The Slow Reading Ethnography Experiment

While much has been published in anthropological discourse and teaching forums about the skills, practices and positionality of ethnographic writing, very little attention has been paid to the practices and experiences of ethnographic reading. Our project set out to investigate the potential for ‘slow reading’ within anthropological pedagogy. We invited anthropology undergraduates to select a book and engage in a period of slow reading over the vacation, before reporting back on their experiences through a focus group discussion. Students found that their ideals for slow reading were hard to realise, and we learned about the importance of appropriate spaces, times, and communities in practices of reading ethnography.