Events and meetings

Throughout the conference

Each day during conference hours: Exhibition Wayfinding: a photoethnography of indigenous migration, Aula Magna building

Anthropologists Dolly Kikon and Bengt G. Karlsson collaborated with photographer Andrzej Markiewicz to trace indigenous migrants from the borderland of Northeast India between 2013–2016. This exhibition is concerned with the lives and lifeworlds of indigenous migrants who have travelled from the faraway Northeastern frontier to the expanding cities of South India. This movement does not involve the crossing of any international border, yet both geographically and culturally it is a movement into a very different place. It is a movement away from predominantly rural livelihoods with subsistence agriculture and politics revolving around ethnic homelands – with armed struggles and massive human rights violations – and a corrupt local state structure, to a life in major Indian cities, where migrants are seen as outsiders. Yet where their un-Indian looks and English language skills help provide jobs in the growing, global service sector.

The exhibition is part of a larger anthropological research project where we examine why an increasing number of indigenous youth from Northeast India have started to migrate, leaving the land, at this particular point in time. This mobility has to be understood in the context of an affirmative action regime and a political culture that privilege sedentarism: that people stay put in place and claim rights to ancestral territories. We focus on what labour migration to the south and to the metropolis entails in relation to care for family members and community in the hills. By doing so we aim to assess the cultural fissures at work in people’s attachment to the places of their journeys. The young indigenous migrants seem to be out on a migration route without fixed destinations, struggling to make out what and where home is. We refer to this as wayfinding: a voyage without a map or beaten paths or pathways to follow and with no clear destination or end station. But rather as a form of movement where the traveller constantly is adjusting the direction, seeking out new places and possibilities as he or she is moving on. And as the young are leaving – no longer interested in cultivating the land – we ask what the future holds for the indigenous communities of Northeast India.

EASA2018 Film programme, Södra Huset building, Hörsal 3 (B3)

Convenors: Carlo Cubero (Tallinnn University), Andrew Mitchell (Stockholm University)
EASA2018 Film Programme presents ethnographic documentaries that address, through their content or form, the complexities at stake in processes associated with staying, moving, and settling. This curated documentary programme and the Q&A discussions that will follow each screening will attempt to come to terms with the nuances and contradictions involved in the transformative effects of crises, routines, continuities and change.

 

Tuesday 14th August

12:15-13:15: WCAA delegates meeting (by invitation only), Aula Magna-Bergsmannen

12:15-13:05: #HOWtalk, Aula Magna-Auditorium

An hour is not long enough to discuss some of the many issues within the discipline which have been highlighted since the mid-June disclosures at HAU. The early slot means that many delegates will not yet be at the venue. However it's important that there is some space for such discussion at this major gathering. A member of EASA's executive will introduce the session, and Cris Shore will chair/moderate the open-floor discussion. With initial contributions from Ana Ivasiuc, Patrick Neveling and Ilana Gershon. Do come and join in.

15:30-17:00: Opening EASA2018 and Keynote lecture, Aula Magna-Auditorium

Opening speeches and words of welcome from Valeria Siniscalchi (President of EASA), Astrid Söderbergh Widding (Vice Chancellor of Stockholm University), Mark Graham (Head of Department of Social Anthropology). Helena Wulff, convenor of EASA2018 will introduce the keynote speaker, Professor Shahram Khosravi.

Keynote lecture Walling, Unsettling, Stealing
by Shahram Khosravi (Stockholm University)
We live in a time of wall fetishism. Never as today have human beings been so obsessed with building walls. Walls are, however, old. Empires built walls, from the Great Wall of China, to Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England  and the Limes Tripolitanus of the Roman Empire in North Africa to keep “barbarians” out. And if we look closer we can see that there are still traces of the old imperial visions in the modern borders and border walls. In this talk I will look at the connections of wars and walls; walls and empires. I will argue that there is a link between the installation of border walls (here) and the unsettling of communities (there). The current border regime is part of a larger and older project of colonial accumulation by dispossession and expulsion; stealing wealth, labor force, and time. I will also argue that border crossing discloses the cracks in the dominant narration of borders and that travelers without papers denaturalize what are otherwise naturalized borders, politicize what are otherwise depoliticized borders. I will illustrate this argument by following travelers without papers along the railways in the Balkans; tracing Afghan deportees in Kabul; and narrating the social life of the materialities used in the wall between Mexico and the US.

