Summer 2006, USU Ethnographic Field School in Huanchaco, Perú
The USU Ethnographic Field School will be held once again in Huanchaco, Peru, for 33 days between Monday, June 12th and Friday, July 14th, 2006. This fishing village of approximately 50,000 residents is located on the sea-coast, near the northern capital of Trujillo, Peru. As Huanchaco remakes itself as a regional tourism capital, this once sleepy village is undergoing rapid change. The totora reed fishing boats for which the village is famous are in danger of disappearing as urbanization encroaches on the wetlands surrounding the village where the totora reed has been harvested for generations. Changing weather patterns, overfishing, and the lure of better-paying jobs have also contributed to decrease in fishing as a subsistence activity. Now it is common to see surfers from as far away as San Diego and Melbourne sharing the waves with local fishermen. Local hotel owners have joined with the fishermen's syndicate to question if and how tourism and the traditional fishing industry can co-exist as development continues. This field-school will enable students to do so by combining classroom training (40 hours in the classroom) and supervised ethnographic field research. It will also give students the kind of hands-on training in designing and conducting ethnographic research that will make them more employable immediately upon graduation.
The field-school will be coordinated and led by Dr. Bonnie Glass-Coffin. She is an Associate Professor at Utah State University and is the Anthropology Program Director. Dr. Glass-Coffin has been traveling back and forth to this region of Peru since 1975 and has been teaching students about ethnographic field methods since she began her appointment at USU in 1993. The program will offer six credits of Anthropology over a five-week period. During this time, the students and their professor will live in a comfortable hostal in Huanchaco. The cost of the program is $1795.00. This includes tuition and program fees, room and full-board, some local travel, and student medical insurance.
Knowledge of Spanish is strongly recommended for participation in this program. Students do not need to be Anthropology majors, but should plan on taking at least one class in Anthropology before participating. A complete application form is available elsewhere on this web site.