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79514-01 - Course: Atmospheres: Ethnographic Explorations (15 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Annual course, starts in fall semester |
| Lecturers | Michelle Engeler (michelle.engeler@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This two-semester course introduces students to ethnographic research on atmospheres through the lens of social anthropology. Participants will develop their own research projects and work with a range of ethnographic methods, including observation, conversations, interviews, and sensory and embodied approaches to fieldwork. In addition to written texts, the course also includes the production of visual materials such as picture galleries. Teaching formats include collaborative activities and field visits. Drawing on debates in social anthropology and related disciplines, the course examines atmospheres as diffuse, relational, and often pre-reflective qualities of situations, spaces, and landscapes. It asks how atmospheres can be approached, documented, analysed, and written about ethnographically. Research projects may investigate how atmospheres emerge in and across landscapes, urban environments, political settings, institutions, homes, and everyday social worlds. Projects could explore, for example, the atmosphere of a construction site, an IKEA store, feminist or right-wing political milieus, diaspora communities, neighbourhood spaces, or recreational landscapes such as the Lange Erlen. Possible topics include affect and mood, experiences of place, postmigrant urban life, forms of living together and social difference, everyday negotiations of proximity and distance, multispecies relations, or the perception of weather and environmental change. Over the course of the year, you will: • First Semester: Develop an ethnographic research proposal related to the study of atmospheres and grounded in qualitative research methods. Through initial field visits and collaborative exercises, you will explore possible research environments, engage with ethnographic and sensory methods, and begin generating preliminary material for your project. • Between Semesters: Conduct the main phase of your ethnographic fieldwork. Building on your research proposal, you will develop your project in a chosen field such as urban public life, political milieus, workplaces, retail environments, neighbourhoods, or recreational and landscape spaces. Your research will attend to the sensory, affective, and relational dimensions of atmospheric experience. Using observation, conversations, interviews, and embodied fieldwork practices, you will explore how atmospheres are perceived, negotiated, and lived in specific social and material settings. You will also produce a small visual archive connected to your research topic. • Second Semester: Reflect on, analyse, and write up your ethnographic material in the form of a final report and picture gallery. The second semester focuses on processes of interpretation and ethnographic writing, encouraging you to critically engage with the social, spatial, sensory, and affective dimensions of your fieldwork. |
| Learning objectives | A key aim of this course is to foster a collaborative learning environment in which students engage critically with ethnographic methods and debates on atmospheres in social anthropology and related disciplines. Through close reading, discussion, field-based experimentation, and peer feedback, participants will develop their own ethnographic projects while reflecting on questions of positionality, research design, sensory perception, and ethnographic writing. The course encourages an open and exploratory approach to fieldwork and supports students in developing their own ethnographic voice and practice. Across the two semesters, students will work with a variety of formats including short field visits, collaborative exercises, feedback sessions, visual documentation, and experimental forms of presentation such as posters, zines, picture galleries, or short audiovisual formats. By the end of the course, students will have gained practical experience in ethnographic research and developed a deeper understanding of social anthropology as a way of engaging with and analysing lived worlds. They will learn to attend not only to social relations and discourse, but also to the sensory, affective, spatial, and atmospheric dimensions of everyday life, and to relate their observations to wider social, political, and environmental debates in Basel and beyond. |
| Admission requirements | The number of participants is limited to 12 people. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Depending on your research focus/location an average knowledge of German might be helpful. Basic knowledge of qualitative research methods and some experience of doing fieldwork are strongly recommended. Attendance at the first session is compulsory. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Thursday | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 17.09.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 24.09.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 01.10.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 08.10.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 15.10.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 22.10.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 29.10.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 05.11.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 12.11.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 19.11.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 26.11.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 03.12.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 10.12.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Thursday 17.12.2026 | 08.15-12.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Modules |
Module: Anthropological Fieldwork (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) Module: Bodies, Objects, Circulation (Master's degree program: Changing Societies) Module: Changing Societies Lab (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources (Start of studies before 01.08.2026)) Module: Ethnographic Research (Master's degree subject: Social Anthropology) Module: Interdisciplinary and Applied African Studies (Master's degree program: African Studies) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | • Compulsory attendance (max. 3 absences per semester) • Willingness to read and discuss, to prepare and complete related assignments • HS 2026: Willingness to develop a research proposal and present it (Mittwochskolloquium) • Time between terms: Willingness to collect the main body of data and to meet regularly • FS 2027: Willingness to write a final report (approx. 8 000 words) and a picture gallery (3-6 photos and short descriptions) based on the data collected, presentation of results (Mittwochskolloquium) |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ethnologie |