calendar

2008 June   July   August   September   October   November   December
2009 April   June   December



 

2008

The Anthropology of International Institutions International institutions have entered the field-sites of many anthropologists. As the people they study are confronted with World Bank projects, technical cooperation programmes of the FAO and regulations on intellectual property rights under the auspices of the WTO that are often superseding state initiatives anthropologists have begun to analyse these institutions in their practices on the ground. In recent years the institutions themselves, as circuits of power where normative frameworks are built, resources are attributed and knowledge circulates have also become fields of anthropological enquiry. International institutions have headquarters in specific locations, the WTO in Geneva , the FAO in Rome , the World Bank in New York where permanent staff keeps track of decisions taken, produces policy documents and assures the governmental functions of the institution. The institutions organise meetings all over the world, which draw actors from state and non-state backgrounds that interact in densely woven formal and informal networks. Studying these institutions is thus a complex endeavour that poses new challenges for anthropology from a methodological and conceptional point of view. International institutions have been studied by other disciplines and the anthropologist meets up in this endeavour with economists, geographers, historians, sociologists and linguists from various national and intellectual traditions. There is however a specific way proper to anthropology of looking at these institutions as sites of dense social interactions that are observable which create meanings and norms and which constitute new fields of power.

With the workshop that we are currently organizing to be held in 2008 in Paris we would like to bring together anthropologists who have taken international institutions as their field of enquiry and explore together the methodological and theoretical challenges of this new field. We would like to invite colleagues who are interested by this new field or who have doctoral students advanced in their PhDs who work on the subject to get in touch with us so that we may make an inventory of the research activities already going on.

Coordinator: Birgit Müller, LAIOS-CNRS Paris bmuller(AT)msh-paris.fr
Organising Committee:
Irène Bellier, LAIOS-CNRS Paris
Christina Garsten, SCORE, Stockholm
Shalini Randeria, Institute for Ethnology, Zürich


JUNE 2008

9th SIEF Congress (International Society for Ethnology and Folklore)
“Transcending �European Heritage': Liberating the Ethnological Imagination
University of Ulster
Derry | Northern Ireland
June 16 – 20

The call for papers and the list of panels and panel organizers can be found on the following homepage:
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/sief/
Abstracts must be submitted online.

38th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology (IIS) “Sociology Looks at the Twenty-First Century: �From Local Universalism to Global Contextualism’.“ Budapest, Central European University
June 26 - 30
http://www.iisoc.org/iis2008

All scholars are kindly invited to submit proposals for sessions at the Congress. Please send proposals no later than October 9 to iis2008(AT)iisoc.org
The four previous World Congresses of the IIS have highlighted dilemmas of human existence and societal institutions in the contemporary world. They have examined problems of social existence amidst processes of globalization, cooperation and violent conflict. They have been conducted in the spirit which guided the formation of the IIS, namely that of an engagement and encounter between a variety of theoretical positions among members of a truly international community of scholars.
The 38th World Congress will reaffirm that spirit. It will address some of the most fundamental issues of sociological inquiry in the light of global processes and the development of a range of other fields of knowledge: What does it mean to be human? What is the nature of social as opposed to natural processes? How do different efforts to map the social and political world interact with that world and with traditional sociological practices? What can we now say about relationships between scientific, political and religious beliefs? These are just some of the questions that will be raised at a congress that has the ambition to set the stage for a sustained look at what sociology may or may not have to say about the twenty-first century.

JULY 2008
 
Ethnographies of Gender and Globalization LOVA– the Netherlands Association for Gender and Feminist Anthropology
In collaboration with CEDLA–Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation.
Amsterdam, 3 - 4 July 2008

