In choosing research topics across all fields and methods of study, I’ve found that I tend to have what my professors call “very interesting ideas worth studying” with limitations they call “hard to achieve as an undergraduate in one semester”.
In thinking of potential research areas for this course, I’ve sort of hit a wall in terms of what interests me and what I know I can achieve. I found chapter 2 of the Murchison reading to be particularly helpful in reorienting myself and my ideation process because it both offered concise advice and details on the starting process as well as reassurances that the topic is allowed to (and likely will) change as you continue the research process.
Something that stood out to me in the section about discovering the “nonobvious” was the idea of the ‘etic’ and ’emic’ perspectives—the ethnographer and their perspective as themselves is also very important to ethnographic research. I wonder if the ability to identify/distinguish between etic and emic perspectives changes depending on where the ethnographer starts: as an outsider or insider in the group they wish to study?