Over the last few months, a new reimagined plan for the Ethno Research project has taken shape. With global disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic, including substantial restrictions on travel, we’ve adapted our plans to focus on a set of projects which can be undertaken with limited travel in the coming year. We hope some fieldwork can continue in year 3 of the project (2021), if circumstances allow it!
We’re delighted that a number of new researchers have been brought onto the project this year:
Dr. Dave Camlin (UK)
Professor Andrea Creech (Université Laval, Canada)
Dr. Maria Varvarigou (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland)
In collaboration with our existing team of co-investigators and research associates, they will be working on a series of projects, or ‘work packages’, which each take a different focus within the research. The three core work packages the team are embarking on include the history of Ethno; Pedagogy and Professional Development; and Arts and Culture.
The research team have been keeping in touch via regular Zoom meetings, and a full company meeting was held on 20th May, where we updated the whole team on the progress of each work package, and smaller teams working on each one met in break-out spaces. Each meeting has been a welcome opportunity to touch base and nurture a shared vision for the research.
Throughout April and May, our researchers have been conducting online interviews with previous participants of Ethno camps. 36 interviews have been conducted, contributing to the ‘history’ work package which looks at participants’ experiences since the first camp in 1990. The idea is for individual narratives and chronological data to be housed within a web-based timeline, and we hope to be able to share this on our website soon.
More recently, we have published the white paper report Framing Ethno-World: Intercultural Music Exchange, Tradition, and Globalization. This report acts as a conceptual framework for the research and can now be viewed and downloaded from our website.
Alongside the three main work packages described above, a discrete project using SenseMaker software will trial a new method for data collection, while sub-themes including sustainability, consent and trauma-informed practice, ethno on the road, and the Global South, will also be explored by the team. We’ll be on the look-out for research participants over the coming year, so if you feel you have a story to share that could benefit our research, look out for our posts on social media and this website, or just get in touch!
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