Previous events
Anthropology and Contemporary Worlds Research Group, University of East London
DATE: October 30, 2012
TIME: 12:00 – 14:00 hours
Room: EB:2.88
Docklands Campus
Professor Helena Wulff, Stockholm University
Leverhulme Visiting Professor, UEL
QUALITATIVE COMBINATIONS: CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF FIELDWORK
Helena Wulff is professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at UEL (2012)
Her early research was on youth culture and ethnicity, current interests centre on the anthropology of communication and aesthetics based on a wide range of studies of the social worlds of literary production, dance, visual art and media in a transnational perspective, presently on writing and literature as cultural process and form focusing on contemporary Irish writers as cultural translators and public intellectuals. Among her publications are the monographs Ballet across Borders: Career and Culture in the World of Dancers (1998, Berg) and Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland (2007, Berghahn), as well as the volumes The Emotions: A Cultural Reader (editor, 2007, Berg) and Youth Cultures: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (editor with Vered Amit-Talai, Routledge, 1995), Ethnographic Practice in the Present (editor with Marit Melhuus and Jon P. Mitchell, 2010, Berghahn). Helena Wulff was editor-in-chief of Social Anthropology, the journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.
PUBLIC LEVERHULME LECTURE
Anthropology and Contemporary Worlds Research Group, University of East London
ALL WELCOME
DATE: October 25, 2012
TIME: 15:00 hours to 18:00 hours
ROOM: SD.1.14, Sports Dock, Docklands Campus
Professor Helena Wulff, Stockholm University and UEL
Anthropology and the Literary Imagination: Fiction in the Field, Writing Communities and Ethnographic Authors
Abstract:
On a recent upsurge, the anthropology of literature has a long history. It involves the relationship between literary texts and social life, writers as cultural translators, and the writing of literature as process and form including the making of a writing career and the dynamics of the publishing market. Many anthropologists acquire new knowledge about their fields by reading fiction by local writers. Literary and reading communities are a growing area for anthropological research. Not only are there acclaimed contemporary writers who were trained in anthropology, but inspired by the wealth of their ethnographic experiences, anthropologists themselves also write novels, short stories, poems, memoirs and detective stories.
Helena Wulff is professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University and visiting Leverhulme Professor at UEL
Her early research was on youth culture and ethnicity, current interests centre on the anthropology of communication and aesthetics based on a wide range of studies of the social worlds of literary production, dance, visual art and media in a transnational perspective, presently on writing and literature as cultural process and form focusing on contemporary Irish writers as cultural translators and public intellectuals. Among her publications are the monographs Ballet across Borders: Career and Culture in the World of Dancers (1998, Berg) and Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland (2007, Berghahn), as well as the volumes The Emotions: A Cultural Reader (editor, 2007, Berg) and Youth Cultures: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (editor with Vered Amit-Talai, Routledge, 1995), Ethnographic Practice in the Present (editor with Marit Melhuus and Jon P. Mitchell, 2010, Berghahn). Helena Wulff was editor-in-chief of Social Anthropology, the journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.
American Ethnological Society Spring Conference
April 19 -21, 2012, New York
ROUNDTABLE:
Anthropology, Translation and processual knowledge
Organiser: Narmala Halstead, University of East London.
Participants:
Ronald Jennings, LSE, Neni Panourgia, Columbia University, Judith Okely, University of Oxford, Louise de la Gorgendiere, Carleton University, Canada
Abstract:
This roundtable will explicitly consider the processual forms of anthropological knowledge construction to illustrate, variously, that the idea of practice which is embedded in fieldwork and ethnography also allows for wider engagement. In highlighting this space as processual, the roundtable will discuss research examples to consider the significance of conducting fieldwork through anthropological conventions and the contributions of ethnographic encounters. The roundtable reflects on the ways this embedded form of practice which allows for a rigorous anthropological approach also facilitates wide-ranging connections to the contemporary and, thus, lends itself to wider engagement.
Round-table members will draw on their research, wider engagement, and ‘involved anthropologist’ status to examine the notion of practice as both knowledge construction and translation.
These accounts will, for instance, reflect on the following:
- The notion of practice as an anthropological knowledge category.
- The processual spaces which extend practice to wider application of anthropological knowledge and anthropology as part of public spheres.
- Practice anthropology as an extended field through anthropological theory, research and applied work.
Simultaneously, the roundtable will discuss ‘knowledge translation’ as part of wider contributions of anthropological knowledge
CALL FOR PAPERS/PANELS/POSTERS
Anthropology in London Conference 2012
CERTAINTY?
UCL, MONDAY JUNE 11 2012
The theme for the Anthropology in London 2012 is Certainty? The conference will be hosted at UCL on Monday June 11. The call for panel proposals and individual papers is now open.
Current world events reinforce the view of a world in violent flux, crises and doubt. Indeed, uncertainty is taken increasingly as the starting point for anthropology’s study of identity, meaning-making and life strategizing.
But what if we were to ground our ethnographic approach and anthropological analyses, at least in part, in some concept of ‘certainty’? How might this uncover new approaches to our subject and extend our methodologies and analytical frameworks? How might ‘certainty’ inform or inspire alternative readings of our data and a critical rethinking of contemporary theories? What productive contributions might these make to the discipline, and to the social sciences and humanities more generally? Ultimately, to what extent is ‘certainty’ a viable starting point for 21st-century anthropology?
