Georgia College professor Amy Johnson is partnering with Allied Arts to host the “Public Life, Public Space” exhibit April 30, which will feature four research presentations by student teams in her Ethnographic Methods class.
“Ethnography is a method that anthropologists use to study how people’s everyday life is made meaningful for them. We look deeply into practices, activities, ways of talking and interacting with other people,” said Johnson.
“Through those different actions, we discern what is important to the community and that particular place.”
Nineteen students were split into four teams to study how public spaces facilitate community- building for Milledgeville residents. The sites they studied include the Oconee River Greenway, Walter B. Williams and City Parks, different branches of the Mary Vinson Public Library, and downtown Milledgeville.
“The results show different dimensions of community- building that occur within and across these spaces, pointing toward the continued importance of public space for increasing meaningful social interactions among Milledgeville residents,” said Johnson.
This was Johnson’s first year teaching the class, as she began teaching at Georgia College in Fall of 2023. She also teaches anthropology.
When creating the curriculum, she chose locations to study that were easily accessible to the public and students, were inclusive, and welcoming for a broad number of people.
“Students conducted what is known as participant observation, which is essentially a way of immersing yourself in a site by doing what others are doing,” said Johnson.
“They were doing activities happening at the site.
For example, at the City Park, they were studying the playground and were assisting the parents and playing with kids. At the Oconee River Greenway, students were kayaking, fishing, or walking the trails and so on.”
According to Johnson, alongside this participation, students reflected on the actions, interviewed subjects, held informal conversations, used the sensory method to take videos, photos, and take stock of the different smells and sounds, completed spatial mapping, and spent time coding.
“Their projects began in early February. They had eight weeks of direct field work and two weeks of preparing their findings,” said Johnson. “At Allen’s Market each team will give a 15-minute presentation describing their main findings and present one theme they focused on.
Then, following all presentations, there will be a Q & A to talk one-on-one with the students.”
The exhibit is free to the public and will be hosted at Allen’s Market, at 101 Floyd L Griffin Jr. St., from 2-3:30 p.m. Each team followed the Institutional Review Board (IRB) ethics review process at Georgia College, which makes it possible for them to share what they learned from residents with the community.
“The board looks over research proposals and ensures ethical standards are met in terms of research with human subjects. The class underwent an ethical review to be able to share our research and each student was certified through an ethics class by the IRB,” said Johnson. “They are excited to share their research with the community and we hope people will come out to listen and interact with them.”
Johnson stated there are plans to host this project again next year and part of the event will also be taking feedback for ideas about how the class can explore different sides of public life in the future.
For any questions about the project or any specifics after the presentations, email Amy Johnson at amy.johnson@gcsu.edu.