Robin Shoaps | University of Alaska Fairbanks (original) (raw)
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Papers by Robin Shoaps
Journal of Archaeology and Education, 2021
This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience... more This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience for lower division undergraduate students. Our Virtual Field School course offers a field school experience that accommodates the unique make-up of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (where fifty-five percent of undergraduates are "nontraditional" students). Typical ethnographic field schools demand that students can spend four to six weeks in an international fieldsite. Alaska's geographic remoteness makes travel abroad prohibitively expensive for many students. Pedagogical and technological concerns are outlined, including the utilization of the SELIN distance delivery platform, coupled with Blackboard Learn. SELIN was created by anthropologists at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) as a means of teaching upper division anthropology majors inductive reasoning and observation skills. SELIN courses are centered on authentic multimedia documentation of fieldsites, rather than texts or lectures. The pedagogical merits of the choice of the ethnographic site-the Alaska dog mushing community of practice-are discussed in light of novice anthropology students' interests and abilities. The paper concludes by discussing the potential appeal of the virtual field school model to archaeology and the value of the unique type of multimedia materials created for the course for educational outreach.
This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience... more This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience for lower division undergraduate students. Our Virtual Field School course offers a field school experience that accommodates the unique make-up of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (where fifty-five percent of undergraduates are “nontraditional” students). Typical ethnographic field schools demand that students can spend four to six weeks in an international fieldsite. Alaska’s geographic remoteness makes travel abroad prohibitively expensive for many students. Pedagogical and technological concerns are outlined, including the utilization of the SELIN distance delivery platform, coupled with Blackboard Learn. SELIN was created by anthropologists at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) as a means of teaching upper division anthropology majors inductive reasoning and observation skills. SELIN courses are centered on authentic multimedia documentation of fieldsites, rather than text...
Open Anthropological Research
This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the rol... more This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the role of award ceremonies in maintaining and creating affective orientations toward rivalry among Alaska dog mushers. It focuses on award speeches given by dog mushers and others involved in the Alaska dog mushing community and reveals a “need for narrative” that has characterized sled dog racing since its origin as an (inter)national sport. Mushing “stories” are constitutive of public talk about wins and losses in the sport, as well as about race events that take place far from view on distant trails. Specifically, “accounts,” a humorous narrative genre that pivots upon unpredictable “instinct-driven” characteristics of canine athletes, serve as an important idiom for evoking chance in describing wins and losses. The performance and appreciation of these narratives constitute the intangible heritage of Alaska dog mushers, and accounts emerge as a semiotic resource for negotiating and downpl...
... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the neg... more ... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the negotiation of moral personhood in Sakapultek (Mayan) wedding counsels, Add Dissertation. Author: Robin Shoaps, Update Dissertation. Email: click here to access email. ...
Information Development
The study investigated the information-seeking behavior and information provision practices among... more The study investigated the information-seeking behavior and information provision practices among bilingual (Spanish and K’iche’) students and adults in a Maya town in highland Guatemala. The research combined participant observation ethnography (spanning a total of fifteen months from 2008-17) and interviews with current and retired teachers, Internet café founders and employees, the municipal librarian, students aged 10 and up as well as recent graduates and professionals. Ethnographic insights guided the identification of ‘information,’ the selection of study participants and the nature of questions they were asked. Although a rudimentary library in one form or another has been present since the early 1980s, employees of the library are not, and have never been the primary information providers in Nahualá. Rather, in the past teachers have played that role and many locally important and respected men continue to do so, while currently the employees of one Internet café in particu...
Anthropological Linguistics
American Anthropologist, 2017
Pragmatics a Quarterly Journal of the International Pragmatic Association, 2007
Unpublished Ph. D. …, 2004
... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the neg... more ... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the negotiation of moral personhood in Sakapultek (Mayan) wedding counsels, Add Dissertation. Author: Robin Shoaps, Update Dissertation. Email: click here to access email. ...
Text - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, 2000
This arfiele addresses the linguistic elements of the 'commonsense' rhetoric exemplifie... more This arfiele addresses the linguistic elements of the 'commonsense' rhetoric exemplified in Rush Limbaugh 's radio show. Rhetorical strategy is addressed from the viewpoint ofhow events andcharactersfrom thepolitical worid Out there' are represented linguistically for the purpose of persuasion. ...
The word in language is half someone else's. It becomes "one's own" only when the speaker populat... more The word in language is half someone else's. It becomes "one's own" only when the speaker populates it with his own intention, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention... it exists in other people's mouths, in other people's contexts, serving other people's intentions; it is from there that one must take the word, and make it one's own.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Jan 1, 2002
American Ethnologist, Jan 1, 2009
Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, Jan 1, 2009
Book Reviews by Robin Shoaps
Journal of Archaeology and Education, 2021
This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience... more This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience for lower division undergraduate students. Our Virtual Field School course offers a field school experience that accommodates the unique make-up of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (where fifty-five percent of undergraduates are "nontraditional" students). Typical ethnographic field schools demand that students can spend four to six weeks in an international fieldsite. Alaska's geographic remoteness makes travel abroad prohibitively expensive for many students. Pedagogical and technological concerns are outlined, including the utilization of the SELIN distance delivery platform, coupled with Blackboard Learn. SELIN was created by anthropologists at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) as a means of teaching upper division anthropology majors inductive reasoning and observation skills. SELIN courses are centered on authentic multimedia documentation of fieldsites, rather than texts or lectures. The pedagogical merits of the choice of the ethnographic site-the Alaska dog mushing community of practice-are discussed in light of novice anthropology students' interests and abilities. The paper concludes by discussing the potential appeal of the virtual field school model to archaeology and the value of the unique type of multimedia materials created for the course for educational outreach.
