The Munchinson reading for this week helped me understand the significance and value of ethnography. Specifically, in ethnography’s goal of looking at the non-obvious to establish themes around human existence. I could readily see from a historic point of view the value of having such detailed descriptions and analysis of every day life for certain groups of people, but was having difficulty in figuring out its relevance for the future. I feel like scientists and other people who make use of information from social scientists, only really care about numbers and less about one individuals interpretation of things. I understand that if a source of a problem within a community was identified through ethnographic study the knowledge could then be applied to help solve the problem, but it seems like especially given ones agenda the results of one study can be argued back and forth and never have any use. In looking up why ethnography matters, the importance of looking into the non-obvious, makes more sense. Like I said those little things can point out the source of some unaddressed issue. It’s not that I discount the value of ethnography, I just don’t like thinking about how other scientists would discount its discoveries because its qualitative research. I was discussing ethnography with my older sister Lily, a recent graduate from Duke, and she was telling me how when the pandemic really started ramping up it was the work of anthropologists they greatly contributed in predicting the course of the disease and educating the public about it. However, all her biology professors refused to look into the anthropological insights, because it was a social science. It’s just kind of discouraging, as I don’t want to have to constantly defend why this research matters if I pursue a career in an anthropological field/do interdisciplinary work. I guess it just comes down to the people that get it get it, and the people that don’t, don’t.
As far as my research I originally wanted to look into sororities because Greek life is so interesting to me, even though I’m not a big fan of it. I feel like the issues with Greek life and how problematic it is, is already discussed immensely. As of now I want to look into how Vanderbilt accommodates its students with invisible disabilities and if they are doing an adequate job. I could go to the Vanderbilt Alliance on Disability and Condition meetings and make observations. I also want to interview students who’ve interacted with Student Access, and talk to the Student Access specialists. Looking into what training the specialists go through and assessing their understandings of invisible disabilities and how they decide accommodations would be very interesting.