The Ethnography Laboratory of the Department of Social Anthropology and History of the University of the Aegean was founded in 2000 (Official Government Gazette, 177/2-8-2000) and has been operating since supporting ethnographic research, as well as the wider elaboration of ethnographic methodology and qualitative research methods in University of the Aegean. The Department of Social Anthropology and History of the University of the Aegean has been for more than three decades one of the most important institutions of ethnographic research in Greece. The Ethnography Laboratory conducts funded and unfunded research, both at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels. The Laboratory has cooperated with many research bodies, such as: the National Center for Social Research, the National Documentation Center, the “Laboratory for Migration” of the Department of History, Archeology and Social Anthropology of the University of Thessaly, the “Laboratory of Social and Cultural Digital Documentation” of the Department of Sociology of the University of the Aegean, the “Institute for Studies on Migration and Ethnicity” of the University of Amsterdam.

Ethnography Seminars

From 2000 to the present, the Ethnography Laboratory has organized numerous anthropological research seminar, where junior and senior researchers had the opportunity to present their research work in an academic environment of creative dialogue and critical feedback.

 The ethnographic archive

The Ethnography Laboratory has been engaged in the collection, recording and classification of ethnographic texts (books, articles in magazines and collective volumes, theses) that refer to the Greek ethnographic context. The process of documenting publications in a centralized database on the Greek ethnography has also been linked to the online services of the National Documentation Center. The process of cataloging is in process and a significant number of relevant publications are already archived. (https://age.openabekt.gr/).

Future activity

For the forthcoming academic year, the Ethnography Laboratory plans to organize two methodology and research workshops, two thematic cycles of practical activities The key aim of the above activities is to familiarizing undergraduate students with anthropological field research, field research with participatory observation, in the city of Mytilene and on the island of Lesvos at large. The themes of the two cycles concern: 1) walking as a social activity and cultural experience, through techniques and methods that allow an anthropological and artistic approach 2) the practices of graffiti on the walls of the city, as a field of social claims, cultural reinventions and contemporary political expression and confrontation. The participants will have the opportunity to apply techniques and methods of ethnographic research in the wider social and cultural context of their student life, to use multiple means of recording and networking and to reflect practically on ethnographic research and documentation, on anthropological representation and diffusion of knowledge in academic and wider environments.