This year’s annual Anthropology Day, organized by the Dutch Anthropological Association (Antropologen Beroepsvereniging, ABv), will focus on “Anthropology in Troubled Times.” We take our lead from Paul Stoller’s recent call for an engaged anthropology, and ask how anthropology deals with and positions itself with respect to the social challenges and heated political debates our world is facing today. How does anthropology relate to anti-racist activism and racist responses, challenges to white privilege and colonial histories, critical issues like refugee rights and environmental crisis, but also a significant swing to the right that resonates in our classrooms? To what extent do these challenges shape the discipline and in what ways should anthropologists reflect on this influence?
For a panel on current research on related issues, “Anthropologies of Troubled Times,” we invite paper presentations from anthropologists whose research engages with the “burning issues” of our times (as such a social and deeply politicized construct) – including, but not limited to, problematic identity politics and conflicts between or within dominant and peripheral groups – or, whose research confronts them with critical dilemmas that necessitate a rethinking of the role of anthropology and anthropologists in troubled times. For example, complex and contradictory realities found and experienced in the field may profoundly complicate and “trouble” the very notion of engaged anthropology itself. Thus, moving beyond theoretical discussions on engaged anthropology, this panel seeks to illustrate how engaged anthropologies of troubled times work (or not) in ethnographic practice.
Interested contributors to this panel are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to Yatun Sastramidjaja (Y.Sastramidjaja@uva.nl) by Monday 2 April. Please share this call widely among PhD and advanced Master’s students as well.