Public ethnography is the act of making public the results of ethnographic research used to learn about some aspect of human society. Ideally, the public gains as much insight (or as much of it as they wish to know) as the researchers who gathered it. Knowledge is for all of us.
This website is a gathering place for the summarized research of two different classes of IICS605 at Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. The information shared spans many continents and countries and so far covers the years 2020-2021. Here you will find museums, historical sites, libraries, galleries, parks, events, and groups of artists and dancers who have found creative ways to come to us while we have been unable to get to them.
In the face of unprecedented challenges during a global pandemic, the institutions highlighted here have been hard at work reimagining not only the ways in which they reach us – the public – but also what they bring to us: the art, music, theatre, nature, history, people, and stories connecting and carrying us in uncertain times. The COVID-19 pandemic has steered us online to find one another but also ourselves, and it is in these digital spaces that new and exciting things are happening.
We hope you enjoy exploring the curated online spaces and experiences we point to as much as we have enjoyed researching them, and that you decide to share what you’ve learned here with others.