Rounds
The twelve-week teaching schedule: what happens in each round, what to prepare, and what leaves the room.
Thursdays, in the field. A Round is a visit with a brief: where to go, what to count, how to take the notes, and what has to be true by the time you leave. The name carries both senses — a round of visits, and a round at the bar.
Read the brief before you go. Several of them fix a rule you have to commit to in writing beforehand, because a rule invented while counting bends towards the answer you expected. Three Rounds are not site visits at all: week 3 is indoors, week 6 is your own network, and week 11 is a desk.
Where you may observe and where you may not is not negotiable and is set out in full on the policies page. Read it before the first Round, not before the seventh.
Audit a place you already use
The first Round. You take somewhere you go anyway and hold it against the eight rules, in writing, on the premises.
Week 1 · 25 February 2027
First census — who is a regular?
Return to your week 1 place and count. The question is whether "regular" is something you can observe or only something people claim.
Week 2 · 4 March 2027
Cyberball, run on each other
You run the exclusion manipulation in the room, on people you know, and then argue about whether we should have.
Week 3 · 11 March 2027
The pub, the café
A commercial third place, observed properly, with attention to what the counter is doing and what happens to a stranger who walks in.
Week 4 · 18 March 2027
The barbershop and the salon
A Round in a place where you are the one being observed, and where being a customer is the only honest way in.
Week 5 · 25 March 2027
Map your own weak ties
An inward Round. You draw your own network, find where each tie was made, and discover how many came from rooms you no longer enter.
Week 6 · 8 April 2027
The laundromat, the waiting room
The strictest Round. An involuntary public place, observed without notes in the room, with a hard list of sites that are out of bounds.
Week 7 · 15 April 2027
Count what your suburb lost
An archive Round. You pick one place, one span of years, and produce a number you are prepared to defend.
Week 8 · 22 April 2027
Fieldwork inside a game
A Round held in a virtual room. You score a persistent online space against the eight rules and write up where the scoring sheet breaks.
Week 9 · 29 April 2027
A Discord, observed
A Round in a room with no closing time and a total archive. Consent, lurking, and what you are allowed to quote.
Week 10 · 6 May 2027
Reading the mortality data
A Round at a desk. You take the famous claim apart, find where each number came from, and write the version you would defend.
Week 11 · 13 May 2027
Present your proposal
The last Round. Ten minutes for your place, and questions from people who have spent twelve weeks learning what to ask.
Week 12 · 20 May 2027