This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience... more This paper describes the creation of an asynchronous on-line ethnographic field school experience for lower division undergraduate students. Our Virtual Field School course offers a field school experience that accommodates the unique make-up of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (where fifty-five percent of undergraduates are “nontraditional” students). Typical ethnographic field schools demand that students can spend four to six weeks in an international fieldsite. Alaska’s geographic remoteness makes travel abroad prohibitively expensive for many students. Pedagogical and technological concerns are outlined, including the utilization of the SELIN distance delivery platform, coupled with Blackboard Learn. SELIN was created by anthropologists at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) as a means of teaching upper division anthropology majors inductive reasoning and observation skills. SELIN courses are centered on authentic multimedia documentation of fieldsites, rather than text...
Open Anthropological Research
This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the rol... more This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the role of award ceremonies in maintaining and creating affective orientations toward rivalry among Alaska dog mushers. It focuses on award speeches given by dog mushers and others involved in the Alaska dog mushing community and reveals a “need for narrative” that has characterized sled dog racing since its origin as an (inter)national sport. Mushing “stories” are constitutive of public talk about wins and losses in the sport, as well as about race events that take place far from view on distant trails. Specifically, “accounts,” a humorous narrative genre that pivots upon unpredictable “instinct-driven” characteristics of canine athletes, serve as an important idiom for evoking chance in describing wins and losses. The performance and appreciation of these narratives constitute the intangible heritage of Alaska dog mushers, and accounts emerge as a semiotic resource for negotiating and downpl...
... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the neg... more ... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the negotiation of moral personhood in Sakapultek (Mayan) wedding counsels, Add Dissertation. Author: Robin Shoaps, Update Dissertation. Email: click here to access email. ...
Information Development
The study investigated the information-seeking behavior and information provision practices among... more The study investigated the information-seeking behavior and information provision practices among bilingual (Spanish and K’iche’) students and adults in a Maya town in highland Guatemala. The research combined participant observation ethnography (spanning a total of fifteen months from 2008-17) and interviews with current and retired teachers, Internet café founders and employees, the municipal librarian, students aged 10 and up as well as recent graduates and professionals. Ethnographic insights guided the identification of ‘information,’ the selection of study participants and the nature of questions they were asked. Although a rudimentary library in one form or another has been present since the early 1980s, employees of the library are not, and have never been the primary information providers in Nahualá. Rather, in the past teachers have played that role and many locally important and respected men continue to do so, while currently the employees of one Internet café in particu...
Anthropological Linguistics
American Anthropologist, 2017
Pragmatics a Quarterly Journal of the International Pragmatic Association, 2007
Unpublished Ph. D. …, 2004
... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the neg... more ... Dissertation Information. Title: Morality in Grammar and Discourse: Stance-taking and the negotiation of moral personhood in Sakapultek (Mayan) wedding counsels, Add Dissertation. Author: Robin Shoaps, Update Dissertation. Email: click here to access email. ...
Text - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, 2000
This arfiele addresses the linguistic elements of the 'commonsense' rhetoric exemplifie... more This arfiele addresses the linguistic elements of the 'commonsense' rhetoric exemplified in Rush Limbaugh 's radio show. Rhetorical strategy is addressed from the viewpoint ofhow events andcharactersfrom thepolitical worid Out there' are represented linguistically for the purpose of persuasion. ...
The word in language is half someone else's. It becomes "one's own" only when the speaker populat... more The word in language is half someone else's. It becomes "one's own" only when the speaker populates it with his own intention, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention... it exists in other people's mouths, in other people's contexts, serving other people's intentions; it is from there that one must take the word, and make it one's own.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Jan 1, 2002
American Ethnologist, Jan 1, 2009
Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, Jan 1, 2009
This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the rol... more This paper draws from linguistic anthropological and ethnographic fieldwork to illustrate the role of award ceremonies in maintaining and creating affective dimensions of community. Award speeches given by dog mushers and others involved in the sport-or the Alaska competitive dog mushing community of practice-are the focal ritual site for negotiating tensions between rivalry and solidarity that may arise in racing sports. Close analysis of these award speeches is shown to be crucial to understanding communities of sporting practice. Specifically, "accounts," a humorous narrative genre that pivots upon negative "instinct-driven" characteristics of canine athletes, serve as an important idiom for evoking chance in describing wins and losses. These narratives become a ritual resource for negotiating and downplaying rivalry and enacting solidarity through orchestration of embodied intersubjective sentiments, i.e. affect.