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Team of UMass Anthropologists Leads Workshop in Basque Country
A team of UMass anthropologists recently led a method-training workshop at the Agirre Lehendakaria Center in Bilbao, Spain.
Over the course of the five-day workshop, Krista Harper, professor of public policy and anthropology, Jackie Urla, professor of anthropology, and Christa Burdick, a doctoral candidate in anthropology, presented and discussed participatory digital research methods with 15 researchers affiliated with the Agirre Center. Participants conducted a photo-voice and linguistic landscape project on urban space in Bilbao and learned the basics of coding with qualitative data analysis software.
The UMass team hopes to build on this experience and create student opportunities to carry out participatory research with the Agirre Center in the future.
“We feel so lucky to have a chance to work with this incredible group of participatory action researchers in the Basque Country,” Harper said.
The Agirre Center was created by Juan Jose Ibarretxe, former president of the Basque Autonomous Community, who came to campus in April 2018 to deliver the anthroplology department’s annual lecture for the William A. Douglass Chair in Basque Cultural Studies. The Agirre Center conducts research throughout the Basque country identifying key narratives of the Basque cultural experience, with the goal of recommending and co-creating socially responsive policies and programs.