OxDEG: The Oxford Digital Ethnography Group

Start date:
Sep 2013
End date:
Dec 2020
Contact:
Tomas Borsa

OxDEG, the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group, comprises students and faculty members from Oxford University who discuss and share ideas about the evolution of ethnography in a heavily mediated world.

Overview

OxDEG, the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group, comprises students and faculty members from Oxford University who discuss and share ideas about the evolution of ethnography in a heavily mediated world.

The aim of this group is to provide a platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration among students and staff with interests in digital ethnography and qualitative research practice in an online environment from across the university.

In October 2011, an unofficial interdisciplinary seminar group was started by Dr William Kelly of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) and Dr Eric T. Meyer of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) to provide a space for students and faculty to meet to discuss ethnographic practice in the digital realm. The positive response from students and faculty across the university led to students taking a leading role in 2013 with a small grant from the Economic and Social Research Council through Oxford’s Doctoral Training in Social Science program. This year, we will have a combination of invited speakers and seminars to engage with the latest questions and research methods in digital ethnography.

The overarching theme is digital ethnography, broadly conceived. The group aims to extend inter-disciplinary academic research and collaboration among scholars at Oxford University interested in understanding rich, qualitative approaches to researching behaviour online. It will encompass a variety of research interests within this field, including digital visual anthropology as well as a variety of qualitative, ethnographic methodologies appropriate to the study of the digital environment.

The Programme

Check http://dkc.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/ for the current programme.

Contact

Be sure to sign up to the mailing list to find out more about upcoming events and seminars: ox-internet-ethnography-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OxDEG

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OXDEG

This project is ongoing.

Latest blog posts

Digital Ethnography Group Term Card MT 2015

Date Published: 6 October 2015 - 2:18 pm

Authors: Eric Meyer

The term card for the Michaelmas OxDEG Digital Ethnography sessions is out. We look forward to seeing you there! Click the image to download ...
Read More Digital Ethnography Group Term Card MT 2015
Technology and Fieldwork: Ethnographic quandaries

Date Published: 2 December 2013 - 3:29 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

John McManus studies Turkish football fans in the diaspora at Oxford University’s Center on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas). Editor’s note: This event report is ...
Read More Technology and Fieldwork: Ethnographic quandaries
Christine Hine on virtual ethnography’s E3 Internet

Date Published: 29 November 2013 - 1:29 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

Christine Hine is an early pioneer of virtual ethnography and has been at the forefront of movements towards redefining ethnography for the digital age. ...
Read More Christine Hine on virtual ethnography’s E3 Internet

People

Professor David Zeitlyn

Professor of Social Anthropology, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
Professor Rebecca Eynon

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Dr William Kelly

Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford

Events

OxDEG: How can ethnography inform policy? Insights from digital ethnographic methods and the social semantic network

14 June 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

The OII welcomes Amelia Hassoun, Leonie Schulte and Kate J Sim for this final OxDEG seminar of the term.
OxDEG – Exploring the Flat Earth: Beliefs, Identity, and Rationality

25 May 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

OxDEG is pleased to welcome Dr. Peaks Krafft to deliver this online session
OxDEG – Living with Technology, Turning Down the News: Forces of Disenchantment and Re-Enchantment in a Community of Digital Detoxers

17 May 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

OxDEG is pleased to welcome Dr. Theodora Sutton to deliver this online session.
OxDEG: Digital Ethnographic Methods Surgery 3

8 March 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

Join us for our third ethnographic methods surgery, where we invite students and researchers to bring their methodological questions and receive advice from organisers and attendees.
OxDEG: Deceitful media: Artificial Intelligence and social life after the Turing Test

22 February 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

Professor Simone Natale will argue that AI resides also, and especially, in the perception of human users. This talk will present materials from his new monograph, Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test.
OxDEG: The performance of (many) selves in everyday digital life: immersive cohabitation and self-portraiture as a viable ethnographic method

8 February 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

Dr Joshua Bluteau will discuss his paper 'The performance of (many) selves in everyday digital life: immersive cohabitation and self-portraiture as a viable ethnographic method'.
OxDEG: Civic Technology and ethnography: navigating theory, politics and power

25 January 2021, 15:30 - 17:00

A small panel comprising of Dr Andrew Schrock, Cyd Harrell and Alex Blandford will discuss the ways that qualitative research, political power and technology meet in government internet projects.
OxDEG: Fedoras, Virgins, and Hardware: Hackathons and the social dynamics of competitive creation

30 November 2020, 15:30 - 17:00

Siân Brooke will present her findings from research into gender at hackathons and programming competitions across the UK. The presentation builds on an ethnography of six hackathons undertaken in 2019-2020, part of the data for a forthcoming DPhil thesis
OxDEG: Music Videos and Prosthetic Memories in Pakistan’s Coke Studio

16 November 2020, 15:30 - 17:00

The OII is delighted to present Dr Richard Williams (SOAS University of London) and Rafay Mahmood (Habib University) for the next OxDEG session, discussing The Coke Studio in Pakistan, and it's effects on the arts in the country's narrative.
OxDEG: Do we need a canonised digital social research?

