How do we scale history in anthropology? What are the political-ideological implications and effects of how we scale historical dimensions in our ethnographic practice? How is anthropological work perceived by wider publics in terms of its political-ideological orientation and legitimacy through its accounts of history?
As the kick-off event of the NAoH Seminar Series this online Roundtable foregrounds scaling in anthropology of history not only as a basic epistemological-methodological concern. It also explores how temporal scaling unfolds through zooming into particular topics and processes (biographies, imperial legacies, rituals, environmental changes, heritage, changing migration patterns etc.) and in this way produces accounts of history, which carry and/or can be infused by particular political-ideological claims and implications.
The Roundtable will unfold in a dialogical, research-experiential, and collaborative manner. Four scholars are invited to open the space of exchange by sharing research experiences and ethnographic examples on how and why they scale history in particular ways; what this opens up and limits; and which potential pitfalls emerge. Colleagues from the audience will be invited to join in the conversation based on their research experiences and raise wider questions related to present-day political and economic contexts of how anthropologists produce particular knowledges on history.
- Pamela Ballinger (University of Michigan)
- Dominique Santos (Rhodes University)
- Georgeta Stoica (CUFR Mayotte)
- Marta Gentilucci (CUFR Mayotte)
- Organised by Helen Cornish (Goldsmiths), Jelena Tošić (Universität St.Gallen), Giovanna Parmigiani (Harvard)
Online, 26 January 2024