Call for Papers
Whose Anthropology is it Anyway?Connections in the modern world
4th Royal Anthropological Institute
Post-Graduate Conference,
Brunel University,
3rd– 4th September 2014
Brunel University,
3rd– 4th September 2014
When delivering the 1967 Reith
lectures, Edmund Leach recalled a phrase from novelist E.M. Forster, Only
connect..., drawing attention to the anthropological engagement in terms of
the relations between its components. In recent times, the flexibility and
ever-changing nature of human sociality has been progressively shaped by new
systems of communications that have affected greatly the nexus on which Leach
focused his lecture.
This conference seeks to explore
the realities of ethnographic research, investigating the ways through which
anthropology and its practices are affected by an increasing 'connectedness'
between researchers and informants. In particular, the event will bring
together PhD candidates and early career researchers endeavouring to highlight
their experiences of anthropology-making within contexts of co-positioning of
the “professional” anthropologists and their collaborators in the field.
After all, the entire
anthropological endeavour is constructed around the ethnographic encounter
between the anthropologist and the field – but where (thus, perhaps more
importantly, what) is the field exactly? In
a more "connected" world, can we ever truly leave the field? To what
extent is separation from the field an arbitrary construct in the first place?
General awareness of the social sciences and anthropology has transformed
relations between the anthropologist and the social actors involved in their
access to the field. To mention but a few 'new' ethnographic issues, an
informant with the requisite internet access could look up a researcher through
social media, and anthropologists could be instrumentally used by participants
in ways that question the nature of authorship or ownership over the data.
Where is the anthropologist in this
modern world of connectedness? Is it possible to argue that those who were once
‘informants’ have transformed themselves into anthropologists, equally capable
of reflecting and documenting their lives through new media technologies?
Perhaps the future of anthropology would involve a far deeper collaboration
between the ethnographer and the field, with greater input from informants
through the means of various reflexive narratives such as photography, social
media accounts, online blogs and so on.
After all, whose anthropology is it
anyway?
We invite papers from PhD candidates and early
career researchers that engage with fieldwork realities and ethnographic experiences.
These papers can draw on, but should by no means be limited to, one or more of
the following themes:
- The relationship with field-actors, focusing particularly on the processes that make us ethnographers and them informants
- The position that researcher and informants acquire in the field in order to mediate, for example, ideological or cultural conflict
- The ways in which we make anthropology understandable to key-informants
- According to what boundaries the field is defined;
- The ethical constraints of fields where the role of the ethnographer can be ambiguously perceived
- Innovative approaches that challenge taken for granted boundaries of the field (such as a focus on diasporic communities or cyber ethnography)
- The contention of research ownership within the institutional structures of post-graduate courses, as particularly related to departments, funding and publishing bodies.
- a paper title
- authors/co-authors, affiliation, email and telephone contacts
- a short abstract of fewer than 300 characters
- a long abstract of fewer than 250 words
The call for papers is now
open and it will close on April 30th, 2014.
Proposals should consist of:
Proposals should be sent to
raipgconference2014@gmail.com with “RAI Conference Abstract” as subject.
Notifications of
acceptance/rejection will be delivered by May 31st, 2014.
Registration opening dates will be announced in due course.
