EASA Maynooth, Crisis and Imagination, 24-27 August 2010

Panel 42

Engaging anthropology in practice: pedagogical exchanges with media practitioners


Convenors:
Caroline Gatt (Aberdeen University) c.gatt@abdn.ac.uk Rachel Harkness (University of Aberdeen) .j.harkness@abdn.ac.uk
Thomas H Eriksen (University of Oslo) t.h.eriksen@culcom.uio.no
Joseph Long (University of Aberdeen) j.long@abdn.ac.uk



Short Abstract:
Launching 'Engaging Anthropology in Practice' a project based in Scotland, this panel will showcase anthropological engagements being carried out in Europe that challenge the division between non-academic/academic audiences, to learn from these experiences and to create possible links of cooperation

Long Abstract:
The conference theme for the 2010 EASA biennial meeting asks whether at this time of global economic crisis anthropologists should resist the pressure to reframe the discipline in terms of what 'practical use' it may have. Rather, we believe that this is a very opportune moment to explore what 'practical use' entails. We also ask what imaginative acts are necessary to construe the 'practical' as opposed to the 'theoretical'. It is necessary to trace the theoretical threads of this conceptual opposition in order to avoid reproducing it implicitly in the work we choose to carry out as 'engaging anthropology'.



During the panel we will launch "Engaging Anthropology in Practice", a project based within the Scottish Programme of Advanced Training in Social Anthropology (STAR). The project aims to develop a training agenda for postgraduate students and early career anthropologists by creating exchanges with gatekeepers of different forms of media in the UK. The aim of this panel is to showcase this sort of work already being done in Europe, to learn from these and to create possible links of cooperation.



The panel explores what imaginative acts are needed to practice anthropology in a way that reflexively engages in the world without reductionism. We welcome accounts of such engagements and especially ones that identify particular training issues, contributions that challenge the academic/non-academic division of audiences and contributions that are 'imaginative acts' in their form as well as content. Non-anthropologists will be invited to present and participate in this panel.



Submission of abstracts:



You must supply a paper title, a short 300-character abstract, and a 250-word abstract (NB: the electronic submission software is strict about this and the character count includes spaces).

Deadline for submission of abstracts is 1st March 2010.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either of the panel convenors.

For general information on the conference, see http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm