• About Jen
  • favorite posts
  • Jen around the web
  • Research
  • Resume

the unobservant anthropologist

~ everything from random babbling to intellectual thoughts mixed with anthropology

the unobservant anthropologist

Author Archives: Jen Cardew Kersey

What I’m up to these days. Making a career move.

03 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Practicing Anthro, Update

≈ Leave a comment

Phew- these last two and a half years have been a whirl-wind. Back in September 2009 I thought I had the time to get back into blogging but I was wrong.  In fact, my 2010 was probably my busiest year yet while the small market research boutique I was working at went through a merger with a social media company and then an acquisition by a marketing company.

The merger and acquisition was an exciting time to be at Intrepid Consultants, especially because the focus was turning to virtual ethnography which was why I ended up at Intrepid in the first place.  I did my master’s thesis in translating virtual ethnography from academia into practice and I got to watch it become a true commercial product.

I’ve since left Intrepid.  Back in December 2010 I decided it was time for a change.  I felt like I wasn’t growing as much as I wanted to in my career.  I also realized that virtual ethnography was actually not what I wanted my legacy to be.  It was a hard decision to make and admittedly I didn’t have a plan when I put in my notice.  Crazy? Maybe. The right decision? Definitely.

Later this month I will start at SapientNitro down in Santa Monica.  I’m excited about the new opportunities and new climate.

I’ve realized a few things through this self-imposed sabbatical:

  • Job hunting and interviewing is a full-time job- I wasn’t on the hunt for long but properly going through the interview process did take a lot of my focus on many days. I wouldn’t have been able to properly do my job if I was going through an interview process
  • I need to learn to balance work and non-work life better. I fell so far behind in non-work things that I’ve spent the last six weeks catching up
  • An unemployed anthropologist can easily get involved in things that keep their CV growing. There are a lot of volunteer opportunities with the AAA, SfAA, etc. and these opportunities can be put on your CV
    • I’ve taken over as the Communications Committee Chair for NAPA and a lot of my days have been spent re-designing our website from an IA perspective and working with web designers (the new design isn’t launched yet)
    • I’ve also put a lot of work into the SfAA Podcast Project and helping the SfAA Office plan for the 2011 Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA later this month

I feel mentally refreshed and I’m ready to get back to work.  But I admit I have really enjoyed these six weeks to focus on playing catch up, relaxing, and tending to my projects.

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION DISSOLVES, DECIDES TO START OVER TOMORROW

02 Friday Apr 2010

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

AAA, Anthropology

reposted from the anthrodesign Yahoo! listserv (Thanks Mark!):

APG Newswire WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Anthropological Association (AAA) made the announcement today that its Joint Committee for Publishing and Employment Services unanimously recommended the immediate dissolution of the AAA, stating there was nothing left to study.

James Curry, the newly-past President of the now defunct AAA, stated the organization had no choice. “Look, it’s all been done. All of it. We have talked to every god forsaken group on the planet, and there is nothing left to study.” “Frankly there is not even a job market out there for students.” Increasingly graduate students of these former anthropology programs have found themselves with little to do even when trying to complete their dissertations, much less do meaningful publishing. John Gault from Indiana University talks about hardships in the field: “I originally wanted to work with the Tsohon-djapa tribe living in the Javari region of Brazil. Turns out the F’ing Discovery Channel gave one of the kids there an HD webcam that runs 24/7. Now my dissertation is on some group of freaks outside of town that worship an old incandescent light bulb with a grease smudge that appears to be the image of Jesus. This blows”

To hasten the demise of the former organization, the AAA is recommending the destruction of all books, letters, monographs, white papers, dissertations and even master’s thesis work in the former field of Cultural Anthropology. The committee began by burning the minutes of their own meetings along with the abstracts and agendas of every meeting and conference the AAA has even been a part of.

Foster Kerry, the head of the committee was thrilled with the move.  “I am very excited for this new untouched field. Just imagine all of those utterly primitive cultures out there, such as Ireland, we know nothing about. With the advent of transportation like the steamship and the auto-mobile we have access to so many other places. Up to this point what we know about these primitive peoples are from the writings of missionaries. 2010 looks to be a great year for this new field of study.”

Not everyone is so pleased Martin Cost, a full professor at Walknut University has serious concerns about the announcement. “What the HELL, what the hell does this do to my Tenure!?” was the first official statement from Dr. Cost when informed of the move by APG reporters. “I am not doing that fieldwork crap again, no way.  My whole career has vanished.” APG asked one of Dr. Cost’s graduate students to comment on the potential destruction of most tenured faculty members careers, including Dr. Cost. That graduate student stated “BAHAHAHAHAHA!  HAHAHAHAH! HAHAHAHAHHAHA!”

Dr. Curry has some understanding for the concern.  “Look its true; teaching positions, publishing, tenure, sex with natives before any ethics are laid out, are totally up for grabs at this point. Right now we have a lot of High School PE teachers filling in at their local colleges and universities teaching “health studies” until some real research gets underway.  We expect this to be a banner year for grants, people love to fund new fields of study.”

