There are a range of books assigned for the class. They fall into the complicated classes of required, optional required (you are required to have one, but you can have any one), and optional.

The required books are ones we will make significant use of at some point in the class. They are:

  • Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw. 1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes.
  • Becker. 1998. Tricks of the Trade.
  • Strauss and Corbin. 1998. Basics of Qualitative Research (Second Edition).

The "optional required" books are short and readable overviews of ethnography. I am not going to concentrate on this material, but you must read one of these during the first week or two of the class. You will find them invaluable, and they will set a context for what comes later. They are:

  • Lofland, Snow, Anderson, and Lofland. 2005. Analyzing Social Settings.
  • Fetterman. 1997. Ethnography Step-by-step.
  • Agar. 1996. The Professional Stranger.

Other readings come up at various points. Here is a list of those that I have used before and might use again (I'll keep this page updated as new ones come up; several of these probably won't be used except as examples.)