This post was updated Nov. 28 at 10:58 p.m.

When most anthropologists study culture, the written word is most important. But for Professor Greg Cohen, the touch and sounds of calloused hands weaving fabric communicate dimensions of the cultural experience that cannot be translated into writing.

Cohen, a continuing lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, said he created the course Spanish M172XP: “Topics in Community Engagement: Cine Vivo: Community-Engaged Sensory Ethnography” to teach students about topics in community engagement, specifically within the field of sensory ethnography.

Sensory ethnography is the study of cultural and social interactions, often through visual media to capture sensory data including sight, touch, smell, taste and sound. Throughout the quarter, students form groups to create a film project capturing the images and sounds of the human experience in Latino communities in Los Angeles.

Cohen added that sensory ethnography was essentially a response to many of the ethical, theoretical and philosophical dilemmas in the field of anthropology from the 1970s to the 1990s.

“They began to realize that despite their best efforts, cultural anthropologists were often reinforcing the hierarchies and the biases that are inherent in the study of the so-called ‘other,’” Cohen said.

Cohen said he was originally influenced to teach the class by Harvard University’s Sensory Ethnography Lab, where he became close in contact with those who worked there while teaching at Harvard’s Film and Visual Studies program. Since then, he has taken those ideas into his teachings at UCLA, particularly with his Spanish M172XP class, he said.

While the course is not restricted to students in the Spanish department, the lectures are taught in the Spanish language.

Darlene Santis, an alumnus who graduated in the spring, said she felt disconnected from her Latina culture when she first arrived at UCLA because there weren’t many people who looked like her or spoke the same language. Since taking the class, she said the course has helped her become more aware of Latino culture and appreciate diversity in higher education.

Santis said her film project featured a Latino vendor who sold Guatemalan fruit cups near UCLA. She added she was originally drawn to capturing the sensory experience of local vendors because they remind her of her background as a Latina from LA.

“Growing up in LA, there is a lot of Latino culture with food trucks that you don’t really get from anywhere else,” she said. “Food is what connects culture.”

Natalia Rojas, a third-year world arts and culture student, said she wanted to enroll in the class this quarter because it involved engaging with the local LA community.

She said she decided to base her feature film project on a muralist from Highland Park and his influence within the community, adding that she ran into some challenges with scheduling and deciding how to capture the mural within the field of sensory ethnography.

“How are we going to exactly capture the environment in which this mural is in without any outside influences?” Rojas said. “There’s been a lot of deliberation between my group about exactly how we want to execute the project.”

Although Rojas didn’t know about sensory ethnography before taking the class, she said that she has enjoyed learning about the field, with her major takeaway being the ability to capture the essence of a community without adding any outside factors that may influence its sensory experience.

Rojas added that she is excited to see the final and complete version of her film project. Since taking the class, sensory ethnography has changed her outlook on her day-to-day life, she said.

“You start to notice very minuscule things that you really wouldn’t think about,” she said. “Now, all the time I’m just picking up on what I hear, … or I’ll notice the texture of a wall or the texture of a painting … as if my eyes were lenses.”

Cohen said he hopes that students can see and think critically about the world around them after taking the class, but more importantly, that students learn how to engage with their surroundings.

“It’s learning how to pay attention to the environment, pay attention to the world around us,” he said. “Not always at some kind of objective or intellectual remove, but rather directly through experience.”