Call for panels and papers
Globalization is the result of the rapid exchange of ideas, peoples, goods, capital, information and technologies, and the general compression of distances and time. Globalization processes have a large impact on people’s everyday lives. Even in the most remote parts of the world, people and locations are being connected to each other. This interconnectedness can be seen as the core feature of globalization. In turn, people respond to new challenges and opportunities offered by globalization. Their daily actions produce, transform and determine the specific directions that globalization processes may take. The last decade, anthropology and other social sciences have produced an impressive body of literature on globalization. Globalization from a gender perspective, however, is still an exciting and innovative area to explore. Gender and feminist anthropology is a discipline par excellence that can make understandable how globalization and everyday life are interrelated, especially through its ethnographical methodology. Feminist scholarship has shown that globalization is not a gender-neutral phenomenon. Globalization has different outcomes for women and men. It challenges them in different ways and offers them different opportunities. Gender constructions shape globalization processes, which in turn confirm, construct and change gender notions. These developments result in profound changes in family life, family composition, cultural expressions, gender relations, and the way people interact with each other. With this conference LOVA wishes to create a forum for anthropologists, social scientists and other experts who study the interweaving of gender and globalization from an ethnographical perspective. How do women and men understand globalization and how do they experience globalization processes in their everyday lives? What are the challenges they face and what opportunities open up to them? How does globalization confirm and reconstruct existing gender and other social inequalities? Does it have a potential for the empowerment of women and men and their social mobility or not? How does globalization influence constructions of femininity and masculinity and how do these constructions in turn give direction to processes of globalization? And, last but not least, is globalization still a useful theoretical concept or have we entered a new, post-globalization era and are we in need of new conceptualizations?

Contact:
LOVAnetwork@hotmail.com preferably before February 1, 2008.
http://www.lovanetwerk.nl
Hotel accommodation: http://www.book-a-hotel-in-amsterdam.com.

Preferred panel format: Panels last 1 hour and 45 minutes. Panel organizers have a certain freedom in the number of papers they wish to present and the length of the presentations. Nevertheless, we encourage 15-minute paper presentations. For example, a panel may include 5 paper presentations of 15 minutes each or 4 papers and a discussant. This leaves time for general discussion and questions of 30 minutes.
Registration fee of € 90,- before April 1, 2008. Students pay a reduced fee. More information will follow.

The 7 th ESfO Conference
"Putting People First": Intercultural Dialogue and the Future in Oceania .
University of Verona | Italy
July 10 – 12
http://cc.joensuu.fi/esfo/conferences/index.php


The 16 th World Congress ICAES
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences
“Humanity, Development and Cultural Diversity.”
Kunming | China
July 15 - 23
http://www.icaes2008.org/

Today (May 9, 2008) the following statement has been published on the IUAES website under congresses and Kunming congress:
http://www.leidenuniv.nl/fsw/iuaes/

Statement of the President and Secretary-General of the IUAES to all members of the IUAES and participants in the Kunming World Congress

We very much regret the decision taken by the China Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences to postpone the Kunming Congress of July 2008. We have written to the China Union and also to the Prime Minister of China to have the congress scheduled as planned, but as becomes clear from the letter published hereunder the congress has been definitively postponed now. This decision is irreversible and we would like to ask all participants to accept this decision and take steps accordingly.
We will discuss the consequences of this decision and a possible postponement to July 2009 later this year and we will keep you informed via the IUAES website.
It goes without saying that we regret these unfortunate and unexpected events and that this will not disturb our personal relations with the Chinese anthropological and ethnological colleagues who have made the effort and were well under way to make the world congress a success.
Prof. Dr. Luis Vargas, President
Prof. Dr. Peter J.M. Nas, Secretary-General


AUGUST 2008

Understanding Conflicts--Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Department of Philosophy and the History of Ideas, University of Aarhus
Aarhus, Denmark
August 19-23

http://www.understandingconflicts.net

An international, interdisciplinary research conference on the diversity of conceptions and cultural images of conflicts
Conflicts are part of human life and often a source of innovation. Different cultures not only generate conflicts but also impose on agents different “conflict cultures”— preferences for certain types of conflict dynamics (war, settlements, reconciliation) and predispositions for certain forms of epistemic approach (rational analysis, psychological hermeneutics, deep orientation). Attention to differences in cultural images of conflicts—the agentive understanding of sources, dynamics, and possible transformations of conflicts—is of central significance for conflict transformation in societies with cultural diversity. UC-2008 is the first of a series of large international interdisciplinary meetings that will bring together researchers working on the analysis and transformation of conflicts due to cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. Our invited speakers are international lead figures in conflict research, sociology, political science, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, sociology, the history of ideas, theology, and religious studies. We invite submissions of abstracts on any of the 60 conference sessions, including workshop sessions, praxis reports, and panel discussion sessions. For tracks and topics see the conference website. Deadline: March 1. Conference papers will be published in an anthology and 2 special issues of international journals.

