BYU

Harold B. Lee Library

Tradition Runs Through It


Environment and Recreation in Provo Canyon

  • Time: 7:00 AM
  • Date: Jul 17, 2005 to Aug 6, 2005
  • Place: Brigham Young University


About the Event

For three weeks this summer Brigham Young University will co-host the ninth field school with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The American Folklife Center, a leader in ethnographic field research for close to three decades, has developed a model for an intensive, three-week-long field school for cultural documentation, and then putting it into action through partnerships with educational institutions across the country. The Center’s field school, which was first held in 1995, offered hands-on training, for beginners, in such areas as research ethics, considerations for preliminary research, interviewing techniques, sound-recording techniques, documentary-photography techniques, ethnographic-observation techniques, fieldnote-writing techniques, the archival organization of multi-format ethnographic collections, and the development of public products and programs based on documentary material gathered in the field. The training, which is provided by members of the Center’s professional staff along with other experienced cultural specialists, includes lectures, hands-on workshops, discussions, and supervised team-based fieldwork with a carefully selected cultural community.

To date, the American Folklife Center has sponsored six highly successful field schools: two in Colorado, both in partnership with Colorado College and the University of New Mexico (1995, 1996); one in Ohio, in partnership with Kenyon College (1999); two in Indiana, in partnership with Indiana University (2000, 2001); one in Maryland, in partnership with Salisbury University (2003); one in Utah, in partnership with Brigham Young University (2004), and one in Maryland, in partnership with Salisbury University (2005). Each of these field schools has trained approximately fifteen participants who have included public-school teachers, librarians, leaders of cultural groups, museum curators, arts administrators, and graduate and undergraduate students of folklore, anthropology, history, and other disciplines.

This year, fieldwork conducted during the course will examine the culture and traditions of family-run orchards in Utah Valley. It is expected that participants will interview active and retired orchardists, observe and photograph aspects of orchard work, and explore the importance of orchards to the people who operate and work in them, and well as their importance to the region’s larger population.

The cost of the school is $950 which will include 3 hours class credit, lodging, meal allowance, supplies, and equipment for the time of the field school. If you will not be using university lodging and food allowance, tuition will be $400. Limited scholarship funds based on need will be available.

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