Whether it’s a lesson on the Mauryan Empire or a class delving into the role of women in Islam, she makes her subject come alive for her students,” said Head of School Bruce L. Dennis about Upper School History teacher Sandra Fahy. 

In her first lecture as the 2017-19 Babbott Chair of Literature and the Arts, excerpted below, she spoke about developing a greater appreciation of human diversity using an “ethnographic lens.” 

Part of being self-aware means developing skills of ethnographic observation. So, what does that actually mean? I often joke that it’s a bit like that scene in The Bourne Identity, when Jason Bourne is sitting in a restaurant with the woman who will become his girlfriend. He says to her, “I can tell you the license-plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215 pounds and knows how to handle himself... Now why would I know that?” 

I always want to respond by saying, “You might know that because you’re an international spy, but you might also be trained as an anthropologist, using your skills of observation to study the world around you.” 

All joking aside, observation is a difficult skill to develop, not least because it’s often hard for us to slow down in our lives, to be fully present, and to take notice of what’s happening around us. But it’s fundamental if we want to work against an ethnocentric view of the world. 

Don’t confuse ethnographic observation, however, with situational awareness, which often is used to mean being aware of our surroundings so we recognize potential dangers. It means seeing that a car is coming as we cross the street with our earbuds in. It means noticing where the closest deli is if someone is following us down the street. It means, to paraphrase Jason Bourne, knowing where the exits are in case of an emergency. 

Situational awareness, though, keeps the focus on the self or the ego perspective — a perspective that places us at its center. It focuses on how we fit into our environment and how our environment directly affects us. Observation from an ethnographic perspective requires that we shift the focus away from us, away from our ego perspective, and instead to others, even as it still asks us to pay attention to details.

Observation also includes listening. An ethnographic approach to listening means removing ourselves from the conversation as much as possible. It means really hearing what people are saying, listening to their perspective, while avoiding the urge to comment or add our two cents. It means avoiding comparisons with our own experiences or ways of doing things as much as possible and, above all, avoiding judgment based on our own perspectives.

Read Sandra Fahy's #KnowYourPelicans interview.

The Frank L. Babbott Chair of Literature and the Arts was established in 1977 to “recognize excellence in teaching and/or scholarly pursuits which will have a direct benefit to both the recipient and the school.”