Experiments in Environmental Ethnography
Graduate Summer Institute
Experiments in Environmental Ethnography is a 2-week intensive Summer Institute open to students from interdisciplinary backgrounds who want to explore collaborative multimodal methods in an ethnographic mode. Each iteration of the course is distinct, but we focus on Montreal’s relation with water, inviting students to encounter the urban environment in new ways, and to build relations with it through collaborative research and creation.
Summer Institute 2026
Experiments in Environmental Ethnography: participant listening at the shoreline
Our second Summer Institute focused on sound, and how to record and speak with the shoreline. It included interventions from David Howes, Andrea Ballestero, Nikhil Anand, Magali Babin, Natalie Doonan, and was coordinated with the University of Oslo’s Anthropology department.
Summer Institute 2025
Mess and Methods: Experiments in Environmental Ethnography
The inaugural Summer Institute brought us to Verdun and Parc de Dieppe, where we explored the materiality of the shoreline. It included interventions from Zoe Todd, Andrea Muehlebach, Laura Ogden, Steven High, and Kathleen Vaughan. Through a series of workshops facilitated by the members of Montreal Waterways Collective, students got familiar with collaborative research methods and presented their findings in the form of a multimodal exhibit.