Certificate director: Zareena Grewal

Ethnography is both a set of qualitative research methods employed in the humanities and social sciences and a mode of presenting that research—in books and articles, in film and video, in embodied performance, and, increasingly, in digital formats and multiple media. 

requirements

Students must successfully complete six courses. At least four of the six courses must be at the 300-level or above. At least two of the six courses, including at least one at the 300-level or above, must include substantial methods training and/or a practical ethnographic component. The minimum grade for all courses is a C. 

Courses that fulfill these requirements are listed on the Ethnography Certificate website (coming soon) and are searchable in Yale Course Search (YCS) using the following attributes: YC Ethnography: Elective and YC Ethnography: Methods. Other courses may be approved by permission of the certificate director. 

Students must also attend two public talks or other events that feature ethnography and submit to the certificate director one-page critical reflections on each of these talks. The Ethnography Certificate website will maintain updated links to the Ethnography Hub, Ethnography and Social Theory Colloquium series, Workshop in Urban Ethnography, Qualitative Social Science Initiative, and other campus series that regularly feature ethnography-informed events.

Additionally, no more than two course credits may overlap in the fulfillment of the requirements of the Ethnography certificate and of a major, a simultaneous degree, or another certificate; and no course credit may be applied toward the requirements of more than two curricular programs. For example, the same course credit may not be used to fulfill the requirements of two certificates and a major. Approved graduate and professional school courses may count toward the certificate. Non-Yale courses may not count toward the certificate.
 

Yale Course Search Searchable Attributes: YC Ethnography: Elective, YC Ethnography: Methods

Credit/D/Fail No courses taken Credit/D/Fail may be counted toward the certificate.
 

Declaration of Candidacy

Students must submit a Declaration of Candidacy for a Certificate form, as early as possible, but at the very latest, before the start of the student’s last semester at Yale. The form can be found on the University Registrar’s Office website. Once declared, Degree Audit tracks students' progress toward completion of the certificate.

Summary of requirements

Number of courses 6 course credits

Distribution of courses 4 courses at 300-level or above; 2 courses indicated as methods course with 1 at 300-level or above

Additional requirements attendance at 2 public talks and submission of 1-page critical reflections for each