Orientation Meeting
For
Summer 2006
Read article from La Industria
(Peruvian Newspaper/Spanish) about field school and students.
The USU Ethnographic Field School will be held in Huanchaco, Peru between June 12th and 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 and new roads encroach 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 contribute to this discussion 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 upon graduation.
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 hotel in Huanchaco. The cost of the program is $1795.00. This includes tuition and program fees, room and full-board, local travel, and student medical insurance.
Knowledge of Spanish is highly-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.
The field-school will be coordinated and led by Dr. Bonnie Glass-Coffin, an Associate Professor at Utah State University. 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.
For more information and a complete application packet, contact:
Dr. Bonnie Glass-Coffin
Old Main #245E
435-797-4064
e-mail: glasscob@cc.usu.edu
