Applied ethnography: What is it and how do you do it? An introduction to ethnographic methods and analysis
| Dates: | 13 February 2026 |
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| Times: | 09:00 - 10:30 |
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| What is it: | Workshop |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr Laura Sheard |
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Online via Zoom - Register for link
Applied ethnography: What is it and how do you do it? An introduction to ethnographic methods and analysis
Dr Laura Sheard
This session is being carried out as part of STAND-Indonesia; an NIHR funded global health research group on sustainable care for depression/anxiety in Indonesia.
Laura Sheard is a qualitative methodologist, health sociologist and implementation scientist. She is a Reader in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research mostly focuses on health inequalities and healthcare improvement. Laura’s primary topic interests are prison healthcare, food insecurity, public health and the quality, safety and experience of healthcare. One of her main methodological interests is qualitative analysis and specifically the role of interpretation. She is a specialist in ethnographic methods, particularly longitudinal embedded ethnographies.
Have you ever wondered what ethnography is and how to conduct observational research?
Does it feel like you don’t know where to start with an ethnography?
Do you want to know more about what the researcher looks for and writes down?
And how ‘field notes’ are turned into a comprehensive analysis?
Ethnographic observational fieldwork has the potential to generate the most powerful and insightful research data about what people actually do rather than what they say they do. Laura Sheard will deliver a session focusing on the use of applied ethnographic methods in healthcare and community settings. She will broadly cover the following:
• useful background about the roots of the ethnographic tradition
• concrete examples of ethnographic research on hospital wards, in food banks and in policy spaces
• how to write field notes, demonstrated through real examples
• how to analyse field notes
• the ethical and methodological issues surrounding observational studies
There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion. Attendees will be encouraged to identify how they could use ethnographic methods in their own research contexts and topics.
Our project builds on strong partnerships between the University of Manchester, the University of Indonesia and Manchester Metropolitan University. It directly addresses two research priorities identified through collaboration with local Indonesian community groups. It is supported by the Indonesia Workforce Council at the Ministry of Health, and the Directors of Mental Health and Primary Care in Indonesia. Our group aims to improve health and productivity in Indonesia by increasing the availability and accessibility of evidence-based treatments for adults living with anxiety and depression.
Speaker
Dr Laura Sheard
Role: Qualitative methodologist, health sociologist & implementation scientist
Organisation: University of Manchester
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