This is an annual graduate student conference hosted by one of several Chicago-area Sociology departments, including DePaul University, Loyola University, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the new addition of University of Wisconsin – Madison. It provides a venue through which graduate students can share their ethnographic scholarship with one another and get feedback from faculty based in the Chicago area.

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Students in all academic disciplines are invited to present their original ethnographic research. We take a broad view of ethnographic research. Papers can be based on a variety of ethnographic methods, including but not limited to: field observation, in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, autoethnography, visual ethnography, participant observation, and other forms of qualitative research. Papers in all substantive areas are welcome, whether or not they directly tie into the theme. In the past, presentation topics have included culture, class, crime, education, ethnicity, gender, family, globalization, health and illness, immigration, medicine, methodology, performance ethnography, race, religion, sexualities, social movements, technology, urban poverty, and work and employment.