London Anthropology Forum

Workshop Announcement

Being an Anthropologist in Academia and Beyond

When?  Tuesday 8 November, 10:00-17:00,

Where?  Room G2 on the main campus of the School of Oriental & African Studies

                                (http://www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/location/maps/) 

In inviting participants to think ethnographically about their working lives in the academy and beyond, the workshop aims to discuss the impact of emerging audit cultures, institutional conditions, and webs of power on the ways anthropologists work and produce knowledge.  The idea of this workshop was first proposed at a London Anthropology Forum (LAF) meeting last summer.  Some members aptly noted a curious situation within anthropological practice: whilst ethnographers have spent much time examining the agency/structure dialectic among their research subjects, they have rarely scrutinized their own position and power, whether as academics operating under the changing structures of higher education or as public anthropologists caught in the wider global political economy.  Since at least the 1980s, anthropologists have persuasively critiqued the politics of fieldwork and representation, but they have largely ignored the actual circumstances and structures under which they write and work.  Rather than providing definitive plans for future action, the workshop hopes to foster a platform for discussing how anthropologists see their own role and practice in an increasingly corporate-oriented world of knowledge making.  Although abstract, philosophical ruminations are welcome, all participants are highly encouraged to share their lived, every-day narratives.

Session 1: 10:00-11:30 – The Changing Environment in Higher Education

Speakers: Academic Staff Richard Fardon, PhD Student Brendan Donegan, MA Student Juliette Howe followed by open discussion with participants invited to share their experiences

Chair: Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen

Session 2: 11:30-13:00 – Constraints and Opportunities: Disseminating Anthropological Knowledge

Speakers: Gustaaf Houtman and Caroline Osella, followed by open discussion

Chair: John Campbell

 Session 3: 14:00-15:30 – Shifting Perceptions and Practices of Expertise: Anthropologists and Global Politics  

Speakers: Jeremy Keenan and Kathryn Tomlinson (TBC), followed by open discussion

Chair: TBA

 Session 4: 15:30-17:00 – Where do we go from here?

Open discussion to decide on a plan of action

Chair: David Marsden

All welcome