19:00-20:30: Welcome drinks reception, hosted by the City of Stockholm, Stockholm City Hall

After the keynote lecture, delegates with invitations will be whisked away by buses from the Stockholm University campus to the beautiful Stockholm City Hall on the shores of Lake Mälaren in the centre town to enjoy wine and delicious snacks. Delegates will be welcomed by Mats Berglund the Vice President of the Stockholm City Council and professor Helena Wulff.
Musical entertainment will follow: Lilla kören (conductor Pelle Olofsson) will perform M. Koapeng/R. Williams’ Khutso, D. Zehavi Halicha Lekeisariya, Arr P. Ekedahl’s Ack, ack om det vore dag. Lilla Kören (in English “the little choir”) is a mixed youth choir that was founded in 2005 by Pelle Olofson with students from The Choir School of Adolf Fredrik. Today some of the original singers remain in the choir, but also new blood has joined the happy fellowship. There is a great sense of community shared among the singers, deriving from the shared background and music tradition at the school.

N.B. Buses to the drinks reception leave at 6pm sharp from the parking lot near the conference venue. Volunteers will guide you from the Keynote lecture to the parking lot.

 

Wednesday 15th August

07:30-08:30: Yoga

Start the EASA conference day with yoga to get your creative juices flowing!

Yoga is often described as a way to connect mind, body, and soul. It is also described as a Practice. Through the use of movement, breathing, and attentiveness it can break habitual patterns in the body and the mind, allowing for new, creative ideas to shine through. This early morning yoga class with Titti is for total beginners to more advanced practitioners and everyone in between.

The class runs on Wednesday 15th and on Thursday 16th from 07:30-08:30 and takes place outside, on the beautiful lawn in front of Aula Magna. We meet at the entrance of Aula Magna, if the weather is bad we will go inside. Please sign up by emailing duklarardet(at)live.se The cost is SEK100 or €10 to be paid to Titti at the class. It is great if you can bring your own mat, but there will be some to borrow. Warm welcome!

13:15-14:30:Writing Grants for the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Aula Magna-Auditorium

The Wenner-Gren Foundation is a key supporter of anthropology worldwide.  Danilyn Rutherford, the Foundation's new president, will offer a workshop designed to help anthropologists from different countries and traditions of scholarship navigate the process of getting a grant. They’ll describe the various funding opportunities Wenner-Gren offers for graduate students, faculty and institutions, say something about the review process, and offer helpful tips on how to write a winning proposal. There will be plenty of time for questions. 

13:15-14:30: Network convenors meeting (by invitation only), Aula Magna-Bergsmannen

In 1996 EASA began to establish permanent networks of scholars from all over Europe to cooperate on fields of special interest. These networks are constantly growing and provide excellent opportunities for collaboration and exchange in areas of special interest. The network convenors’ meeting offers a chance for those who convene the different EASA networks to get together, face-to-face, along with the EASA President and Networks liaison officer to discuss the possibilities and issues related to the growing number of active networks.

13:15-14:30: Publishing with Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, Södra Huset, Hörsal 4-B4

As EASA’s flagship journal, Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale (SA/AS) is a key venue for presenting and discussing new ethnographic material and current theoretical developments. This event is an opportunity to meet our current and incoming editors, as well as a senior publishing manager from Wiley, our publisher. They will share some tips about how to get manuscripts published, and provide guidance on how to improve the reach and readership of published articles. The session will also provide an overview of the politics and economics of the open access publishing debate. In a Q&A period, the SA/AS editors and publishing manager will be happy to answer specific questions from the audience.

