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MIRA: Multimedia Interdisciplinary Research
in Anthropology
A collaborative and comparative study of tourism destinations and
cultures
Coursework
All courses are conducted in English. Students enroll in three courses
for a total of 9 credits at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level.
Students may specify on their application what course level is appropriate
for their degree program.
Course Descriptions
Tourism
Cultures & Ethnography (3 credits)
This Seminar in the anthropology of tourism provides students the
opportunity to learn about the core debates and issues of tourism
studies. Specifically, the coursework focuses on understanding and
analyzing the articulation of body, visuality, and space in tourism
cultures. These three focal points are, in other words, a) performance
and performativity; b) visual structures and the semiotics of vision;
c) spatial practices and the orchestration of space. Our readings
and seminars introduce explore and elaborate the concept of "double
articulation" as a methodological paradigm for tourism studies.
This framework is developed through readings and provides the theoretical
grounding of the independent and collaborative research projects undertaken
in the other coursework of the program. (Components
of this course have been used by Castañeda in the NAPA sponsored
Workshop on Tourism given at the AAA meetings in 2000, 2001, 2003)
MIRA Fieldwork
Methodologies (3 credits)
Seminar in ethnographic methods that focuses on the methodologies
of visual documentation, knowledge production, and analysis. A key
issue that threads through the seminar is the debate about the difference(s)
and the significance of these differences between ethnographic (film/photography)
and documentary (film/photography). This already presupposes the problem
of the differences between film media and photographic media as well
as the difference and value of the difference between these media
of "visual research" and the language-based media of "regular"
ethnographic fieldwork. The course is structured to provide students
the tools to conceive, design, carry out, and complete a research
project in visual ethnography. Completed projects are required at
the end of the program.
Visual Research of Tourism
Cultures (3 credits)
This Seminar in Visual Communication provides students with the tools
to analyze the practices, principles, styles, rhetorics, semantics
and syntax of the visual cultures of tourism. These analytical and
research tools are developed as methodologies by which to investigate
the broad range of visual representations that articulate and reverberate
the meanings of place and cultural identity of Mérida, Chichén
Itzá, and Playa del Carmen.
This course explores ways to conceptualize and conduct visual ethnographic
research as well as design and shape the representation and display
of these materials for consumption by diverse audiences in video,
websites, installation, and other appropriate multimedia documentation.
This course emphasizes “design-thinking” as a counterpart
to other disciplinary ways of thinking (ethnographic, anthropological,
etc) in order to develop interdisciplinary linkages and unexpected/innovative
results. Equipment, such as laptops, video cameras, still cameras
(preferably digital), and voice recorders are useful in the field
for research and production.
Course Credits
OSEA Summer Courses are transcripted through Facultad de Ciencias
Antropológicas de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatan
(FCA-UADY). These credits are transferable to US universities.
With prior approval, credits can satisfy many major, minor, and university
requirements. Program faculty are available to speak to students,
faculty, and administration regarding the program in general and to
ensure appropriate transfer of credit. We recommend students consult
with their Study Abroad Office and advisor regarding transfer of credit
prior to enrolling in this program. For more information, contact
Dr. Quetzil Castañeda.
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