Course Details

This three credit course prepares students for the 2013 Honors/African Studies program to Sierra Leone. In the context of alterity (radical difference) we aim to prepare students for best-cultural practices that maximize their time, value, and experience. The course includes work in the lingua franca – Krio – basic words and phrases in Landogo, and a primer on daily life, rules, etiquette, and protocol. We will also discuss how ethnography actually works, issues of health, and guidelines for food and water safety. Students also propose a research focus for their summer research project and begin individual and collaborative work towards that project. We establish absolute responsibility, liability, and consequences for individuals, the UW group, and its relations with the Kagbere community. Texts include: Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw’s Writing Ethnographic Field Notes (1995), a Krio and Landogo language primer by Kelly, Harrington, and Speed (2007), and more. Evaluation is via participation, concept notebooks, library research, and a five-page research proposal with word work.