13:45-14:30: Bloomsbury book launch: Caravans: Lives on Wheels in Contemporary Europe by Hege Høyer Leivestad, Södra Huset, 3rd floor, Book Exhibit

Meet the author and raise a glass of something nice with us to celebrate an exciting new addition to Bloomsbury’s Anthropology list!
In Caravans, Hege Høyer Leivestad opens the caravan door to understand how daily life is organised among Britons and Swedes who have relocated, either seasonally or permanently, to mobile homes. Leivestad investigates how the caravan and campsite come to fit and challenge conventional domestic ideals, and how the static mobile caravan can nurture ideas of freedom even when it is standing still. As the first ethnographic study of caravan life in Europe, Caravans offers a refreshing take on contemporary mobility debates, showing how movement can best be understood by taking a detailed look at certain specific mundanities in material culture.

14:30-16:30: Plenary A: Anthropological knowledge production and the narratives, regimes and governance of mobility, Aula Magna-Auditorium

Convenors: Sarah Green (University of Helsinki), Martin Fotta (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main), Ayse Caglar (University of Vienna), Miguel Vale de Almeida (ISCTE, Lisbon)
Presenters: Bela Feldman-Bianco (University of Campinas), Ninna Nyberg Sørensen (Danish Institute for International Studies), Cristiana Bastos (University of Lisbon)

16:30-17:00: Brill book launch: Creolization and Pidginization in Contexts of Postcolonial Diversity, editors Jacqueline Knörr and Wilson Trajano Filho, Södra Huset, 3rd floor, Book Exhibit

Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture, Volume: 17
In this book, authors make use of interdisciplinary approaches to investigate creolization and pidginization as specific social processes in the course of which new common languages, socio-cultural practices and identifications are developed under distinct societal conditions and in different historical and local contexts of diversity. Their contributions show that creolization and pidginization are important social strategies to deal with identity and difference in a world in which diversity is closely linked with inequalities that relate to specific group memberships, colonial legacies and social norms and values.

17:00-18:45: European Directory of Social Anthropologists (EDSA) Roundtable: Facilitating Anthropological Outreach: A Database?, Södra Huset, Hörsal 4-B4

Organisers: Thomas Hylland Eriksen (Department of Social Anthropology, Blindern, Norway), Marie-Claire Foblets (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Chairs: Brian Campbell (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), Maria Kartveit (Department of Social Anthropology, Blindern, Norway), Timm Sureau (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Discussant: Anthony Good (The University of Edinburgh), Sylvie Fainzang (French Institute of Health and Medical Research – INSERM), Guma Kunda Komey (University of Bahri, Sudan)

This session invites participants to discuss the viability of a ‘European Directory of Social Anthropologists’, an outreach platform being developed by the European Association of Social Anthropologists and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Employing a “world-café” format and including presentations from three discussants, the goal of the event is to explore under what conditions such instrument can be set up and managed, taking into account the theoretical, ethical and logistical hazards that anthropology often encounters when going public. The database should offer a service, not a disservice to anthropology. See here for more information (extended overview of the event, questions and discussants).

17:00-18:45: EASA Network meetings

The networks listed below will hold meetings, and all delegates are welcome to attend - both those already involved and those interested in participating in future activities.

Anthropology of Economy Network, SÖ-D289
Anthropology of Food, SÖ-D207
Anthropology and Mobility Network, Hörsal 5 (B5)
Anthropology of the Middle East and Central Eurasia (AMCE), SÖ-B307
Anthropology of Mining Network, SÖ-D315
Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity, SÖ-B497
Anthropology of Security, SÖ-E420
Applied Anthropology, SÖ-B413
FAN (Future Anthropologies Network), SÖ-B419
History of Anthropology Network (HOAN), SÖ-D220
Humans and Other Living Beings, SÖ-B487
LAW NET, SÖ-C497
Media Anthropology Network, SÖ-D307
Medical Anthropology Network (MAN), SÖ-D215
Mediterraneanist Network (MedNet), SÖ-B315
NAGS (Network for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality), SÖ-E397
Network of Ethnographic Theory [NET], SÖ-E413
Teaching Anthropology Network (TAN), SÖ-D320