2 November 2020, 15:30 - 17:00

The Oxford Internet Institute welcomes Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri for this Digital Ethnography webinar session on the extent of innovation that the digital world is bringing to research.
OxDEG: The Intellivision System: Video Game History, Affordance Zones, and Productive Constraint

19 October 2020, 16:30 - 18:00

The OII is delighted to welcome Tom Boellstorff for this digital ethnography session. He is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.
OxDEG Digital Ethnographic Methods Surgery 2

18 June 2020, 15:30 - 17:00

We will be running a second instalment of our ethnographic methods surgery, where students and researchers can bring questions about their project to receive advice from organisers and attendees.
OxDEG – The Moral Machine Experiment

29 January 2020, 16:30 - 18:00

OXDEG presents the first Hilary Term seminar - The Moral Machine Experiment with Edmond Awad
OXDEG ‘Don’t forget to like, subscribe and turn on the bell notifications’

6 November 2019, 16:30 - 18:00

We are delighted to welcome Zoë Glatt for an OxDEG talk on 'An (auto)ethnography of YouTube creators’ labour in the online video industry'
OXDEG: Analogue methods in a digital world

5 June 2019, 16:30 - 18:00

OXDEG welcomes the talk 'Analogue methods in a digital world: what the Knowledge of London tells us about knowledge in the digital age' by Barclay Bram Shoemaker.
OxDeg: The Disappearing YouTube Archives of the Syrian War

28 November 2018, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Dr Dima Saber from Birmingham City University for the OxDeg talk "The Disappearing YouTube Archives of the Syrian War".
OxDeg: Answering the Call of Duty: Popular Geopolitics and Playing Virtual War

14 November 2018, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Dr Daniel Bos from the University of Oxford for the OxDeg talk "Answering the Call of Duty: Popular Geopolitics and Playing Virtual War".
OxDeg: Researching Data in Humanitarianism: Ethnographic challenges

31 October 2018, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Margie Cheesman and Léa Macias for the OxDeg talk 'Researching Data in Humanitarianism: Ethnographic challenges'.
OxDeg: Ethnography of and in the state: perspectives on qualitative research in government service design

21 February 2018, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Alex Blandford for the OxDeg talk 'Ethnography of and in the state: perspectives on qualitative research in government service design'.
OxDeg: Digital detox: One Forest, Two Cities, and My Facebook

7 February 2018, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to have Theodora Sutton, DPhil student at the OII, for the OxDeg talk 'Digital detox: One Forest, Two Cities, and My Facebook'.
OxDeg: The Internet is for Strangers: Virtual and real modes of obligation, the case of Timor Leste

24 January 2018, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Dominik Lukes from Saïd Business School for the OxDeg talk 'The Internet is for Strangers: Virtual and real modes of obligation, the case of Timor Leste'.
OxDeg: Anthropology, Ethnography, and the Study of Online Sexual Offending

29 November 2017, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Dr Jonah Rimer from the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography for the OxDeg talk 'Anthropology, Ethnography, and the Study of Online Sexual Offending'.
OxDeg: Introducing Project Seventy: A disruption of visual culture

15 November 2017, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Dr. Alison Kahn from Oxford Brooke's University for the OxDeg talk 'Introducing Project Seventy:Introducing Project Seventy- a disruption of visual culture'.
OxDeg: The impacts of official conspiracy theories: The Gezi Park protests

1 November 2017, 16:30 - 18:00

The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to welcome Dr Türkay Salim Nefes from the Sociology Department at the University of Oxford for the OxDeg talk 'The impacts of official conspiracy theories: The Gezi Park protests'.
Use of the photovoice method in information studies

1 February 2017, 16:30 - 18:00

This seminar series, created by the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group, gathers leading scholars and practitioners to reflect on how ethnography is adapting to the study of heavily-mediated worlds.
OxDeg: Mixed methods and hyper-triangulation

23 November 2016, 16:30 - 18:00

This seminar series, created by the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group, gathers leading scholars and practitioners to reflect on how ethnography is adapting to the study of heavily-mediated worlds.
Digital Ethnography All Hands Meeting

9 November 2016, 16:30 - 18:00

This meeting is to re-establish who we are as OxDEG, and what we will be doing in the coming year.
OxDeg: Mixing It: Digital Ethnography, Internet-Mediated Musics, and Genre

