How to encourage innovative forms of expression while preserving the rigour that defines good research.

What makes a piece of poetry, fiction or a sound recording also anthropological? How can drawing or sketching become ethnographic? Is it enough that the work is by an anthropologist or ethnographer? How can we make these alternative forms of expression more visible and legitimate, yet also uphold academic standards?

These are some of the pressing questions occupying Cambridge anthropologists Iza Kavedžija, Natalia Buitron and Liana Chua. “We know what constitutes good ethnography,” says Kavedžija, Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology. “We know what constitutes good research – we are trained for many years to recognise that. Suddenly, we are faced with a poem and told it’s ethnographic. How do we know it's good?”

Read the full article written by Joanne Dodd, Communications Coordinator in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences here