China Studies Centre, the University of Sydney
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Thursday, 22 August 2019
Location: Education Seminar Room 625-626, University of Sydney Registration: https://bit.ly/2NujyPa
Is there a right way to do fieldwork for your China-related research? This event shares insights from experienced researchers to support HDRs and ECRs who plan to conduct fieldwork for their China research, in China or Australia.
Doing fieldwork can be an invaluable experience, but without sufficient consideration of the particular political, social and cultural environment, it can also be a daunting task. In this workshop, you will hear from three speakers with diverse fieldwork experiences, and have the opportunity to meet your research peers, to feel more confident when you start to plan, prepare and carry out your fieldwork.
Speakers will approach the topic from different perspectives, sharing their personal experience during the phases of fieldwork (pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post- fieldwork), what challenges they encounter, what coping methods they adopt, and how the fieldwork experience contributes to their China research. There will also be time for speakers to respond to your specific questions.
Topics for discussion could include:
• Do I need affiliation with a local Chinese institution before I depart for China?
• How to create questionnaires for Chinese communities in Australia?
• How to identify and recruit research participants in China/Australia?
• If I don’t speak Chinese, how can I develop a language strategy during my fieldwork in China?
• How to gain access to key written and oral sources?
• What are the common mistakes? And how can I avoid them?
• What advantages and challenges arise from the dynamic nature of fieldwork?
Please note that places are limited and preference will be given to HDRs and ECRs. Light refreshments will be provided.
Speaker
Dr Catherine Ingram, Lecturer, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Catherine Ingram is a lecturer in ethnomusicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and visiting expert with the Chinese Music Ecology Research Team, Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Since 2004 she has conducted more than 30 months’ field research on Kam (in Chinese, Dong 侗) minority musical culture in Kam areas of Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi, as well as additional fieldwork in Yao and Zhuang minority communities. Her numerous articles on Kam music include chapters in Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Policy, Ideology and Practice in the Preservation of East Asian Traditions (Ashgate 2012) and Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader Volume II (Routledge 2017), amongst others. She has recently commenced a three-year Australian Research Council-funded Discovery Project on musical resilience within marginal groups in culturally diverse societies.
Dr Olivier Krischer, Acting Director, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney
Olivier is an art historian whose research regards the role of art theory and practice in modern and contemporary China-Japan relations, and more recently networks of artistic activism from Hong Kong and across East Asia. Prior to joining the Centre, Olivier was a Visiting Fellow in the Institute for Modern History, at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World, ANU. He completed his PhD at the University of Tsukuba on a Japanese Government monbukagakusho scholarship, studying China-Japan relations through art in the early twentieth century.
Dr Fiona Stanaway, Senior Lecturer, Sydney School of Public Health
Fiona Stanaway is a clinical epidemiologist with a special interest in migrant health. She completed a Master of Public Health followed by a PhD on health and ageing in Italian migrants in Australia. Her research interests include the social determinants of health in older migrants and clinical epidemiology methodology. Fiona is currently conducting research on social relationships, use of technology and social isolation in older Chinese migrants in Sydney; a project that has received seed funding through the China Studies Centre. Her many and varied interests include ballet classes, making her own clothes and learning foreign languages.
Dr Wei Wang, Senior Lecturer, Department of Chinese Studies
Dr Wei Wang is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney. His primary research interests include discourse studies, sociolinguistics and translation studies. His recent research concentrates on sociolinguistics and (critical) discourse analysis, especially on interdisciplinary studies of contemporary Chinese discourse. His publications include Media Representation of Migrant Workers in China (2017),and Contemporary Chinese Discourse and Social Practice in China (2015). Drawing on sociolinguistic theories and ethnographic field work, his recent project examines the self-representation and negotiation of the Kam people’s ethnic identity against the backdrop of the rapid socio-economic change in China. This project involves extensive fieldwork in ethnic minority areas in China.