Welcome to EOTU, the Ethnography of the University

Mission
Formed as a cross-campus initiative, EOTU sponsors interdisciplinary undergraduate research on the university, and archives this work in web-accessible form for the UIUC community and beyond. Professors Nancy Abelmann (Anthropology; East Asian and Pacific Studies) and Peter Mortensen (English) direct EOTU.

Why Now/Here
Higher education associations, postsecondary education policy centers, charitable foundations, and disciplinary interest groups have called for the infusion of research into the undergraduate curriculum. As EOTU heeds this call, it builds on the University of Illinois' legacy of pioneering advances in humanistic inquiry at the leading edge of technological innovation.

Methods
EOTU approaches universities and colleges--their institutions, organizations, maps, and histories--as composite networks of diverse verbal, visual, and statistical narratives. The ethnography of the university encourages qualitative research in small-scale, local increments: as they accumulate, such inquiries reveal large-scale structures and their zeitgeist.

EOTU Live
In 2004, Anna Callahan created "EOTU Live," a multimedia showplace of student work including taped interviews and hand-drawn maps of campus spaces as well as samples of fully realized and reflective analyses. "EOTU Live" also visualizes the ethnographic toolkit students need to carry in their research, and offers a helpful rubric for analyzing photographs.

Questions?
If you would like to know more, please email Dave McDonald, Program Coordinator, or call 244-7733

Last Update: May 23, 2007
Comments or Questions about EOTU Live? Email Anna Callahan
Return to Former EOTU Site
See our Visualizing Diversity Site