Contact
Johanna Seibt, Jesper Garsdal, Steen Wackerhausen.
Aarhus Universitet
Institut for Filosofi og Idehistorie
Bygn.1467, 6. sal, kontor 620
Nobelparken
Jens Chr. Skousvej 7
8000 Aarhus C
Phone: + 45 8942 2216
Direct Phone: + 45 8942 1976
Fax.: + 45 8942 2223
http://person.au.dk/en/filseibt@hum

10 th EASA Biennial Conference
“Experiencing Diversity and Mutuality”
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana
August 26 -30

Contact:
Rajko Mursic rajko.mursic(AT)guest.arnes.si
http://www.easaonline.org/
http://www.easa2008.eu

 

SEPTEMBER 2008

Congrès d’analyse politique sur l’Afrique à l’occasion du Cinquantenaire du CEAN (1958-2008) Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux
Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV
Septembre 3 - 5
Penser la République
État, gouvernement, contrat social en Afrique

Conference of Political Analysis on Africa
for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the CEAN (1958-2008)
Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies
Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV University
Septembre 3 - 5
Think Republic
State, Government, Social Compass in Africa

Congresso de análise política sobre a África
para o Cinqüentenário do CEAN (1958-2008)
Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux
Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV
Septembre 3 - 5
Pensar a República
Estado, governo e contrato social na África

Contact:
http://www.cean.cinquantenaire.sciencespobordeaux.fr/

Creating an Atmosphere | Faire une ambiance
International Symposium
Ecole Nationale d’Architecture de Grenoble | CNRS UMR 1563
Grenoble
September 10 – 12

Contact:
http://www.cresson.archi.fr
Ambiance2008(AT)grenoble.archi.fr

The topic of architectural and urban atmosphere has been the focus of new interest for more than 10 years, responding to increasingly widespread concern all over the world. Before the 1990s "engineering atmospheres" was an established discipline, solidly rooted in physics and taught on all building and architectural courses. But the further science and technology advanced the more acute certain practical problems became in the design of built space, the management of the urban environment, and everyday usage and perception of towns and cities. In response there has been a gradual increase in the use of more qualitative techniques, drawing on a range of criteria, of sense-related approaches, and a growing interest in “good design and management practice”. Such concerns obviously coincide with the need for sustainable development. But for the time being our knowledge falls short of these new expectations. Contemporary architects, planners and designers must cope with segmented skills, a battery of regulations and building techniques, some relating to sound, others to light, others still to heating and air-conditioning. None of them share the same equations, physical scales nor perceptible values, let alone the same technology (apart from insulation that can be used for sound and heat-proofing). From a scientific or technical point of view the term "atmosphere", in the singular, is meaningless and apart from a few exceptions designers restrict themselves to applying the prevailing standards, despite the fact that before it is even finished any enclosure is already inhabited by a particular atmosphere. Furthermore, although designers may apply a whole series of standards, anticipating usage, to achieve a certain level of comfort, the end result falls sadly short of the sense of place that we are all able to perceive as a unique, over-arching atmosphere or climate. At the intersection between physical data, perception, feelings and cultural make-up, our experience of atmosphere is a singular one.
To progress in our understanding of how we experience atmosphere and to find integrating tools that assist the design of architectural and urban projects, studies and experiments have been carried out since 1990. Examples include efforts to build models integrating a range of criteria, research into intermodal perception, exploration of the anthropology of the senses, interdisciplinary methods for analysing in situ perception and the development of a new aesthetic of atmosphere, as well as the outline of some stimulating theories in the dramatic arts. All this work, that has been developed or used in architecture, urban anthropology, civil and environmental engineering but also contemporary art, is underpinned by reflective standpoints and occasionally fully developed, but all too often fragmentary or intermittent methodological choices that are not always explicit but are nevertheless all components of a general theory of situational atmosphere. At the core of its interdisciplinary programme our Architectural and Urban Atmospheres research laboratory has devoted particular attention to developing and articulating such a theory at the interface between the analysis of perceived atmosphere and the practice of project design.
In short, substantial blocks of knowledge have already been brought together. At the crossroads between physical and human science we are beginning to have a better idea of how to analyse a situational atmosphere, break down its components, identify the most obvious dimensions and get an approximation of those most difficult to apprehend, such as what constitutes the essence of perceived atmosphere. It is undoubtedly both desirable and necessary to extend this understanding a great deal further, particularly with respect to issues such as interaction between different types of sensory perception, the role of emotions, scope for crossover between disciplines, and which models are really applicable. But the issue that has been the least explored concerns generating atmospheres.
A huge stock of know-how is exercised every day in the field of architectural and planning intuition, as it is in contemporary art, including street art, the media and advertising design. Though reluctant to hand out their recipes or little aware of the latent thought process that accompanies their "doing", such practitioners and artists rarely express the reflective substance of their productions. More radically speaking, those who know how to create an atmosphere are at pains to reveal the secrets of its composition, whereas those who know how to analyse an atmosphere rationally, fail to grasp the unifying substance that holds it together.
It is equally astonishing that this mass of learning and practice has never been subjected to horizontal confrontation, nor shared with international players. This has caused an extraordinary loss of experience, holding back the current boom in sensitive, intelligent, sustainable architecture. It is increasingly urgent that we set up a transdisciplinary network bringing together those involved in the understanding and practice of such work who are concerned by these issues. Our international symposium will be the first act of the “International Atmosphere(s) Network”.

