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.
2024 Interest Group Leadership
- Chair: Billy Huff, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Vice Chair: Tasha Dunn, University of Toledo
- Vice Chair-Elect: Wilfredo Alvarez, Metropolitain State University of Denver
- Immediate Past Chair: Abby Arnold-Patti, University of Memphis
- Secretary: Angela Gist-Mackey, University of Kansas
2024 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 (2013-2024)
Official count taken each January.
Award Calls
- Coming Soon
Business Meeting Minutes
Interest Group Election