Associate Professor Krista Harper (anthropology and public policy) has co-authored a new book that will be published at the end of this month.
Participatory Visual and Digital Methods (Left Coast Press) is Harper’s second book. In it, she and co-author Aline Gubrium, assistant professor of public health, describe how to conduct an ethnographic study that engages subjects by using visual and digital methodologies. This new volume shows how technologies such as PhotoVoice, digital storytelling, geographic information systems, digital archives, and film and video can dramatically change the traditional relationship between academic researchers and the community. Harper and Gubrium argue that by using participatory technology and methods, the research process can be more democratic, inclusive and visually appealing.
Harper is an ethnographer, exploring issues related to the cultural politics of the environment, cities and food systems. She has led projects using participatory digital research methods to study environmental issues in a Hungarian Roma neighborhood, school food programs with youth in western Massachusetts, and civic organizations working on urban gardens and heritage preservation both nationally and globally. Harper is currently co-directing a project funded by the National Science Foundation titled Cultural Heritage in European Societies and Spaces. Her previous book, Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activists and Post-socialist Political Ecology in Hungary, explores environmental issues in 21st century Europe.