Symposium leader : J-F Augoyard ( DR CNRS)
Network leader : J-P Thibaud ( DR CNRS)

XI Congreso de Antropología de la Federación de Asociaciones de Antropología del Estado Español (F.A.A.E.E.)
"Retos teóricos y nuevas prácticas"
Donostia – San Sebastián
September 10-13
Contact:
http://www.ankulegi.org/castellano/actividades/congreso_2008/index.html

OCTOBER 2008

Conference: "Exploring Domestic Spaces in the Circumpolar North"
Tromso Museum , Norway
2-4 October 2008


This two day seminar will explore the way that indigenous people create homes and homelands for themselves in the circumpolar North. The proceedings will be devoted to three themes:

  • enskillment,
  • environmental markers of households,
  • and the inscription of circumpolar populations.

The seminar will consist of a set of public lectures by specialists on the cosmology and archaeology of circumpolar dwellings as well as the historical dynamics of households. There will be equal time in the programme for craftspeople to display modern and traditional dwellings and to speak about their meaning. For details please see http://www.sami.uit.no.



The 4th Eric Wolf-Lecture
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo
Rebuilding the Ship at Sea: An Anthropologist's Attempt to Make Sense of Contemporary World History.“
Org: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology | University of Vienna
Social Anthropology Research Unit | Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
International Research Center Cultural Studies (IFK)
University of Vienna, Kleiner Festsaal
October 20, 2008 : 6 p.m.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen will hold a seminar in combination with the Eric Wolf Lecture.
IFK, Reichsratsstrasse 17, 6th floor.
October 21, 2008 : 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Mutations, obstacles et tremplins de la critique sociale un dialogue nord-sud des Amériques Association canadienne des sociologues et anthropologues de langue française
Appel à communication du colloque de l’ACSALF
Octobre 22 – 24

