Guest Post: Caroline Robertson, Anthropology Student, & Her Start in Cultural Anthropology

The following is a guest post by a former student of mine, Caroline Robertson.  It discusses her journey into ethnographic research as an undergraduate anthropology student, and it provides a very real portrayal of the realities of performing research, particularly for a novice ethnographer.  She recently won an award for a formal paper on this ethnographic research.  Caroline will be attending graduate school in the fall at UNLV, where she'll continue her studies in anthropology and history.

            Ethnography is not what I thought it would be. At this time I have come to love it, but it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting excitement, ease, and enlightenment. I got two out of the three but in very different ways.

            I ended my junior year of college with the goal of performing an ethnography on the stigmas that are placed on patients that come into a hospital with Hepatitis C. Because of volunteering at the local hospital, I noticed a reoccurring stigma behind diagnosed Hepatitis C patients that was exhibited by the hospital staff. I presented this idea to a professor who works in medical anthropology who agreed to guide me in my proposed ethnographic research. But by the time I met with my professor for the second time, I had realized that I had bitten off more than I could chew.

            My professor first prescribed me with a list of readings to review so that I may have a better understanding of how to write a proposal of research for the Human Subjects Committee (HSC). The first draft I had my professor review needed major revisions. After this, it took me about three more times to get my work presentable for the committee. After I had done this, I went on a major Amazon shopping trip. I spent one hundred and fifty dollars on books that had to do with Hepatitis C patients and ethnographic research. I lived and breathed research for the next month. Then my life hit some rough patches. Relationships began not working out in my life, I was thrown into a deep depression, and then I just gave up on my intended research.

            After this, I questioned everything I was doing in my life. I questioned why I wanted to do this ethnographic research and why I was majoring in anthropology. I thought I loved the discipline. I had fallen in love with it my first year of college when I took Dr. Boston’s introduction to biological anthropology course. I was intrigued by all the possibilities that the major offered to those who were willing to study. I loved how to discipline was so interchangeable and included everything I wanted to do.

            Nevertheless here I was, looking for another discipline to major in.  I thought about all the things that I might like to do excluding anthropology. I had ten windows open on my computer of different majors that I might like, but I never got the courage up to officially change my major.

            After the summer, I was beginning the first semester of my senior year. I had a new outlook on life and was finally starting to get out of my depression. I had a new schedule of classes ranging from anthropology (still my major) to criminal justice, just to see what else was out there. I took an anthropological writing course and decided to give myself one more shot at anthropology before I made my decision. After a discussion with my friend, I decided to perform an ethnography on a local tragedy, the Herrin Massacre.

            I had always been interested in history, especially that of tragedy. When my friend told me about the massacre, I wondered why I hadn’t heard of it before. After all, Carbondale is only a fifteen-minute drive from the town and my dad is from the southern Illinois area. I thought for sure that that I would have been informed of that large of a tragedy before now. I began doing research on the massacre and found out why I hadn’t heard of it before; the people of Herrin don’t like to talk about it. They don’t like to bring it up and they don’t like outsiders asking about it. It’s a taboo subject for most people in the area and they would like to forget that it happened.

            For this ethnography, I filled out another HSC application for SIU to receive permission to interview the people of Herrin about the massacre. After I received my approval, I went to work contacting everyone I knew that was from southern Illinois to see if they had any connection with Herrin. I threw myself into this research much like I had the last one. I read as many books on the Herrin Massacre as possible. I emailed librarians and historical society members to see if I could get an interview with anyone from the area. After I got one interview, I got another. And another. And another. I finished my research at the end of my semester and received an A on my ethnography for the class.

            The main difference between the ethnography on Hepatitis C and the Herrin Massacre was my state of health and my interest in the subject. I was mentally healthier when I performed an ethnography this time. I felt more connected to my interviews and found that I was much more interested in historical anthropology than that of medical anthropology. I enjoyed my interviews and was enlightened by the information I learned from my project. My final project did not come easy to me, but I was passionate about the subject. I went from looking for another field to major in and fell back in love with anthropology. I found out that how you approach a situation will have a big affect on how much you enjoy it.