Short Courses in Methods of Cultural Anthropology III

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With the support of this grant, Dr. H. Russell Bernard, University of Florida, will continue to direct the Short Courses on Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology (SCRM) program to help professional anthropologists improve their skills in collecting, analyzing, and presenting data. The SCRM program was funded by the National Science Foundation from 2004 through 2012, and the current award extends the program through 2016. The program currently consists of six intensive five-day courses: Text Analysis, Methods of Behavioral Observation, Methods of Ethnoecology, Analyzing Video Data, Network Analysis, and Geospatial Analysis in Cultural Anthropology. Three five-day courses are offered each summer. Participants are recruited nationally, and twelve participants are accepted into each course. Readings are online, and participants come prepared for rigorous hands-on training in data collection and data analysis. Two more courses will be added to the curriculum during the next four years from among the following: cross-cultural research; research design; methods in medical anthropology; methods in cognitive anthropology. The SCRM program has trained 179 anthropologists since 2004. From 2012-2016, it is anticipated that between 120 and 160 more scholars will participate in these courses. This will have a substantial broader impact as these scholars train their students, who then move on to the research phase of their careers as better trained social scientists. In addition to the five-day courses in the SCRM, one-day workshops on the use of software for collecting and analyzing data will be offered at national meetings of anthropologists and are open to students as well as to faculty. In summer 2012, two courses in the curriculum will be offered online for university credit through a program at the University of Florida's distance learning center. By 2016, the goal is have six courses online and to expand the program to accommodate all in the discipline who want this training. Strengthening the research skills of cultural anthropologists will help them do better research on important social issues.