Contact:
http://www.acsalf.ca
Gabriela Coman: acsalf(AT)inrs-ucs.uquebec.ca

L'ACSALF (Association canadienne des sociologues et anthropologues de langue française) tiendra les 22, 23, 24 octobre 2008 son premier colloque annuel à Montréal. Ce colloque sera un moment exceptionnel où les anthropologues et les sociologues habituellement dispersés dans de multiples domaines d'étude et œuvrant dans de nombreuses disciplines pourront se réunir ensemble sur la base d'un thème commun. Ce thème sera celui de la critique sociale et de ses rapports à nos disciplines. Deux axes organiseront les échanges : le premier, la sociologie et l'anthropologie des formes de critique sociale et le second, l'esprit critique dans nos disciplines. À titre de repère préliminaire, la critique sociale peut se définir comme étant une mise en relief des fondements et des limites de l'ordre social existant. Elle se fait à partir de discours et de pratiques qui ouvrent sur d’autres possibilités d'existence et de vie sociale. Vous avez jusqu'au 12 février pour soumettre un projet d'atelier, de table ronde ou une autre activité dans le cadre du colloque et jusqu'au 1er mars pour soumettre une communication. Votre proposition doit inclure un titre, un résumé d'au plus 400 mots pour une communication et de 600 mots pour un projet d'activité et les coordonnées des participants, et être acheminée à l'adresse : acsalf(AT)inrs-ucs.uquebec.ca (Gabriela Coman). Les propositions seront soumises à un comité d'évaluation scientifique selon les normes habituelles.
De nombreuses discussions préparatoires au colloque ont mené à la présentation des thèmes autour desquels s'articuleront les deux axes d'étude de la critique sociale. Le texte de présentation, de réflexion et de questionnements qui suit vise à guider et inspirer votre contribution au colloque. Il vous est toutefois possible de déborder les thèmes mis de l'avant en faisant une proposition au comité organisateur du colloque. Réflexions préalables aux choix des thèmes pour l'appel de communications
Aujourd'hui, les possibilités technoscientifiques des sociétés occidentales permettent un vaste accès à des modes de plus en plus créatifs et diversifiés d'appréhension et de transmission des connaissances. Par ailleurs, des contraintes marchandes, institutionnelles et politiques restreignent les formes de production et les lieux de pénétration des connaissances, en sciences sociales notamment. Cette conjoncture d'apparence paradoxale a inspiré le thème de ce colloque. Il nous est en effet apparu pertinent de faire l'état des lieux sur la portée socioculturelle et politique des travaux de sociologie et d'anthropologie et ce, tant du point de vue des intellectuels que de celui des acteurs sociaux engagés dans différents champs. Les sociologues et anthropologues ont toujours accordé une attention particulière à la compréhension, l’analyse et la mise en relief des dilemmes des discours et des pratiques relevant de la critique sociale. Suivant cette préoccupation disciplinaire, le premier colloque international de l'ACSALF souhaite engager et poursuivre un réseau de dialogues croisés autour de la critique sociale : entre le nord et le sud des Amériques; entre les sociologues et les anthropologues issus des milieux académiques et ceux oeuvrant dans différents champs sociaux (santé, développement, etc.); entre les intellectuels, les acteurs de la critique sociale et les créateurs engagés dans diverses formes de manifestations artistiques. Pour donner lieu et forme à ces échanges, ce colloque débordera la formule classique des rencontres académiques. Au mode traditionnel de présentation (conférences, communications, tables rondes, affiches), s'ajouteront des espaces pour les échanges et les débats. Diverses présentations artistiques (films, théâtre, arts visuels, photos) ponctueront cet événement de dialogue et de réflexion.


NOVEMBER 2008

107 th AAA Annual Meeting
San Francisco , CA .
November 19 – 23
http://www.aaanet.org/

International Ethnographic Film Festival
Delhi, India
November 26-30
The Department of Sociology, University of Delhi will hold an international ethnographic film festival – the first of its kind in India – from 26 to 30 November 2008, and subsequently every two years. The Delhi International Ethnogrpahic Film Festival will feature several sections including a Tribute to David and Judith MacDougall.
Please check the website for further details: http://sociology.du.ac.in/dieff/ The last date for entries is 30 July 2008

DECEMBER 2008

ASA 2008
OWNERSHIP AND APPROPRIATION
A joint international conference of the ASA,
the ASAANZ and the AAS
University of Auckland
December 8 -12

