Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork

Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork offers a comprehensive review of the ethnographic process for developing a project, implementing the plan, and completing and preserving the data collected. Throughout, readers will find a detailed methodology for conducting different types of fieldwork such as digital ethnography or episodic research, tips and tricks for key elements like budgeting and funding, and practical advice and examples gleaned from the authors own fieldwork experiences. This handbook also helps fieldworkers fully grasp and understand the ways in which power, gender, ethnicity, and other identity categories are ever present in fieldwork and guides students to think through these dynamics at each stage of research. Written accessibly for lay researchers working in different mediums and on projects of varying size, this step-by-step manual will prepare the reader for the excitement, challenges, and rewards of ethnographic research.

Lisa Gilman serves on the faculty in Folklore and English at George Mason University. She is author ofMy Music, My War: The Listening Habits of U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan andThe Dance of Politics: Performance, Gender, and Democratization in Malawi. She is also editor (with Michael Dylan Foster) ofUNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage and producer of the documentaryGrounds for Resistance: Stories of War, Sacrifice, and Good Coffee.

John Fenn is Head of Research and Programs at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Throughout his career he has brought an ethnographic perspective to field research, focused on the roles of creative and artistic practice in communities. Across fieldwork on arts and culture in Malawi (SE Africa), China, Indiana, and Oregon, he has documented a range of dynamic cultural practices, traditions, and groups working individually as well as in collaboration with teams of other researchers and cultural practitioners.