An ad-hoc committee has already been formed to discuss what to name this new field and set-up a professional organization. It is likely to focus on documenting the ways the simple, primitive, innocent folk lived before we were corrupted by modern conveniences.  A overall “Study of Man” if you will.

Librarians nationwide also hailed the move for freeing up an enormous amount of space in the countries libraries which is now expected to be used for coffee and pastry kiosks.

Blogging for four years!

23 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Blogging

I’ve been out traveling for the last 10 days attending SxSWi in Austin, then visiting family in Melbourne, FL and now in Merida, Mexico for the SfAA Annual Meeting and the SfAApodcasts.  Some how in the craziness I missed my blog birthday!  I started blogging over at AnthroBlogs 4 years ago.  I moved over to this site over a year ago (but brought the old posts with me).  Admittedly, I haven’t been very active in the last year but I’m hoping to get back with it soon.  Here’s the very first post I wrote way back before I started graduate school and anthropology podcasts existed…. I’m not graduated with my Master’s and working out in the real world and recording the SfAApodcasts for the fourth time. Oh how time flies.

Design anthropology literature review

02 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Anthropology, designanthro, Literature

I wrote a design anthropology literature review back in the summer of 2007 for an independent study course with Christina Wasson at UNT.  The paper is an overview of the field, the methodologies, the theory and the people of the field.  I get requests for this paper from time-to-time so I’ve decided to make it available on this site.  You can you download the paper here.

I’m back! Well, I never really left…

06 Sunday Sep 2009

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blogging

I graduated last month from the University of North Texas online masters program in applied anthropology. Finally. My practicum consumed most of my life for the last year as I was also working full-time in a market research agency. No excuse really, but I’m back now and that’s what counts.

Since May 15, 2008 (the last year post) sort of in this order:

  • Changed my blog name from Synthesis of Thought (but I’m not sure what I’ve changed it to yet)
  • Got an internship at Intrepid Consultants, Inc – a Seattle based market research firm specializing in technology
  • Moved to Seattle and started my internship/practicum in “Translating Virtual Ethnography from Academia into Practice”
  • Got married – eloped in San Francisco on the second day of the AAA last November
  • Gone back-and-forth on if I want to go by “Jen Kersey” or “Jen Cardew Kersey” or “Jen Cardew” professionally, but Kersey legally… it’s tough
  • Continued to work on the SfAA Podcasts (the quality is SO much better this year, check them out http://www.sfaapodcasts.net)
  • Wrote a 99 page write-up about my practicum
  • Went to Hawaii
  • Graduated!
  • Went to EPIC2009 in Chicago

I’m still working on fixing links on this site and getting it organized. Once that’s set, I’m going to start a series about my practicum.  The work itself is confidential but the issues I encountered in translating an academic methodology into practice are ones that I can talk about.

More soon.

Practitioner in Training: Entering into a Community of Practice as an Online Graduate Student

06 Sunday Sep 2009

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Anthropology, Grad School, practicing anthropology, Student Anthro, UNT Online Master's

This is an article I wrote for Anthropology News in 2008:

As a third year student in the University of North Texas’ (UNT) online master’s program in applied anthropology, I see graduate school as my introduction to a community of practitioners. As with students in more traditional programs, I have expectations that through my graduate experience I will learn about anthropological theory and research, meet other anthropologists and begin contributing to the discipline by producing my own work. I also expect—and have participated in—an experience that is in some ways quite different from the traditional.

The UNT program was designed to take advantage of the opportunities an online educational forum provides, and to manage the challenges that online students can encounter. For example, students are required to take a qualitative methods course that requires a class project conducted for a real client, which gives them experience not only with conducting anthropological research, but also with long distance collaboration and presentations. A lack of face-to-face communication can be a real challenge in developing close relationships with people you have not yet met. For this reason, each cohort of online students begins the program with a face-to-face orientation on campus. Relationships established during this time can be continued through communication in online forums.

Opportunities outside of the online classroom can also strengthen students’ educational experiences. In addition to working as a research assistant in the department and traveling to professional conferences, I have also been encouraged to join a local practitioner organization. An essential part of becoming an anthropologist is learning about the culture of the discipline through dialog with others in the field, which can be experienced through these local groups or online through blogs, listservs and various digital anthropological networks.

Jennifer Cardew is a graduate student in the online anthropology master’s program at the University of North Texas. In 2007 she initiated a project to make the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting more accessible to students by providing selected sessions as free podcasts online at www.SfAApodcasts.net. She is currently researching the graduate experience of on-campus and online students with Christina Wasson.

“Copyright 2008 American Anthropological Association. Reprinted from Anthropology News, Vol 49, issue 6, with the permission of the American Anthropological Association.”

My SfAA presentation is now available as a podcast “The Scholar-Practitioner in an Organizational Setting”

02 Friday May 2008

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

applied anthropology, Grad School, online-on-campus research, Research, SfAA, UNT Online Master's

My advisor, Christina Wasson, and I have been doing research comparing students’ experiences in the same graduate course for the last year and a half. The data that was collected came from an on-campus and online version of the same course, taught at the same time, and by the same professor.

