Last Thursday, one week ago, I conducted my first ethnography for our first mini ethnography assignment. Up to now, I've only taken a couple of anthropology classes (Introduction to Cultural Anthropology and Introduction to Global Heath), so I was pretty unsure on how to conduct an ethnography and what the experience would be like. For those classes I read a lot of excerpts and chapters from ethnographies, but I was never taught the process of taking notes in the field and converting that to a formal ethnography. From what I understood from this class, though, was that I needed to write down virtually everything that happened in the field.
The beginning started out kind of difficult for me--I wanted to go with my suitemate to her lab at the med school. She asked her P.I. if I could come, to which she responded, "Are you kidding me? No, that's inappropriate." When my suitemate told me that, I got nervous that no one was going to let me into their lab. Finally, after asking around, I was able to go to my friend Alex's lab that he works at. Alex, a sophomore undergraduate major in biochemistry, started at this lab just last semester. It's called "Elemental Enzymes," and it's a small biotech company based in Columbia, MO with a branch here in St. Louis. I emailed his boss, and after a reminder email sent by me, they seemed fine with me coming along.
There were only a couple rules they set for me when I arrived--that I wasn't allowed to take notes on any of the "science" they were doing, and that I couldn't be alone in the lab space. This meant that for the entirety of the time I was there, I was running around behind Alex, trying to scribble down notes on any conversation I could hear in passing. It was hard for me to focus on other things when I had to focus on Alex so much--most of my notes are focused on his work and what he told me about the lab. Another thing that was difficult was how different the lab was from what I expected. Over the summer I worked in a lab, and it was cluttered, slightly messy, and a very collaborative space with many different scientists working on different projects. At this lab, though, it seemed empty. There were maybe four or five different scientists working on projects, but no one talked except for a few select times. The space was also spotless--all the glassware was clean, in its place, and ready for use. I had to drastically change my expectation for how my notes would turn out when I was done with the project. It meant that I had to shift my attention to other things, that were perhaps not as obvious as dialogue.
I enjoyed conducting my first ethnography-type experience, but I'm also a little nervous how the final product is going to turn out. I hope that I took notes on things that will illuminate lab culture in a way I didn't understand before.
The beginning started out kind of difficult for me--I wanted to go with my suitemate to her lab at the med school. She asked her P.I. if I could come, to which she responded, "Are you kidding me? No, that's inappropriate." When my suitemate told me that, I got nervous that no one was going to let me into their lab. Finally, after asking around, I was able to go to my friend Alex's lab that he works at. Alex, a sophomore undergraduate major in biochemistry, started at this lab just last semester. It's called "Elemental Enzymes," and it's a small biotech company based in Columbia, MO with a branch here in St. Louis. I emailed his boss, and after a reminder email sent by me, they seemed fine with me coming along.
There were only a couple rules they set for me when I arrived--that I wasn't allowed to take notes on any of the "science" they were doing, and that I couldn't be alone in the lab space. This meant that for the entirety of the time I was there, I was running around behind Alex, trying to scribble down notes on any conversation I could hear in passing. It was hard for me to focus on other things when I had to focus on Alex so much--most of my notes are focused on his work and what he told me about the lab. Another thing that was difficult was how different the lab was from what I expected. Over the summer I worked in a lab, and it was cluttered, slightly messy, and a very collaborative space with many different scientists working on different projects. At this lab, though, it seemed empty. There were maybe four or five different scientists working on projects, but no one talked except for a few select times. The space was also spotless--all the glassware was clean, in its place, and ready for use. I had to drastically change my expectation for how my notes would turn out when I was done with the project. It meant that I had to shift my attention to other things, that were perhaps not as obvious as dialogue.
I enjoyed conducting my first ethnography-type experience, but I'm also a little nervous how the final product is going to turn out. I hope that I took notes on things that will illuminate lab culture in a way I didn't understand before.
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