One of the things that I appreciated and valued most about this week’s reading was the importance that was stressed on having us, as ethnographers, interrogate why and how we want to conduct our ethnographic research just as much as looking into the actual topic we are researching. I think that because anthropology as a field has a certain association with being used as a means for students to visit some far-off or foreign society to them there are some instances where the topic itself is chosen because of the adventure it can provide the ethnographer. This is reflected in the issues with exploitative works that have been published in the past and the problems with ethnography that were acknowledged in Murchinson’s history on ethnography. However, in Murchinson’s readings, the ethical implications behind the topics we are choosing are stressed in a way that causes us to really think about why we want to study what we are studying. Murchinson challenges us to think about our motivations and truly be introspective before deciding to choose a topic to study and I think that is incredibly important. Furthermore, Murchinson’s thoughts on making sure that the ethnographic research we’re doing is culturally competent are also something I appreciated, especially after knowing more about the history of ethnography. Similarly, the how behind the ways we choose to do our research is also described as being informed by our strengths and weaknesses so that we can conduct research that is done to the best of our abilities, which was something that I had not thought about much before reading this section. Overall, these chapters strengthened some of my views on how important understanding your own biases is when approaching ethnographic work and also challenged me to spend more time on the topics that I was thinking about researching before coming up with an idea and jumping on it right away.
For my research topic, I think that I want to do some research on what Black womanhood is and how people fit into this definition. As a Black woman myself, I have noticed that oftentimes there is a sense of solidarity and shared experience that we can find together that greatly influences our understanding of life and especially the college experience. I would like to conduct interviews with different Black women on campus through organizations like STRANDS, the NAACP, and BSA to see what their thoughts or Black womanhood are and if/how they identify with the idea of being a Black woman. I would also like to interview faculty members at Vandy that are Black women to see if their ideas on Black womanhood are similar to those of the students that I would interview.