Capstone: Ethnographic Training at U.C. Berkeley

University of California at Berkeley’s
Center for Ethnographic Research
Summer Workshop in Qualitative Research Methods

The Center for Ethnographic Research (CER) Summer Workshop provides mentorship, hands-on research experience, and advanced training in designing and executing a project using qualitative methods for motivated undergraduates and beginning graduate students. This Workshop consisted of six weeks of intensive accelerated methodological training in the design and practice of qualitative methods in weekly seminars taught by advanced graduate students. The topics in the seminars include the following:

• The Logic and Practice of Qualitative Research Design

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• Participant Observation

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• In-Depth Interviewing

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• Qualitative Data Analysis

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In addition to these weekly seminars, I met individually with the instructors and receive feedback on research project development and design.  

During the CER workshop, I developed an empirical research project proposal for an honors thesis, masters thesis, advanced methods class, scholarly article, or conference presentation. I completed the program with a certificate and a refined 6-page research proposal for an honors thesis, masters thesis, graduate school, or fellowship application. I also gained first-hand experience in qualitative research data collection and analysis methods through a collective research project conducted during the six weeks of the workshop.