Call for Participants Analysing Media Ethnography– Exploring Ethnographic Inquiry and Analysis in Media and Communication Research

Call for Participants
Analysing Media Ethnography– Exploring Ethnographic Inquiry and Analysis in Media and Communication Research

Nordic-Kenyan PhD seminar, 15 – 18 March 2016

Course Description
The PhD seminar is designed to give a hands-on approach to the analysis of ethnographic field material within media and communication studies. The course will provide an opportunity for PhD scholars to discuss their ethnographic fieldwork and to discuss how to make sense of the overwhelming wealth of material that is the result of ethnographic research. Kenyan and Scandinavian researchers will be lecturing on their fields of ethnographic research.

The course will contain a mix of lectures, paper presentations and group discussions based on the participants’ ethnographic research interests and written contributions.

This PhD seminar is targeted to PhD students who have conducted in-depth qualitative ethnographic fieldwork within media and communication studies, and who are about to begin – or already in the process of – analysing these data.

All PhD students will be expected to present papers on relevant aspects regarding the analysis of their own ethnographic research.

The seminar is co-organized by Moi University and the research project Critical Perspectives on New Media and Processes of Social Change in the Global South, and sponsored by the Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities.

Course Venue: Sego Safari Lodge, Eldoret, Kenya.

Course convenors:
Associate Professor Hilde Arntsen, Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway
Senior Lecturer Dr. Abraham Mulwo, Moi University, Kenya
Professor Thomas Tufte, Roskilde University, Denmark

Speakers
Senior Lecturer HOD Charles Ongondo, Moi University, Kenya
Senior Lecturer Dr. Abraham Mulwo, Moi University, Kenya
Professor Thomas Tufte, Roskilde University, Denmark
Associate Professor Hilde Arntsen, Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway
Professor Eunice Karanja Kamaara, Moi University, Kenya (tbc)
Senior Lecturer Ylva Ekström, Uppsala University, Sweden
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Jessica Gustafsson, Aarhus University, Denmark
Senior Lecturer Tobias Denskus, Malmö University, Sweden

Requirements for Participation
Each PhD student will be required to present a paper of 10-12 pages related to their data analysis – conceptual framework, strategy, etc. in their current PhD projects. Furthermore, each PhD student will be asked to be an opponent on a paper submitted by one of his/her fellow participants. Throughout the course, the participants will be working in groups in collaboration with one or two of the course lecturers.

A course package of required readings will be compiled and circulated to the admitted participants approximately three weeks prior to the course. The participants are duly required to read the full package of scholarly texts before arrival to the course venue and to take an active part in discussing the texts.

ECTS value
Full course completion, a presentation of the submitted paper and fulfilment of other course assignments will entitle the participants to 5 ECTS. For full participation but without a submitted paper, participants will be entitled to 3 ECTS.

Course Application Procedure
Application for course participation is open to PhD students from East Africa and the Nordic countries. The application must contain a half page motivation letter, a two-page PhD project description and an abstract for the paper (emphasizing the analysis of the ethnographic research) to be presented during the course. A more elaborate template for the papers can be made available upon acceptance to the course.

Applications must be submitted via e-mail to all the three course convenors: abraham.mulwo(AT)gmail.com, Hilde.Arntsen@hioa.no and ttufte@ruc.dk

Registration Deadline
January 28, 2016. Applicants will be notified no later than February 5, 2016.

Deadline for handing in final paper is March 05, 2016.

Cost
There will be no course fee.

Accommodation and meals at the retreat (Sega Safari Lodge, 1.5 hours drive from Eldoret), local transportation from Eldoret to Sega Safari Lodge will be sponsored by the organizers.

Travel to/from Eldoret will be at participants’ own expense.

There will be a limited number of international travel stipends availability for Nordic PhD scholars, but based exclusively on expressed needs and when own PhD scholarships don’t support PhD seminars.