Join the UGA Qualitative Research Program for the first UGA QUAL Lab Speaker Series of the semester: ‘The Possibilities and Challenges of Institutional Ethnography: A Close Look at Three African Universities’ presented by Dr. Meseret Hailu on Monday, October 6th from 12PM - 1PM Eastern Time. Register at: https://zoom.us/j/92317360208?pwd=AK6fK9K0ZPBgiM3UXWomodO2OF0fD9.1

In Spring 2025, Dr. Hailu conducted an institutional ethnography to study the gendered dimension of university laboratories at private universities in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Qualitative data collection included 24 in-person interviews and 22 in-person teaching observations. Findings include: (1) overextension of instructors’ capacity, (2) hierarchical pedagogical approaches, and (3) limited, yet robust, women’s engagement. In this talk, Hailu discusses the lessons she learned as a U.S.-based researcher who is originally from the region and her reflections on the possibilities and challenges of institutional ethnographic approaches.