Ethnography Lab

Founded in 2024, the Ethnography Lab at Florida Atlantic's (ELFA) mission is to support a creative collaborative of qualitative and mixed methods social scientists. ELFA is dedicated to facilitating strong ethnographic work in the areas of sustained climate disruption, zoonoses and human-environment interactions, and political ecologies of community life in South Florida and beyond. Current research methodologies utilized by ELFA include:

  • Participant observation
  • Ethnographic interviewing
  • Computer-assisted thematic analysis
  • Small focus groups

 
Co-Directors:  

Dr. Adriana Garriga-Lopez, Associate Professor of Anthropology

Dr. Katharina Rynkiewich, Assistant Professor of Anthropology

 

Location: SO 188

Contact: elfa@e21system.com

 

Mailing Address: 

Anthropology Department,
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, 
Florida Atlantic University,
777 Glades Road, 
Boca Raton, Florida, 33431

 

Telephone number:
(561) 297-2074

 

Faculty Affiliates:

Dr. Jessica Dickson,  Postdoctoral Fellow, Anthropology

Dr. Yangsook Kim, Assistant Professor of Sociology

 

We envision a lively virtual and physical academic space anchoring a vibrant interdisciplinary and intergenerational network of engaged scholars doing qualitative and mixed-methods ethnographic research who benefit from training, workshops, lectures, and other public events organized through the lab and produce top-notch, evidence-based publications in a supportive environment. 

elfa event

 

Prof. Kim (Sociology Department, Boca Raton campus) presents her ethnographic research with Korean home health aides at our inaugural event in February 2024.


The goals of our lab are to:

  • Establish collaborations among faculty, students, and research associates at FAU and beyond our campus.
    Train, supervise, and mentor student researchers at the doctorate, master's, and undergraduate levels in ethnographic methods.  
  • Support faculty and visiting researchers working with qualitative or mixed methods research design, implementation, and analysis.
  • Develop and submit funding proposals, conference panel abstracts, and manuscripts for publication in collaboration with ELFA researchers.
  • Plan and host public lectures and events, as well as in-lab workshops and writing sessions. 
     

Our lab values these key attributes and applies them as standards in our work: 

  • Curiosity
  • Experimentation
  • Collaboration
  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Accountability