Books, Papers, and Websites about Ethnographic Research
Learn more about doing ethnographic research from the following books in the Illinois
collection. Items marked with **asterisks** are particularly good starting points and provide a
basic introduction to ethnographic practice. Follow the links to get location and availability
information for each item.
Atkinson, Paul. Understanding Ethnographic Texts (Newbury
Park: Sage, 1992).
**
Atkinson, Paul, et al., Eds. Handbook of Ethnography (London:
Sage, 2001).
Brettell, Caroline B., Ed. When They Read What We Write: the
Politics of Ethnography. (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1993).
Clifford, James and George E.
Marcus, Eds. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1986).
Comaroff, John & Jean. Ethnography and the
Historical Imagination. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992).
Emerson, Robert M. Ed. Contemporary Field Research: A
Collection of Reading. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1988).
Fardo, Richard, Ed. Localizing Strategies: Regional Traditions of
Ethnographic Writing. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).
**
Fetterman, David M. Ethnography: Step by Step (Newbury Park:
Sage, 1989).
Garson, G. David. Ethnographic
research.
Fowler, Don D. and Donald L. Hardesty. Others Knowing Others:
Perspectives on Ethnographic Careers (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994).
Geertz, Clifford. Works and Lives: the Anthropologist as Author.
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988).
Gupta, Akhil and James Ferguson, Eds. Anthropological Locations:
Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science (Berkeley: U. of CA Press, 1997).
**
Jackson, Bruce. Fieldwork (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987).
Jacobson, David. Reading Ethnography (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1991).
Massey, Alexander. "The way we do things around here": the
culture of ethnography.
**
Messerschmidt, Donald A., Ed. Anthropologists at
Home in North America: Methods and Issues in the Study of One's Own Society. (Cambridge; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1981).
Moffatt, Michael. "Ethnographic Writing about
American Culture". Annual Review of Anthropology 1992 21: 205-229.
**
Sanjek, Roger, Ed. Fieldnotes: The Makings of
Anthropology (Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1990).
**
Van Maanen, John. Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1988).
University Library