17:00-18:45: Wenner-Gren strategic planning discussions, Södra Huset B600

Danilyn Rutherford, the new president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation, will be hosting discussion groups during the EASA Biennial Conference in Stockholm.  She would like to meet with anthropologists from different regions and institutions to explore ways the Wenner-Gren Foundation can better serve anthropology worldwide.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation was founded in 1941 in New York City and have . We have been supporting anthropological research and promoting the sharing of anthropological insights for the past 75 years.  International applicants are eligible to apply to all of our programs. We have several that are explicitly targeted at the international community of anthropologists, from our Wadworth International Fellowships, to our Institutional Development Grants, to our Conference Grants and Symposia, which bring together scholars from around the globe. We are committed to an inclusive vision of anthropology as a discipline where different perspectives and approaches can thrive.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation is currently in the midst of a strategic planning process. As a first step, we are exploring the state of our discipline today. How do we define anthropology? Where do our most exciting ideas come from? What kinds of interdisciplinary and intersubdisciplinary engagements characterize our practice and theorizing? How do anthropologists fund their work? What role does public engagement and activism play in our research? What role do anthropologists play in public life? What are some of the ways anthropologists from different parts of the world are collaborating to advance the field?

Join Danilyn for an informal discussion of these and other topics. If none of the available time slots work for you, please email drutherford(at)wennergren.org to make other arrangements. Thank you in advance for your help!

19:00-20:00: Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography journal launch, Aula Magna, Mezzaninen

Sten Hagberg (Uppsala University) and Jörgen Hellman (University of Gothenburg), with Ulf Hannerz (Stockholm University) and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (Oslo University)
The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG) launches kritisk etnografi: Swedish Journal of Anthropology (http://kritisketnografi.se/). Join the official launching of kritisk etnografi marking both historical continuity and future-oriented innovation. Although this online, open access journal is a nouveau-né among SSAG publications, it draws on the association’s 145 years history. In kritisk etnografi, we seek to situate and examine ethnography as historically grounded scholarly practice and reflect upon what it stands for today in its multifarious shapes and articulations.

19:00-20:00: Meeting of AJEC-editors (by invitation only), Södra Huset B600

 

Thursday 16 August

07:30-08:30: Yoga

Start the EASA conference day with yoga to get your creative juices flowing!

Yoga is often described as a way to connect mind, body, and soul. It is also described as a Practice. Through the use of movement, breathing, and attentiveness it can break habitual patterns in the body and the mind, allowing for new, creative ideas to shine through. This early morning yoga class with Titti is for total beginners to more advanced practitioners and everyone in between.

The class runs on Wednesday 15th and on Thursday 16th from 07:30-08:30 and takes place outside, on the beautiful lawn in front of Aula Magna. We meet at the entrance of Aula Magna, if the weather is bad we will go inside. Please sign up by emailing duklarardet(at)live.se The cost is SEK100 or €10 to be paid to Titti at the class. It is great if you can bring your own mat, but there will be some to borrow. Warm welcome!

09:00-10:45: Wenner-Gren strategic planning discussions, Södra Huset B600

See above.

11:15-13:00: Workshop: Teaching anthropology to health professionals, Södra Huset F315

Organizer: Margret Jaeger/SFU Austria
This will be an interactive workshop aimed at young scholars who are interested in teaching in health profession training programs. Workshop leaders will draw on their own teaching experiences to lead participants in reflecting on possible roles for anthropologists in health care institutions, the tools and concepts of anthropology relevant to health professional training and practice, and the importance of considering institutional and health professional cultures. Useful teaching resources will also be discussed.