26 October 2016, 16:30 - 18:00

This seminar series, created by the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group, gathers leading scholars and practitioners to reflect on how ethnography is adapting to the study of heavily-mediated worlds.
Out of sync: An ethnographically informed investigation into how different mHealth stakeholders understand efficiency in Kenya and Uganda

15 June 2016, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

David Simon will be speaking about his fieldwork-based research, and then discussing the role of method in his approach.
Anthropological Responses to the idea of Big Data: a discussion

1 June 2016, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

Anthropological Responses to the idea of Big Data: a discussion
The Facebook of Revelation: social media and pentecostalism’s effects on violence amongst low income Brazilians

18 May 2016, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

Juliano Spyer will be speaking about his fascinating research on social media in Brazil, which is part of his forthcoming book on the subject - ‘Social Media in Emergent Brazil’ (UCL Press 2016)
Conducting Mixed Method and Ethnographic Research in the Digital Age: Using Mobile Phones and Geospatial Internet Technologies to Collaborate With Youth on the Move

9 February 2016, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

This seminar series gathers leading scholars and practitioners to reflect on how ethnography is adapting to the study of heavily-mediated worlds.
Emerging conventions in digital ‘art worlds’: Production cultures of crowdsourced films

27 October 2015, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

Drawing on a multiyear digital ethnography of an online filmmaking community, this session provides insights into production cultures enabling crowdsourced films.
Researching Virtual Worlds and Virtual Environments (OxDEG)

25 November 2014, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

This talk will reflect on work about shared virtual worlds and virtual environments, including various methods to study them and how this field has developed.
Censorship and Information Controls (OxDEG)

11 November 2014, 16:30:00 - 18:00:00

This session will form a roundtable discussion reflecting on the digital ethnography of censorship practices.

Videos

OxDEG Digital Ethnographic Methods Surgery 2

Duration: 01:23:35

Date: 18 June 2020

Lockdown has presented unexpected hurdles to students and researchers hoping to conduct ethnography this year, and many have turned ... Read More OxDEG Digital Ethnographic Methods Surgery 2
OxDEG: Do we need a canonised digital social research?

Duration: 01:28:40

Date: 2 November 2020

The OII welcomes Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri for this digital ethnography session. He is Professor of Research Methodology and Cognitive ... Read More OxDEG: Do we need a canonised digital social research?
OxDEG: Music Videos and Prosthetic Memories in Pakistan’s Coke Studio

Duration: 01:33:19

Date: 16 November 2020

The OII is delighted to present Dr Richard Williams (SOAS University of London) and Rafay Mahmood (Habib University), for ... Read More OxDEG: Music Videos and Prosthetic Memories in Pakistan’s Coke Studio
Oxdeg Seminar Open Source Justice: Digital Archives and the Criminal State, with Ronald Niezen

Duration: 01:17:55

Date: 3 May 2021

The first Oxford Digital Ethnography Talk of Trinity Term

Blog

Digital Ethnography Group Term Card MT 2015

Date Published: 6 October 2015 - 2:18 pm

Authors: Eric Meyer

The term card for the Michaelmas OxDEG Digital Ethnography sessions is out. We look forward to seeing you there! Click the image to download ...
Read More Digital Ethnography Group Term Card MT 2015
Technology and Fieldwork: Ethnographic quandaries

Date Published: 2 December 2013 - 3:29 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

John McManus studies Turkish football fans in the diaspora at Oxford University’s Center on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas). Editor’s note: This event report is ...
Read More Technology and Fieldwork: Ethnographic quandaries
Christine Hine on virtual ethnography’s E3 Internet

Date Published: 29 November 2013 - 1:29 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

Christine Hine is an early pioneer of virtual ethnography and has been at the forefront of movements towards redefining ethnography for the digital age. ...
Read More Christine Hine on virtual ethnography’s E3 Internet
Digital Visual Anthropology: Envisaging the field

Date Published: 28 November 2013 - 4:02 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

Shireen Walton is a D.Phil student in Anthropology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford and member of the Oxford Digital ...
Read More Digital Visual Anthropology: Envisaging the field
Glorious Backfires in Digital Ethnography: Becoming an Urban Explorer

Date Published: 12 November 2013 - 1:31 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

For four years, Bradley Garrett (@Goblinmerchant) explored abandoned hospitals, railways, tunnels and rooftops as part of his PhD ethnography studying an elite group of ...
Read More Glorious Backfires in Digital Ethnography: Becoming an Urban Explorer
November 2013: Being a student ethnographer

Date Published: 7 November 2013 - 5:02 pm

Authors: Heather Ford

This month’s theme is about what it means to be a student ethnographer and is edited by Ethnomatters co-founder, Heather Ford (@hfordsa), a current DPhil ...
Read More November 2013: Being a student ethnographer