Observing at the Rathskellar Name Date Course Instructor

Observation Location I chose to observe at the Rathskellar at Gallaudet University I chose the Rathskellar because it is a central meeting place for a wide variety of students and community members It is a non-academic setting, so I expected to see a wider variety of social interactions

Groupings Most of the people I saw (30 out of 52) were in groups of 2. Another 9 were alone, and 9 more were in groups of 3. Small groups were preferred for social interaction.

Race The Rathskellar shows immense racial diversity, with 27 white, 15 black, 7 Asian, and 5 Hispanic students. Approximately half of the small groups were mixed-race, which suggests that social structures at Gallaudet transcend race.

Gender Males and females were approximately equally represented Most of the small groups were single-sex Most of the people wore clothing and hairstyles that are “typical” of their gender Most women wore jeans, but with other markers of feminine identification, such as long hair or feminine shirts. Several women with short hair wore other markers of feminine gender (lots of makeup, or skirts instead of jeans)

Social class Markers of social class were subtle rather than obvious. Branded clothing is one of the few socially acceptable ways to “flaunt” money. Those who were dressed up (e.g. a man in a button-down shirt and trousers) were clearly not in-group. Dressing up would be inappropriate to this student situation.

Activities Most of the people in small groups talked and ate. Everyone who was alone ate and/or did something else (watching TV, schoolwork, or typed on a laptop). The socially acceptable activities in the Rathskellar are tightly constrained.