Now accepting applications for:
- Online 2 Month Course 'Fieldcraft' 2/1-3/29
- On-island 2 Month Advanced Methods 6/5-8/1
- On-island 3 Week Methods Practicum 6/12-7/3
The Isla Mujeres Ethnographic Field School (I.F.S.) is dedicated to the professionalization of ethnographic research and the training of students on how to conduct ethical, meaningful, and professional research. Our mission is to train ethnographers that we are confident in and that we know can get the job done. Be it future graduate school research or projects for employers. Our trained ethnographers can tackle a research project from beginning to end with confidence, experience, and know-how.
Students will participate in formal lectures, informal presentations, service learning, government meetings and briefings, and ethnographic research that serves to assist the people of Isla Mujeres either through applied anthropological techniques or through creating a more full ethnographic record that illuminates the island's past, present, and possible future. Students will be immersed in the culture of the island and will conduct collaborative research with its residents. Students will learn the value of teamwork by helping each other on projects, talking through field research problems, and supporting each other in their professional development.
We train both undergraduate and graduate students. We also have post-docs who attend the Field School for further training and career development. Our program gives students the cutting edge needed to get into good graduate school programs, develop graduate school dissertation research (which will help in securing research funding for dissertations), and will help them land the job they want in the discipline. Some undergraduates have used their experience and data for senior thesis projects, while graduate students use it for pilot research to develop their Master's thesis or Doctoral dissertations.