Center for Ethnographic Research (CER) | Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

Center for Ethnographic Research

Background image: Students walking past Doe Library

Image credit:

Photograph by Keegan Houser

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.

Center for Ethnographic Research News

Historic Tulsa & Reparations

October 8, 2021

ISSI faculty affiliate Jovan Scott Lewis, who is a member of California's state task force on reparations, is featured in this KPIX5 CBS Bay Area television interview about his...Read more about Historic Tulsa & Reparations

Qualitative Research Methods Summer Workshop Concludes

July 24, 2021

This summer, 14 undergraduate and graduate students from around the world gathered online for six weeks of instruction in qualitative research. The workshop, led by Sociology graduate students Meghna Mukherjee and Luis Tenorio, was sponsored by ISSI...Read more about Qualitative Research Methods Summer Workshop Concludes

The Hidden Agenda in GOP Attacks on Critical Race Theory

July 12, 2021

In this Berkeley News interview, Khiara Bridges, faculty affiliate of ISSI's Center for Ethnographic Research and Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, discusses how ...Read more about The Hidden Agenda in GOP Attacks on Critical Race Theory

Institute for the Study of Societal Issues