This page showcases the pedagogical possibilities of working with postcards for teaching anthropology and related disciplinary fields by introducing a set of multifaceted tools and examples. It provides a framework for tangible reflexive teaching practices and a research methodology that supports, both intellectually and emotionally, a vibrant and mobile community of scholars.
Postcards are widely undervalued as a research subject in the social sciences. Examples from the arts, literature, teaching and research then offer inspiration for engaged and creative teaching formats. These cases support the claim that, as a seemingly ‘anachronistic’ object of communication, postcards are useful for teaching in the classroom, for teaching ethnography, and for school/ community-based networking. In fact, as a traveling communication device, the repurposed postcard lends itself to connect the oft-physically and conceptually divided spaces of the classroom and the ethnographic ‘field.’
Concurrently, the opening of postcards, both in a conceptual and material sense, allows for a critique of the medium’s historical use in exoticizing the ‘other.’ Thus, the pedagogical potentials of postcards are many for innovative approaches in ethnographic research, public anthropology, and applied community work.