Innovation in the Tropics: An Autoethnography of a Multidisciplinary Field School

John P Lunsford

doi:10.13021/G8jmgr.v1i1.214

Authors

John P Lunsford George Mason University, Department of Anthropology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13021/G8jmgr.v1i1.214

Keywords:

Innovation, Autoethnography, Field School, Multidiscipline, Graduate Education, Bali

Abstract

In today's academic environment, institutions often present students with the opportunity to participate in a field school, allowing students to experience an abridged form of fieldwork and providing a hands-on approach to the application of classroom-oriented theory. While field schools vary in topic and length, many remain firmly bound to a specific discipline. Breaching the exclusivity of a discipline-specific field school to accommodate a variety of academic perspectives is itself innovative in approach, as is encouraging trans-discipline collaboration and facilitating opportunities for cross-discipline discourse. In contrast with that tradition, George Mason University's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution's field school in Bali, Indonesia, takes an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to the field school experience. Additionally, the field school takes a more action-oriented approach to research in which students produce research materials that are immediately usable to the community under study. Â This paper presents an auto-ethnographic account of this novel field school approach.

Author Biography

John P Lunsford, George Mason University, Department of Anthropology

Mr. Lunsford is a Masterâs student in George Mason Universityâs Department of Anthropology. He is currently finishing his thesis on the expression of intent and the interpretation of meaningâs effect on digital experience inside World of Warcraftâs North American Servers.

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