11:15-13:00: Anthropology after data (management): access, infrastructure, ethics, Aula Magna-Auditorium

Chair: Alberto Corsín Jiménez (EASA Secretary and co-founder of Libraria)
Participants: Beate Ellend (Open Access Coordinator, National Library of Swedish and Sweden’s National Open Access Desk for the OpenAIRE project), Kim Fortun (UC Irvine, President of the Society for Social Studies of Science, and Principal Investigator of the Platform for Experimental, Collaborative Ethnography), John Willinsky (Stanford University, Director of the Public Knowledge Project)

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on May 25. The new regulation offers enhanced rights to individuals whose data is processed as well as a wider definition of what counts as “personal data”. Therefore, the GDPR has introduced key provisos on how data for social scientific research is to be collected, archived, and used, including how to obtain consent, how long data can be held for, or what ethical precepts should guide storage. The GDPR comes in the wake of new calls for the inclusion of “data management plans” in research proposals to funding councils. This special roundtable brings together well-known experts on open access and open infrastructures to discuss how the age of data is shaping research, the challenges and implications for anthropology, and possible ways forward.

11:15-13:00: Wenner-Gren strategic planning discussions, Södra Huset B600

See above.

13:00-14:30: #PrecAnthro II: The return of armchair anthropology? Debating the ethics and politics of big projects, Aula Magna-Auditorium

Organizers: Alice Tilche, Giacomo Loperfido, PrecAthro Union
Anthropology is increasingly embracing the model of large collaborative projects following emerging paradigms of European and national agencies. This shift is bringing about a new division of labour between tenured academics who work as Principal Investigators, and a pool of lower-tier researchers expected to work on fixed-term contracts, to be mobile and to accept precarious living situations. This shift is also having profound impacts on the production of anthropological knowledge, in terms of aims, methods and contents. Recent interventions have argued that ethnography is not simply a method of gathering data: doing participant observation means learning a skill, it is a human and personal education (Ingold 2014) and a potentially revolutionary practice (Shah 2017). However, the shift towards large projects is arguably bringing back the 19th century division between ethnography (as a practice of gathering 'data') and anthropology (as a generalising science). Whilst the first has largely become outsourced to postdoctoral researchers, the second has become the purview of principal investigators.

In this meeting we bring together junior and senior, precarious and established scholars in order to reflect on these developments and discuss new organizational principles, legal frames, and ethical guidelines for the production of anthropological knowledge. Ethical guidelines for the discipline have been so far framed assuming a division between professional anthropologists (imagined as an homogenous group), their informants and local research assistants. How can these be reframed to accommodate greater differentiation within the category of the ‘professional anthropologist’? What should we consider data in anthropology? Who owns it? How can such ‘data’ be transferred from the relations that produce it? Who can claim authorship?

14:30-16:30: Plenary B: Migrants, refugees and public anthropology, Aula Magna-Auditorium

Convenor: Ulf Hannerz (Stockholm University)
Participants: Andre Gingrich (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Marie-Claire Foblets (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), Ruben Andersson (University of Oxford)

16:30-17:30: Berghahn reception, Södra Huset, 3rd floor, Book Exhibit

Berghahn Books is pleased to invite you to attend a reception at our book stand. Come along, meet the writers and editors and celebrate with refreshments the publication of new books in Anthropology by Berghahn.

17:00-18:45: Members’ Forum, Aula Magna-Auditorium

All members are encouraged to attend this forum, to discuss the items on the agenda. The Executive Committee will present their reports and be available for questions from members.

View the agenda [PDF].

17:30-19:00: Stroll through Bergianska Trädgården – the Bergius Botanic Garden

This walk is for those interested in different plants, nature, or just a simple stroll through a beautiful environment. You are welcome to join for an evening walk through the Bergius Botanic Garden located close to the Frescati campus. The garden was originally created to support research and teaching, but is also a beautiful recreational spot. We will find exotic plants from all around the globe; from the Mediterranean and the Tropics. If we're lucky, there might be a possibility to attend the exhibition showing the giant Water Lily at Victoriahuset bloom at 19:00, at the end of our walk.

We'll meet outside Aula Magna at 17:30 on the main campus area and walk together to the garden. If you're unable to make it at 17:30, you are most welcome to try to catch up with us in the garden. The most important thing isn't to stick to a firm timetable, but instead to enjoy a nice and calm stroll through beautiful nature in good company!

If you wish to attend, please notify martinecraskol(at)gmail.com. This will help us ensure no one gets left behind. 

We'll see you there!
PS. Don't forget to bring your comfy shoes!

