Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

The mission of the Center for Ethnographic Research (CER) is to promote and support interdisciplinary research on social issues using participant-observation and allied techniques. The Center has two mandates: research and training. The primary objective in the area of research is to provide in-depth understanding of issues and problems facing the variety of social environments throughout the world. In the area of training, the primary goal is to instruct undergraduate and graduate students in the principles and techniques of ethnographic methodology.