In 2008 the ASA (Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth), the ASAANZ (Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/New Zealand), and the AAS (Australian Anthropological Society) are combining their annual meetings for a joint international conference. This will be hosted by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland. The ASA organises an international conference every five years, but has never held one previously in either New Zealand or Australia. So this conference is a ‘first’ both collaboratively and geographically. We hope that anthropologists from all three countries, and from many others, will join us for the event.
Conference Theme

Centering on the core theme of Ownership and Appropriation, the conference aims to extend anthropological theory, by shifting the focus from ‘property’ and ‘property relations’ to notions and acts of ‘owning and appropriating’. It will explore a variety of dimensions of ownership and appropriation, being concerned with process rather than states of being, with dynamism rather than stasis, and with agency and creativity rather than with property and objects. This emphasis is highly relevant in a globalising world in which resources are at once being depleted and increasingly privatised or enclosed, and ideas about the very kinds of things that can be property are expanding Anthropology, with its emphasis on agency and understanding actors’ perspectives, is well placed to advance colloquial understandings of such processes.

Keynote speakers for the conference include:

• Professor Marilyn Strathern (University of Cambridge)
• Professor Howard Morphy (Australian National University)
• Professor Rosemary Coombe (York University, Canada)

The final deadline for proposals for workshops/panel sessions will be March 1st 2007. All members of the three associations are eligible to present papers at the conference. The final deadline for paper abstracts will be May 1st, 2008.

Further details of the conference are on: http://www.theasa.org/asa08

Convenors
Professor Veronica Strang and Dr Mark Busse
Email: v.strang(AT)auckland.ac.nz
Email: m.busse(AT)auckland.ac.nz


2009  

APRIL 2009


ASA 2009 in Bristol
”Anthropological and archaeological imaginations: past, present and future“
Convened by: Dept of Arch and Anth, University of Bristol
University of Bristol
April 6 – 9
http://www.theasa.org/conferences.htm

JUNE 2009

Fifth International Conference
"Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations"
Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute for African Studies
Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies
Russian State University for The Humanities
School of History, Political Science And Law
Moscow, Russia
June 16 - 19
First announcement and call for panel proposals
The aim of the Conference, like that of the four previous ones, is to bring together the researchers doing the respective problematics in the whole variety of its contexts, within the framework of different academic schools and traditions from the positions of a wide range of disciplines: social anthropology, archaeology, history, political science, sociology, philosophy, psychology, etc. The objective of the Conference is to discuss the following issues:
- hierarchical and net structures in the history of cultures and civilizations;
- civilizational and evolutionary models of socio-political development;
- historical and ethno-cultural variability of the forms of socio-political organization;
- from simple societies to the world-system: pathways and forms of political integration;
- socio-political and cultural-mental factors of social transformations;
- cultural and socio-biological foundations of dominance in human societies;

- ideology and legitimation of power in different civilizational contexts;
- cultural models of power's perception in different civilizations;
- violence and non-violence in the history of political institutions;
- access to information as a means of political manipulation and mobilization;
- power, society, and culture in the era of globalization;
- the study of “hierarchy and power”: schools, trends, and methods.
Suggestions for discussion of any other aspects of the general problematics of the Conference reflected in its title, are also welcomed.
The working languages of the Conference are Russian and English.
The Organizing Committee will be glad to consider any panel proposals (within 500 words in any of the Conference working languages) which will be received by February 1, 2008. The information to be submitted alongside with the proposal, includes the panel convenor’s full name, title, institutional affiliation, full mail and e-mail addresses, and fax #, as well names, institutional affiliations, and e-mail addresses of not less than two other possible participants of the panel, at least one of which should represent a country other than that of the convenor.

All the correspondence should be sent for the Conference Secretaries:
Dr. Oleg I. Kavykin and Ms. Anastasia A. Banschikova
e-mail: conf2009(AT)conf2009.ru
Phone + 7 495 291 4119.
Fax + 7 495 202 0786)
Mail: Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
30/1 Spiridonovka St.
123001 Moscow, Russia

DECEMBER 2009

108th AAA Annual Meeting
Philadelphia, PA.
December 2 – 6
http://www.aaanet.org/