What my master’s thesis is about

I started my master’s program a year and a half ago. In that time, I have gone through maybe five thesis project ideas. Part of this is the general nature of figuring out a viable project. Another part is the pandemic limiting my options. The third reason is I have too many ideas that I want to do all at the same time. But this summer, when my fourth project idea was looking like it would not work out, while out with Jesse at an aperitvo.* I was inspired to write about one of my favorite things. Bars. When people ask me what my master’s thesis is about, and I tell them bars, they get a bit confused. I figure it would be worth explaining.

Anthropology is no longer strictly about writing about others or people from exotic places. Some American’s might consider Italy or anywhere in Europe exotic, but as someone who has lived there and a future Italian citizen, it is not that different from the U.S. There are of course differences. But as an anthropologist, I research topics like culture, meaning, social behaviors, norms, material and observe how these different things exist in everyday life.

*Note: An aperitivo is basically Italy’s answer to happy hour where you buy a drink and get food to go along with it. I was inspired to write about one of my favorite things.

Researching Bars during a Pandemic

My research is about how bar owners in Milan have adapted to the pandemic. Balancing complying with regulations, protecting the health of their staff and customers, and remaining profitable has been difficult. Bars have different ways of adapting.

My fieldwork took me to different parts of the city, to bars I had never seen before. I experienced a bit of the overall environment the owners created for their bars. I also heard about and saw the changes they made in response to COVID.

How is this Anthropology?

I am looking at how specific adaptations in the bar change the experience of being in a bar. Small changes have cultural relevance.

You walk into a bar. (Sounds like the setup for a bad joke, right?) What do you see? Think? Feel? (other than nostalgia if all the bars around you are closed). What are the words you would use to describe the experience?
I think of the bar as a casual place I go with friends for drinks, coffee, or an aperitivo or as a place I might go to work to get out of the house.

Changes in the Bar

One of the bars I went to, Bar Otto, had two significant changes the owner, Luca, highlighted.

1. They had a large table near the entrance where customers could stand to drink their coffees (espressos) before leaving,
2. and other customers could enter and sit wherever they pleased.

In response to COVID-19, they had to remove this large table. Now, customers coming in for their quick coffee no longer had that dedicated place to stand and had to find one of the other tables to sit.

The other change they made was customers were could not enter and sit down right away. They had to wait to be greeted and seated by an employee who would first check their temperatures give them hand sanitizer, and seat them where they were far enough away from other customers.

Luca pointed out how this took away from the casual, community, neighborhood bar/creative space they created at Bar Otto. And it did.

Every bar I went to—for dedicated fieldwork or as a customer—had developed some form of entry procedure that felt more formal than you want in your usual bar experience.

See what happened in all of this? Change.

Anthropology of the Everyday

Anthropology can also be used to study the everyday. This is my preferred way to use it. I spend so much time trying to work towards all my goals that I often forget to stop and observe everything going on around me. Having to do fieldwork during the pandemic has really changed that.

Logistically, it is a lot easier to stop and think about what we see every day than having to learn about an entirely new culture where you have to figure out the context at the same time. Granted, I only lived in Milan for ten months and then visited a bunch after that, so I am no expert. But Jesse is. And I have plenty of experience eating and drinking in bars. Considering the limitation of my options (time, travel, and social distancing) it made sense that that is what my master’s thesis is about in the end.

Writing about Bars

During a thesis workshop, we were asked to introduce our topics. When I was asked what my thesis is about after hearing about the other projects on dangerous informal labor and youth climate activism, my project sounded a bit silly in comparison. It isn’t that my project is not important or good, but in terms of gravity, it is clearly not on that level. But when I look at the world around us and how heavy things are, I am glad I chose something that is difficult in the sense that businesses are struggling but not something that would be difficult to work with on a daily basis.

Starting tomorrow I will be researching and writing until I either:

• cry and never want to go to a bar again, or
• I need to go to a bar for a drink.