Ever wondered what an anthropologist actually does? Curious about how qualitative social research is conducted? I will try to show you what an Anthropology of Europe is, and how I formulate and process my research questions.

My name is Kelly LaFramboise. I am a cultural anthropology PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma. In a little less than 48 hours from the time of writing this first blog entry I will be departing for a three-month research and fieldwork excursion in London, Hamburg, Berlin, Malmö, Frankfurt, Belgrade, Krakow, and Warsaw.

Whoa. Anthropology is so cool, right?! I get paid to travel throughout Europe! However, this is not a vacation. I will be working 24/7 for the entire three months. I am actually nervous, anxious, and a little terrified to be all alone in foreign countries for 12 weeks.
But...I have been working towards this goal for over ten years so there is no turning back now. When I decided to go back to school in 2005 I didn't know what the future would hold. In fact, I first majored in dental assisting!  After my first history class I realized I had a passion for social science, but didn't know it was cultural anthropology until I went to Loyola University Chicago. That is where my research dreams began. Now, nine years later, I am living that dream.

My doctoral research analyzes various discourses by and about groups of Europeans (mostly German) who construct a Native American identity for themselves while strictly maintaining their European national identities. There are a few names for these groups but I will mostly refer to them as either Indianers (the German word for Native Americans), or Hobbyists (the academic title for those who collect Native American material culture and/or perform Native American ethnicity). I also analyze discourses on European reenactments and fascinations with the American Wild West (cowboys, country western music, rodeos, Indian Wars, and historic lore of outlaws and frontier expansions).

If you are wondering why Europeans would want to become Native American, or if you are wondering how they do it, or what it is they do to become Native American, then stay-tuned and follow my travels in Europe as I visit Indianer events such as an outdoor theatrical performance of a popular western novel, festivals, museums, powwows in Sweden and Poland, a charity 10k running event and Native American ceremony demonstration at Auschwitz, and even a two-week camping trip at a Dude Ranch where I will learn how to live like a cowboy on the "Plains" just outside of Berlin, Germany.

Bis später!