2 pages + annotated bibliography; 10 points)
The first assignment is a problem statement that defines the topic that you wish to investigate during the course of the semester. Write a brief essay that includes a clear statement of the problem to be investigated, preferably phrased as a hypothesis, and a justification for why you think the problem is worthy of investigation. Attach a brief annotated bibliography (minimum of five sources) of scholarly books or papers that you think contain important background information on your chosen topic. Each entry of the annotated bibliography should consist of a proper citation and a short paragraph describing the work’s objectives, the academic perspective of the author (e.g., anthropology, sociology, political science), brief details on the study population, and a summary of conclusions.
2. Literature Review and Theoretical Background (5 pages; 20 points)
The third paper is a literature review in which you review the literature on your chosen topic and present the theoretical perspectives pertaining to the research question. You need not constrain yourself to anthropological theories; feel free to explore the theoretical perspectives of other disciplines as well (sociology, demography, geography, economics). Summarize what is already known about the topic, and emphasize those perspectives that you feel are helpful with respect to your own research.
3. Data and Methods (5 pages; 20 points)
The second paper is on data sources and methods. The first part should be a discussion of the sources and types of demographic data that provide some empirical background to the question you are investigating. Make sure to include some critical thoughts on data reliability and validity with respect to the sources you wish to consult. The second part of this paper should be a proposal of demographic (statistical analysis) and/or anthropological methods (e.g., interviewing, participant observation) that you plan to employ. Make sure to justify why your chosen methods may yield data that helps you answer the research question.
4. Analysis and Conclusions (10 pages; 34 points)
In this concluding paper you will present and analyze your data (demographic, ethnographic, or both), and then draw conclusions that are supported by that data. You will then write a well-reasoned argument in which you connect your problem statement with the data and the conclusions that you draw from the data, and then summarize your findings in terms of how they reflect on the theoretical orientations sketched out in the earlier part of the paper. This final assignment brings together all previous components in the form of a logically structured, accurately referenced, and coherently argued term paper.
Assessment:
Paper 1 = 10 points; Paper 2 = 20 points; Paper 3 = 20 points; Paper 4 = 34 points.
Revisions – 2 points x 3 revisions = 6 points;
Class Participation = 10 points.