A methods workshop on ethnography in global health research was facilitated by anthropologists Dr Bulbul Siddiqi (North South University, Bangladesh) and Dr Ursula Read (University of Essex) at the University of Warwick on 9-10^th May 2024. Dr Read is honorary research fellow at Warwick Medical School and former senior research fellow on the NIHR TRANSFORM project. Dr Siddiqi leads the qualitative research for TRANSFORM in Bangladesh and was recently at Warwick for an IAS Visiting Fellowship.

The workshop was attended by 5 early career researchers and 7 PhD students from Warwick Medical School, Applied Linguistics, Warwick Business School and Law. This led to interesting interdisciplinary discussions on how ethnography can be used across these different fields.

The workshop featured presentations from Dr Read, Dr Siddiqi and Dr Kafayat Aminu from the College of MedicineLink opens in a new window, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a sociologist and research fellow on TRANSFORM. Dr Siddiqi provided introductions to ethnographic methods, including participant and non-participant observation, and using social theory. Dr Read presented on reflexivity in ethnographic research and recording observations, including fieldnotes and photographs. Dr Kafayat, who joined online, shared lessons learned on community engagement and ethics through conducting ethnography in slum communities in Ibadan.

Other online presentations included Dessalegn Kiross, a PhD student on the Wellcome Trust SCOPE project at the University of Addis Ababa, who shared his experiences of using ethnography to research family communication and involvement in the lives of people with psychosis in Ethiopia. Eleni Misganaw, founder of the Mental Health Service Users Association of Ethiopia and a researcher on NIHR HOPE project, reflected on involving people with lived experience in ethnographic research. Finally Emily Ahmed, a PhD student at Warwick, and community researcher Ruby Nayyar shared insights into combining participatory methods and ethnography.

Alongside the presentations and discussions, participants engaged in reflexivity exercises, practice observation and writing fieldnotes. The workshop also featured a screening of an ethnographic documentary, “Nkabom: A Little Medicine, A Little Prayer”, created as part of Dr Read’s research on collaboration between healers and mental health workers in Ghana. This was followed by a Q&A with Dr Lily Kpobi from the University of Ghana, a researcher on the project.

Feedback from participants was very positive as evidenced in the following quotes:

“It was an interesting and engaging workshop and it got me thinking about the various ways in which I might be able to incorporate ethnography into my research.”

“This was a really well-prepared and useful workshop with excellent presentations from a wide range of people covering different aspects and areas of the world.”

“Well organised. Very friendly and approachable experts.”

“I have a better understanding of ethnography and realize how useful and powerful it might be”

“it was both interesting and enjoyable, with really helpful input from so many different researchers.”

Participants were interested in further training on writing up ethnography, using film and photography, developing theory and interdisciplinary approaches to ethnographic research.

What’s next?

Following on from the workshop and the learning from TRANSFORM ethnography Dr Siddiqi and Dr Read will develop a toolkit on ethnography for the WICID methods lab toolkit series

Since the workshop Dr Read has been awarded a NIHR Global Health Research Cohort Academic Development Award (GHR CADA) with Dr Rosie Mayston, King’s College London and TRANSFORM Co-Investigator Dr Srividya Iyer, McGill University. This will build on experiences of using ethnography in TRANSFORM and HOPE to develop skills for early career researchers in co-producing ethical, theoretically informed ethnography. As part of the CADA activities, Dr Siddiqi, Dr Read and Dr Iyer will facilitate a workshop at the University of Ghana which will be attended by Dr Aminu and an early career researcher from the Nigeria team.