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Dear all, (with apologies for cross-posting!)

this is a reminder for the cfp for our panel =E2=80=9CDecolonizing Outer =
Space Ethnography=E2=80=9D at the World Anthropological Union (WAU) =
Congress. The conference will take place in Johannesburg and online from =
11th to 15th November this year. We will invite short pre-circulated =
essays and we plan to submit the collection of papers to a major =
journal. We are particularly happy to have Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre =
Smiles as our discussant. Please find the panel description in the link =
and below.
https://waucongress.org/panel/pn44/ =

To submit an abstract, please click here: =
https://waucongress.org/call-for-papers/ =

The deadline is May 13, 2024.=20
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All the best,=20
Hanna Nieber, Alana Osbourne, Anton Nikolotov and Anna Lisa Ramella
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Decolonizing Outer Space Ethnography
Discussant: Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, University of Victoria
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How do material conditions of cosmic objects, environments, low-gravity =
settings and experiences question established ethnographic categories of =
analysis, ethics and normative practices? In this panel, we query how =
physically inaccessible spaces and alien agencies may challenge colonial =
legacies of ethnographic methods or reintroduce them in new guises. =
Recent anthropological interest in outer space has cast established =
methodological questions in a new light. Scholars have asked how to do =
ethnography remotely, or how to relate ethnographically to extreme =
scales and contingencies, or more-than-terrestrial places one has never =
bodily experienced (Olson 2018; Szolucha et al. 2023). Advances in the =
Social Studies of Outer Space draw on and extend works in archaeology =
and media studies (Gorman and Walsch 2020), digital anthropology (Horst =
and Miller 2012), and STS (Beaulieu 2010) that problematize ethnographic =
practices in physically inaccessible locations. As an alternative to =
co-location, "co-presence,=E2=80=9D or the establishment of synchronous =
interactions with interlocutors (Buchli 2020), has been proposed as a =
productive way of thinking and doing space ethnography. Arguably, this =
also reintroduces the return of the pre-Malinowski mode of colonial =
=E2=80=9Carm-chair anthropology=E2=80=9D (ibid.), while constructing =
=E2=80=9Ccoevalness=E2=80=9D between the anthropologists and the =
interlocutor (Fabian 1983). However, if it is the case that the vast =
cosmic scales unsettle the habitual terrestrial regimes of simultaneity, =
as Valentine (forthcoming) suggests, then what are the multiple ethical =
ways of relating to and inhabiting the cosmic non-coevalness today or in =
the future? With this panel, we aim to join the conversation with other =
scholars interrogating colonial legacies in space exploration and =
technoscience (Smiles 2020; Shorter and TallBear 2021; Young 1987). We =
propose to extend this analysis to the challenges of doing ethnographic =
research of extra-/terrestrial environments, objects, phenomena and =
relations. What do co-present or dis-simultaneous methods entail and who =
or what can be co-present? We invite papers, work-in-progress proposals, =
and ethnographically informed artistic interventions to reflect on the =
current state of the art. We ask how engagement with outer space might =
bring new insights to questions of the coloniality of research (Smith =
2016), advance the reformatting of ethnography as para-site (Marcus and =
Holmes 2013) or collaborative curation (Sansi-Roca 2019), or disassemble =
ethnography in favor of anthropology (Ingold 2017). Finally, we are =
interested in research strategies that can help think with Mbembe=E2=80=99=
s (2021) concept of =E2=80=9Cplanetarity entanglements=E2=80=9D beyond =
Earth and engage with the current context of the neocolonial space race, =
the displacement of communities by space infrastructures and emerging =
space capitalism.



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Prof. Dr. Anna Lisa Ramella =
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Juniorprofessorin f=C3=BCr Kulturwissenschaftliche Methoden=20
Leuphana Universit=C3=A4t L=C3=BCneburg

Methodenzentrum
Universit=C3=A4tsallee 1 | C40.528
21335 L=C3=BCneburg

Tel. 04131-6774015