Namla Applied Anthropology team bootcamp October 6th - 17th
In the space of two weeks, learn how to do applied anthropology research and apply design thinking to real-world challenges.
Location
Online
Refund Policy
About this event
Namla's applied anthropology bootcamp – Now fully online in 2025!
Are you an anthropology student or recent graduate of any related field, and wondering how to work beyond academia? Do you want to learn how to position yourself in the job market and create meaningful impact with your skills?
Are you curious about anthropological methods and how to apply them in your work? Or a designer looking for more social scientific depth in your empathise phase?
In this online bootcamp, you will work in teams, practice fast ethnography, and apply design thinking to a real-world challenge. Over two weeks, you will develop the skills to present your work in professional settings and understand how to turn your anthropological knowledge into action.
Over 100 people have participated in these bootcamps in the past, and given high ratings. Our differentiated contribution model adjusts the course fee based on regional purchasing power—€40 for participants located in the Global South, €80 for those located in South/East Europe, and €160 for those located in North/West Europe and North America. That said, the value of this course is much higher and any additional contribution would be highly appreciated. Many former participants have gone on to start start-ups or successfully procure a job afterwards. We are aiming to keep prices as low as possible to account for the recent graduate status of most of our participants, however we ask that you consider supporting Namla and the existance of the course (for example through an employer) if at all possible. Consider your purchasing power and we will trust that you make these decisions in a fair and ethical way towards yourself and us.
How it works
In this course, you do a short term project with a team. In two weeks you learn how to do rapid ethnography to really understand a problem, social design for prototyping & testing solutions & then we teach you how to pitch the result of this process, helping you learn how to explain your skillset to an employer, client or funder. The course welcomes a blend of participants from qualitative research backgrouns as well as those who want to learn about anthropological methods. As much as possible, you are placed in interdisciplinary & international teams.
Context
This course is designed for graduates and professionals in the early to mid stages of their careers. However, seasoned professionals, including those at the emeritus level, have also successfully participated. We also offer courses to researchers in academic career tracks (PhD and onwards) that allow individual guidance with projects, as well as workshops for organisations. We also do in-house trainings in the innovation space and workshops for professionals.
In all of our courses we use our unique combination of rapid ethnography & social design, aided with tools such as deep democracy for conflict, non-violent communication for confidence, or appreciative inquiry to find roadmaps forward in innovation. Our teaching has been extensively vetted both in the academic & professional development worlds, and certified in both.
Online sessions
(all times listed here in CEST, calendar invites for all sessions become available after ticket purchase)
September 15th 15:00-17:00 - Session 1: Applied Research Plan
Question of the day: What is your question, who wants to hear the answer and how will you answer it? You will take the day to define a company/group, a question and set your fieldsite and main methods.
September 17th 15:00-17:00 - Session 2: Rapid Ethnography
Question of the day: How will you answer your research question? You do the rapid ethnography. Do not forget to properly document. Also take/find pictures or other elements of material culture. Think already about the things that stood out to help you answer the question.
September 19th 15:00-17:00 - Session 3: 'So What' Analysis
Question of the day: What’s your argument and what needs to be done to solve the problem? You finish the data analysis, build your argument and generate How Might We’s.
September 22nd 15:00-18:00 - Session 4: Design Thinking Workshop.
Note: one hour longer!!
Question of the day: What could the solution be? At the end of the workshop the teams will have defined and chosen a design challenge, generated ideas on how to approach the problem, visualised their product or service in a prototype and have created a test-plan to validate the value of their solution.
September 24th 15:00-17:00 - Session 5: The Art of Pitching
Question of the day: Now how do I explain this? At the end of the workshop the participants will know how to build an SCQA pitch and how to create a nice visual design.
September 26th 15:00-17:00 - Session 6: Team Pitches & What's Next
Pitch & Showcase to your imaginary stakeholders, closing off the course.
In between the sessions, you are expected to have some time available for your 'homework'. Every team can divide the work how they see fit (ie if you are busy with exams in the first week you can pick up extra work in the second week, or the research needs to be smaller).
This course is fully in English.
Frequently asked questions
Mainly, a good internet connection will be your friend. It would probably be easier if you have access to a laptop or desktop computer, but all the platforms we use also do scale to phones and tablets.
During the course, you have sessions with teaching & support, and your team's group work. The sessions are recorded and recapped and you can watch them back. It is important however that you have enough availability during the two weeks to stay in touch with your team, and catch up what you missed.
Our live sessions (6 in total over the two weeks) start at 15:00/3pm Central European Summer Time every time. This allows most timezones in the world to attend in the daytime, albeit perhaps outside of office hours. 3pm CEST is 9am Eastern Daylight Time in the Americas, and 9pm China Standard Time.
Once you purchase a course spot through Eventbrite, you will be sent to a Notion page that contains all the course information, links & calendar invites for the sessions, and pre-readings you can do if you are ready to start. The page also contains links to manuals for the platforms we use.
Yes! Namla’s process was developed out of our work experience as design anthropologists working in the public and private sector. We teach a methodology where applied ethnography and design thinking are merged into one process. This is why we are so confident it could work for you too.
Once you reach our Notion page, we ask you to fill out a 5 minute questionnaire about your work/educational experience, time zone, etc. The course facilitators then make teams based on the info we have about everyone, aiming for the optimal learning journey for every individual and team.