The Ethnography Division promotes research and teaching associated with the ethnographic study of communication. We seek to foster a distinctive community of communication scholars in and through which we work to understand and depict the human experience of communicating in a cultural context. We are interested in how people use symbol systems that organize their collective knowledge, beliefs, and values. We focus on how people meaningfully express their experience and interpret the expressions of others. In this process, we believe, people create, maintain, and transform their identities, their relationships, and their communities. We endorse the research methods of participant observation, qualitative interviewing, and artifact analysis as appropriate means for achieving this type of knowledge. We embrace both traditional and experimental means of representing ethnographic research. Finally, we promote effective pedagogy that exposes undergraduate and graduate students to the opportunities and challenges of conducting ethnographic research.
2023 Interest Group Leadership
- Chair: Abby Arnold-Patti, University of Memphis
- Vice Chair: Billy Huff, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Vice Chair-Elect: Tasha Dunn-Meyers, University of Toledo
- Immediate Past Chair: Loretta LeMaster, Arizona State University
- Secretary: Angela Gist-Mackey, University of Kansas
2023 NCA Positions
- Legislative Assembly
- Abby Arnold-Patti, University of Memphis
- Billy Huff, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Nominating Committee
- Loretta LeMaster, Arizona State University
ED Membership
Official count taken each January.
109th Annual Convention -- National Harbor, MD -- November 16 - 19, 2023.
Convention Resources
Award Calls
- ED Awards Call - Deadline: Friday, July 1 at 3:00 AM Eastern
Business Meeting Minutes
Interest Group Election