Project Space - The Autoethnography:

This project considers the cultural identity of a space. While space can be defined as
urban, community, public and personal, it may also be institutional (e.g. the university, a
hospital). We are interested in in how space shapes our conception of world, self, culture,
and other.
Project space requires that you do fieldwork (go beyond the classroom) and report on the
physical and cultural geographies/characteristics of a particular area or structure, the
virtual or material representation of that area or structure; and or the effects of a
particular area or structure on our understanding or culture, race, class, and gender (e.g.,
how your space reflects a culture, identity, class etc.).
By definition, ethnography in a genre of writing that uses fieldwork to observe and
describe human societies. An autoethnography is when you incorporate yourself, your
own narrative, in your research to say something about the larger cultural setting by
exploring its sociocultural issues.
Essay #1 prompt
This essay requires that you identify and explore a space you call your own it could be
a personal, public and even institutional space. You are to observe its physical
characteristics as well as sociocultural issues and elements and address the following:
How does this space relate to your identity, culture, sense of self and belonging?
How do elements of your fieldwork compare or contrast from your own space?
What have you learned about yourself, society and the human condition overall,
as a result of your external fieldwork and internal reflection of self. Please
incorporate at least one of the class readings into your autoethnography.
Manuscript Notes: This essay should be five to seven 12pt. font Times New Roman,
double-spaced pages and calls for MLA documentation; you must include a Works
Cited page at the end of your essay. When you quote key phrases or clauses from your
text(s), you must provide in-text citation. Must have minimum 1 source from class
readings.