WEEK 1

Orientation, Responsibility, and the Real Work Behind the Field

Week Focus

This opening week introduces participants to the course, the central philosophy, and the difference between romanticized fieldwork and community-centered fieldwork. Participants begin by understanding that fieldwork is not tourism, extraction, adventure, or content gathering. It is accountability work. It is preparation. It is care. It is survival.

Lesson 1.1

Module 1: Orientation / Introduction

Video:
Video Module 1 — Orientation / Introduction

Lesson Description:
This lesson introduces the course and clarifies what Beyond the Romance of the Field is and is not. Participants are invited to challenge the fantasy of fieldwork as adventure and begin thinking about the deeper responsibilities of holding someone’s story, memory, and cultural knowledge.

Key Ideas:

• Fieldwork is not adventure.

• Fieldwork is not content gathering.

• Fieldwork requires preparation.

• Stories carry responsibility.

• Documentation requires care.

Required Reading:
Gary Alan Fine, “Ten Lies of Ethnography: Moral Dilemmas of Field Research”
The Reflexive Booklet: USE THROUGH ENTIRE COURSE

Workbook Reflection:
What assumptions have I carried about fieldwork, and where did those assumptions come from?

Applied Exercise:
Create a two-column chart:

• What people think fieldwork is

• What fieldwork actually requires

Lesson Outcome:
Participants will be able to explain the difference between romanticized fieldwork and community-centered fieldwork.

Week 1: Orientation, Responsibility, and the Real Work Behind the Field

Modules:

1. Orientation/Introduction

2. Why the Toolkit Exists

The Well Focus:
Receiving the seriousness of the work.

Receive:
What did I learn about the difference between romanticized fieldwork and responsible fieldwork?

Record:
What assumptions about fieldwork do I need to write down and examine?

Return:
What would it mean to return responsibility to the people whose stories are being documented?

Give Back:
How can I begin this course with humility rather than entitlement?

Final Project Connection:
Participants begin the opening statement for their Community-Centered Documentation Plan.