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Trying the Way:Ethnographic Glimpses of York University

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Date

2016-06-15

Authors

Van Esterik, Penny
Baker, Laurie

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Abstract

To our knowledge, this is the first ethnography of a Canadian university. Why write an ethnography of York University, or of any university, for that matter? The initial impetus for this project was to write an ethnography to complement the history produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of York in 2009 (Horn 2009). Underlying this intention was a concern that neither national surveys, nor Maclean’s ranking of Canadian universities, nor public relations branding campaigns could capture the essence of York culture or counter anti-York writing in the media. York was not well served by these approaches, and we thought that an ethnography might do better. In the public media, universities are often targets of anti-intellectual rants; but criticism of universities often comes from people who are not familiar with the complexity of university cultures. We thought that as anthropologists, we should be able to capture and communicate that complexity.

Description

This work included the participation of York students under the name "The KROY Collective" (Kroy is York spelled backwards.)The Kroy Collective is a group of students who contributed substantially to the research and came to workshops/meetings to brainstorm about the ethnography. The collective members acted as a focus group, bringing observations and questions to workshop-like settings, and exchanging information. Some members provided written reflections about an event; others critiqued outlines and early drafts of written pieces. Collective members attended open meetings on campus life, planning exercises, and political protests.

Keywords

1. York University (Toronto, Ont.). 2. Universities and colleges-- Ontario--Toronto. 3. Education, Higher--Ontario--Toronto. 4. Ethnology--Ontario--Toronto. 5. College students--Ontario--Toronto-- Social life and customs.

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