Roxanne Varzi is a writer, artist, filmmaker, playwright, dyslexia ally and Full Professor of Anthropology and Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She has a PhD in Social Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University, held the first Fulbright Fellowship to Iran since the Revolution, and was the youngest Distinguished Senior Iranian Visiting Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at New York University.
What is the assignment?
For the final project of the Multimodal Anthropology (Anth 129) course, students are asked to create a two-part research project:
For the first part, students may choose any combination of modalities that were used throughout the quarter (including sight, sound, theater, poetry, essay, diorama, fiction, etc.) to communicate their research findings and argument. Students use peer-reviewed articles, books from the library, class readings, and/or original ethnographic research as research materials.
For the second part of the project, students are asked to write an artist statement or essay explaining their research methodology and why they chose to use the modes that they did.
How does it work?
By encouraging students to present their research in any mode, students have the chance to engage different audiences and make complex decisions about the ways their research argument, audience, and mode of expression work together. Students are also able to practice working with modes that they encountered in class, strengthening their pedagogical memory, and get to play to their own strengths as communicators.
Giving students the opportunity to learn what they are capable of also helps students explore communicating to different audiences and perhaps even gain perspective about potential career directions. Additionally, expanding the notion of acceptable forms of research communication can increase accessibility for students. Many students benefit from alternative assessments and data output options. This is especially true of, but not limited to, students with neurodiversities.
Student Artifact:
Nathaniel Gonzalez created a diorama of a coffee shop scene, to reflect his ethnographic research on third places. He paired his diorama with a research statement that he wrote in the form of a magazine article about the diorama, in which he included photographs of the diorama.
Read Nathaniel’s final project here.
What do students say?
“I think that, if you want to reach people, you need to tap into that childlike enjoyment of the world…The success of the fantasy genre is a perfect example of how meaningful it is for people to ‘escape’ from the difficulties of adult living. In this, I feel like the best way to reach people about new topics or concepts…is to teach it to them without them realizing they are being taught. Hence, why I created a fantasy short story for my ethnography final project.” — Student A
Why does this work?
I love the way Nathaniel built the diorama to make his point but then also took the prompt a step further by using the form of a magazine article to write his artist statement. It’s an incredibly creative way of getting his information on third spaces across to relevant audiences. Nathaniel’s class was the first time I introduced the diorama as an option, so it was especially fun to see students embrace that as a form.
Check out these resources for developing multimodal communication assignments:
- Death in a Nutshell: An Anthropology Whodunit by Dr. Roxanne Varzi introduces students to the concept of visual anthropology through a murder-mystery story.
- Multimodal Projects and Digital Composition Tools by Purdue OWL
- Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud can provide students with a model for communicating visually.
