Happy New Year.

Our group is for fieldwork-base researchers in anthropology, sociology, popular culture, geography, political science, media studies and related fields. We are now in our 20th year.

This is a group for younger researchers currently in the field, usually doing the data collection for their dissertation. In order to keep numbers down, we are now in our closed format, limiting participation to regular members. This enables us to work more in depth on different methodological challenges, and to circulate papers, chapters or proposals for comment and discussion.

We have a number of different functions:
1. To share methodological knowledge and techniques around our fieldwork, eg., writing better fieldnotes, improving interview techniques, developing networking and data management strategies, etc.
2. To share published theoretical and ethnographic work on different aspects of our research.
3. To present work in progress to a closed small group of researchers working in Japan but on different topics.
4. To aid in professionalization, eg, targeting journals, sharing grant information, putting together panels for conferences, etc

We usually meet once a month at Sophia University, Yotsuya Campus, Tokyo around the particular members' schedules, and go out for a beer or meal afterward.

If you are interesting in joining this year, please contact me directly (d.h.slater@gmail.com) with a short bio and description about your research.

Sincerely,
David Slater