Our panel was selected to be in the 2008 SfAA Podcasts. It’s a coincidence that I was on the panel- a group of people vote on the sessions. You can find the blog post containing the podcast, our PowerPoint, and our paper here.

It was an excellent panel and I really enjoyed it so I recommend you listen to it 🙂

American Anthropological Assoc. (AAA) launches a podcast series

01 Tuesday Apr 2008

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in SfAA Podcasts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

AAA, Anthropology

This is from the AAA eNews for April 2008:

“Tune in regularly to our bi-weekly podcast for news and updates on the AAA. To listen to the podcast, visit the AAA website and look under the “New Features” section on the homepage. To download the most recent podcast, please visit this site.

To subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, please visit this site”

While I’m sure they will not be quite as awesome as the SfAA podcasts, I can admit I am a bit biased towards the SfAA podcasts 😉

I’ll be interested to see how ‘successful’ the AAA’s podcasts are. One thing I noticed in their announcement was they didn’t provide an explanation about what a podcast is, etc. If I’m having trouble making these concepts accessible within the SfAA I can only imagine that the AAA will face similar struggles.

Regardless, I appreciate the AAA’s move into the 21st Century- I doubt they’ll do any sessions from the conference though…

SfAA Podcasts in Memphis, TN

20 Thursday Mar 2008

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in SfAA, SfAA Podcasts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Anthropology

I’ll be headed to Memphis on Tuesday, March 25th for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA). While there the SfAA Podcast team will be recording seventeen sessions (tba soon) and the Friday night awards for another round of the SfAA Podcasts!

If you’re a fan of the SfAA Podcasts (and why wouldn’t you be?) and want to show your support head over to the website and download one of our nifty badges (directions are there on how to do it).

If you’re headed to Memphis for the conference then make sure to stop by our info table near registration on Wednesday to pick up some of our cool swag. Sticker Giant is sponsoring the project so we’ll have some awesome stickers and other goodies for you.

And you can keep up with me and/or the SfAA Podcast project on Twitter 🙂

Developer-centric tech conferences as a (design) researcher

19 Wednesday Mar 2008

Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Anthropology, favorite, Field Work, FOWA

Back in February I attended the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) in Miami and BarCampMiami held in the same venue. My boyfriend is a developer so he wanted to attend this conference. I decided to go with him since it was semi-close to home and I wanted to learn more about the tech industry.

Essentially, my experience at FOWA was doing participant observation of the developer side of the tech industry. A large part of the speakers and materials covered was over my head since I have a limited knowledge but I learned a lot. I did walk away learning like I knew a bit more about their processes but more importantly I feel like I gained insight into their world. The majority of the talks focused on the development process and excluded user-centered research, or mentions of users in general. To be fair, the audience was likely interested in the former more than the later. I commented to someone that FOWA felt very developer-centric and lacked a focus on users. Their response was something to the effect of “users aren’t part of the process.” To be sure, they *should* be.

BarCampMiami was useful in that the presenters only focused on the basics of what they were discussing, i.e. OpenID, OAuth, etc. I actually learned about the subjects they presented rather than gained insight into the tech industry.

Last week I attended SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX and BarCampAustin. My experience at BarCampAustin was similar to that of Miami and I learned a lot (and had fun, BarCampAustin rocked!). SXSW was a different experience from FOWA for me though. In addition to gaining insight into and about the development process of web apps, software, etc. I became inspired by listening to the developers talk about their research.

This process of listening to people talk about their experiences to gain insights in/for research is nothing new if you’re familiar with anthropology. In listening to the developers, etc. discuss their research I discovered/thought of many ways that anthropological research could help their processes and goals. This is good knowledge to have when you’re looking for internships (me 😉 or if you want to do consulting work.

All and all, I really enjoyed FOWA, SXSWi, and both BarCamps. Given that most practicing/applied anthropologists will have a professional counterpart (for tech design research it’s designers/developers, for medical anthropology maybe it’s doctors, for educational anthropologists it’s teachers, etc.) and I believe that attending your counterparts’ conferences, etc. will be very valuable for you to be able to communicate with that communicate.

← Older posts

Top Posts

  • What I'm up to these days. Making a career move.

AAA Advocacy Anthropology applied anthropology BarCamp Blogging Books designanthro EPIC favorite Field Work FOWA Grad School HaHaHaHa Life Literature Management NaBloPoMo News online-on-campus research Organizations/Conferences Practicing practicing anthropology Research SfAA Software & Applications Student Anthro SXSW Uncategorized UNT Online Master's

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 22 other followers

RSS the unobservant anthropologist

  • What I’m up to these days. Making a career move.
  • AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION DISSOLVES, DECIDES TO START OVER TOMORROW
  • Blogging for four years!
  • Design anthropology literature review
  • I’m back! Well, I never really left…
  • Practitioner in Training: Entering into a Community of Practice as an Online Graduate Student
  • My SfAA presentation is now available as a podcast “The Scholar-Practitioner in an Organizational Setting”
  • American Anthropological Assoc. (AAA) launches a podcast series
  • SfAA Podcasts in Memphis, TN
  • Developer-centric tech conferences as a (design) researcher

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy