The Qualitative Research Methods Center

presents:

Evaluation Anthropology

Anna Jefferson, Presenter

Cultural anthropology draws from a wide range of theories, philosophies, and methods to understand and improve the human condition—mandates that are also inherent in our enterprise as evaluators seeking to improve people’s lives worldwide. Beyond its standard set of qualitative data collection tools, anthropology can make several unique contributions to evaluation including cultural competence, fieldwork and participant observation, understanding program context, and interpretive frameworks. We will discuss anthropologically-informed evaluations inside and outside Abt, including strategies for incorporating fieldwork into Abt contracts, addressing its costs, and selling ethnographic fieldwork to clients—to continue to build company capacity for anthropological and other naturalistic approaches.

Anna Jefferson is a senior analyst in Abt Associates’ Social and Economic Policy Division, specializing in housing and asset-building for economically vulnerable households. Recent work includes evaluations of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s neighborhood stabilization program, housing counseling program, and homelessness prevention. She holds a PhD in anthropology, for which she wrote an ethnography of the foreclosure crisis in Michigan, examining how distressed homeowners and housing professionals navigated the loss mitigation process and renegotiated ideas about the American Dream.

Thursday, August 22, 2013 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Locations

Conference Room One, Atlanta; Potomac Room, Bethesda; Ramp Room 3, Cambridge; and Hatteras Room, Durham

Telecommuters, please call in:

Domestic telecommuters: 1-888-446-7584

International telecommuters: 1-212-372-3742

Participant code:  8350358

To view the slides:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/208320801

Meeting ID: 208-320-801