19:00-20:30: EASA Network meetings

The networks listed below will hold meetings, and all delegates are welcome to attend - both those already involved and those interested in participating in future activities.

AGENET, SÖ-D320
Anthropology of Labor, SÖ-D220
Anthropology of the Arts, SÖ-B315
Colleex, SÖ-D315
DICAN Disaster and Crisis Anthropology Network, SÖ-F220
EAN (Energy Anthropology Network), SÖ-E397
EASA Anthropology of Confinement Network, SÖ-F307
European Network for Psychological Anthropology, SÖ-E420
European Network for Queer Anthropology, SÖ-B487
Europeanists, SÖ-D307
PACSA (Peace and Conflict Studies in Anthropology Network), SÖ-B307
Pilgrimage Studies Network (PILNET), SÖ-E413
VANEASA, SÖ-D207

 

Friday 17 August

09:00-10:45: Wenner-Gren strategic planning discussions, Södra Huset B600

See above.

13:15-14:30: Focaal editorial meeting (by invitation only), Södra Huset B600

11:15-13:00: Wenner-Gren strategic planning discussions, Södra Huset B600

See above.

14:30-16:30: Plenary C Early Career Scholars Forum: im/mobility, uncertainty and hope - critical reflections on academic precarity, Aula Magna-Auditorium

Convenors: Georgeta Stoica (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Sabine Strasser (University of Bern), Gabriella Körling (Stockholm University)
Participants: Lara McKenzie (University of Western Australia), Martine Schaer (University of Neuchâtel), Vinicius Ferreira (École des Hautes Études en Siences Sociales), Christian Rogler

19:00-21:00: Farewell dinner, City Conference Centre Stockholm, Norra Latin, Drottninggatan 71b (please note that if you arrive by taxi is the address Barnhusgatan 7A)

Warm welcome to the farewell dinner, held in the historic building Norra Latin that once housed one of the finest educational establishments in Sweden. The premises of Norra Latin is located in central Stockholm between Norra Bantorget and Drottninggatan, only a few blocks from the Central Station. The building designed in a palatial New Renaissance style still retains an atmosphere of a beautiful school. Norra Latin – concentrating on Greek, Latin and Classical studies – was inaugurated in 1880. It was a very grand occasion, where the dedication speech was given by the Archbishop of Stockholm, attended by King Oscar II, the famed artist, Prince Eugen, and many other members of high society. This splendid building was meant to make an impression and it still does today. Norra Latin exudes the self-confidence and prosperity of its time. Despite the emphasis on the classics, Norra Latin became an extremely progressive school, introducing many modern ideas. It boasted Sweden’s first school canteen and in the 1940s, the parents’ association employed the country’s first school welfare officer. It was also one of the first schools to have a student council. Although deemed progressive, it was an exclusive boys school until 1961 when the school finally became co-educational. School activities ended in the 1980s and in 1989 Norra Latin opened its doors once again in its current form, as a venue for conferences, congresses and concerts.

The dinner will be served from 19:30 in Bruce’s Dining Rooms – four rooms with magnificent chandeliers and beautiful art work – and in the adjoining inner courtyards. Dinner consists of plates of delicious Swedish specialities accompanied by a drink of your choice, followed by coffee or tea and delicious truffles. A full bar is open all night, but please note that they only accept credit cards.

21:00-01:00: Farewell party, City Conference Centre Stockholm, Norra Latin, Drottninggatan 71b (please note that if you arrive by taxi is the address Barnhusgatan 7A)

For those of you who prefer to come only to socialize and dance, the doors will open at 21:00. Entertainment will be provided by the wonderful Soul Satisfaction. The 12-piece band starts playing at 21:30 in the Pillar Hall offering Northern Soul to energize us. The Pillar Hall is formerly the gym at the school so we will do our best to fill it once again with energy.

Please note that the conference dinner and party ticket is an optional extra cost of €55, and must be booked in advance when registratering. Dance tickets only, including one drink of your choice, cost €12, and will be on sale during the conference, from the main reception desks.