Community and Urban Sociology

CALL FOR GRADUATE STUDENT SUBMISSIONS

We are pleased to announce the 4th annual meeting of the University of Chicago Ethnography Incubator. Each year, the Incubator invites four faculty fellows and six graduate student fellows to the University of Chicago to participate in a two-day panel and workshop series. The Incubator is designed to advance ethnographic methodologies, provide hands-on mentorship to graduate student fellows, and build an interdisciplinary community of ethnographers. We invite applications from graduate students in any discipline who are engaged in dissertation-level, ethnographic research. 

For 2020, the Ethnography Incubator will take place on Thursday, March 12^th and Friday, March 13^th at the University of Chicago. The 2020 faculty fellows are:

Amada Armenta—Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Tarini Bedi—Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Illinois Chicago

Sergio Chavez—Associate Professor of Sociology, Rice University

David Grazian—Associate Professor of Sociology and Communication, UPenn

The faculty organizers for the Chicago Ethnography Incubator are:

Kimberly Hoang—Associate Professor, UChicago Sociology

Kristen Schilt—Associate Professor, UChicago Sociology

Benjamin Fogarty-Valenzuela—Mansueto Fellow & Postdoctoral Scholar

About the Event:

The first day of the event (Thursday, March 12^th) will feature a roundtable panel discussion with the faculty fellows regarding current methodological, substantive, and ethical issues presently confronting ethnographic research. The panel will be followed by a dinner reception for all fellows and audience members. The second day of the event (Friday, March 13^th) will consist of a series of “fellows workshops,” in which faculty fellows will engage the work of graduate student fellows. Each student will have three faculty members provide critical substantive feedback on the work and stimulate broader conversations regarding the methodological practice of ethnography. The day will conclude with a dinner for fellows.

Airfare, lodging, and select meals will be provided to all graduate student fellows.

How to Apply:

Applicants must be advanced to doctoral candidacy (ABD status). To apply to become a 2020 graduate student fellow, send the following material to ethnographyincubator@uchicago.edu by December 20^th, 2019:

1.     A current CV (5 pages maximum).

2.     A one-page description of the dissertation project (500 words maximum) from which the data is being excerpted.

3.    A ten-page (maximum) writing sample (double-spaced, not including references) from an in-progress work (e.g., dissertation chapter or article). Writing samples should focus on empirical data and analysis. Please keep discussions of methodology, literature review, and other “front end” matter to a minimum.

Student fellows will be notified by February 1^st, 2020. Questions? Send an email to ethnographyincubator@uchicago.edu.

** Due to the large volume of applications we receive per year we will not be notifying candidates who were not selected to participate in this year’s incubator. In addition, we will NOT provide feedback on applications for those who were not selected.