We invite anthropology staff and post-fieldwork students to consider these and related questions under the following general categories for their submissions. It is expected that creative synergies might arise between themes identified or that individual papers might also wish to address subthemes not identified here.
- Security
- Theory
- Risk
- Futures
- Borders and Boundaries
- Ethics
- Convictions
- The Body
- Materiality
- Work
Submission of Abstracts:
The organising committee welcomes 500-word (max.) abstracts for panel proposals and 300-word (max.) abstracts for individual papers and posters. Panel organisers are strongly encouraged to include participation from more than one college. We welcome innovative proposals for presentation formats.
We also invite submissions for a separate ‘fieldwork photography’ category. All staff and post-fieldwork students are encouraged to submit one fieldwork photograph that creatively comments on the conference theme.
Please note that we are unable to guarantee inclusion for all papers, photographs, posters and panels, so early submission is advised.
Guidelines and submission forms
Please submit abstracts and photographs to Narmala Halstead and Lane De Nicola
Deadline: March 30, 2012 at 5:00pm
Organised by UCL and University of East London in collaboration with Brunel University, SOAS, Goldsmiths and LSE
Social Sciences and Contemporary UK Society
A national social sciences conference for sixth form, further education and access students
Friday February 17, 2012, 10.00am-4.00pm
University of East London, Docklands Campus, East Building
EB3.13, 10-12.30; EBG.16 1-4
University of East London, 2-4 University Way, London E162RD
Organised by the University of East London and the British Sociological Association Teaching Group (formerly the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences)
Schedule of Events
10.00-10.30: Registration and Welcome
10.30-11.30: Professor Ann Phoenix, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London: Gendered and racialised experiences of education.
Ann is Co-Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, in the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research interests include motherhood, social identities, young people, racialisation and gender. Recent publications include the ‘Parenting and Ethnicity’ report (with F. Husain, 2006, York: JRF and 'De-colonising practices: negotiating narratives from racialised and gendered experiences of education', (Race Ethnicity and Education, 2009, 12 (1), 101-114).
11.30-12. 30: Seminars: Researching the ‘riots’: What can social science offer to our understandings of social unrest? You will be in a small university-style seminar group, discussing a short reading you’ve been given beforehand and thinking about future possibilities for social research on this topic.
12.30-1.30: Lunch, poster display
1.30-2.30: The best way to write an essay or exam answer: a presentation and q and a from AQA and OCR
2.30-3.00: Careers in the social sciences: The British Sociological Association
3.00-4.00: Professor Richard Wilkinson, Co-Director, the Equality Trust: Inequalities in contemporary Britain
Richard has played a formative role in international research on the social determinants of health and on the societal effects of income inequality. He studied economic history at LSE before training in epidemiology. He is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School, Honorary Professor at UCL and a Visiting Professor at the University of York. Richard co-wrote The Spirit Level with Kate Pickett and is a co-founder of The Equality Trust.
4.00-4.15: Poster competition: announcement of winners (sponsored by Sage Publications and Harper Collins).
Cost: £5 per registrant. To register please send the name of the attending teacher and students to Professor Corinne Squire, School of Law and Social Sciences,and visit the payment page
Social Sciences and Contemporary UK Society
A national social sciences conference for sixth form, further education and access students
Poster competition
Living in a Recession
Closing date: February 7, 2012
We are inviting sixth form attendees to submit an A2 poster, reporting on a small piece of research that they have done on ‘living in a recession’. This research could involve secondary analysis of a sample of media materials, or primary research – a short questionnaire, a small set of interviews, or observational research. You need to relate your research to at least one social scientific theory, and you need to write up the research in a conventional format, with an Introduction, Method, Findings and Discussion sections. In addition, if you are doing research with people, through questionnaires, interviews, or observations, you need to show that you have thought about the ethical issues involved, and that you have gained informed consent from the research participants. The poster should have around 1000 to 1500 words. Try to make the poster look attractive, also!
Here are some examples from undergraduate poster competitions:
- http://www.uel-undergraduate-conference.co.uk/poster-presentations.php
- http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/dept/tips/present/posters.htm
- http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm
- http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/sd/pgrd/resources/designing-poster/designing-poster
- http://www2.napier.ac.uk/gus/writing_presenting/academic_posters.html
- http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/
Please email us for examples from the UEL poster competition of 2011.
University Futures: A public discussion.
Bloomsbury Suite, Friends’ House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BY
Tuesday October 11, 1.30-5.00pm
What is a university for? Should we ensure all those able to benefit from university education get the opportunity to attend, and if so, how? How should society pay for universities?
Higher education in the UK is going through a series of controversial changes, which have particularly strong implications for humanities and social sciences. More generally, there is increasing debate about the future role of universities and other higher education institutions in the UK and internationally.
University Futures, a public discussion event to mark the start of the new academic year, brings together influential academics, policymakers and activists in the HE field to address these questions.
1.30: Introduction: Gavin Poynter and Corinne Squire, UEL.
1.40-3.00: Universities in society
What kind of higher education do we want? How do we assess the value of contemporary university education to the economy and society? Should universities be moving away from disciplinarity in order to educate?
Discussing these questions will be Stephen Anderson, Campaign for Social Science; Caroline Gipps, ex-VC, Wolverhampton University; John Holmwood, Campaign for the Public University; Derek Robbins, UEL and Faiza Shaheen, New Economics Foundation.
Chair: Gavin Poynter, UEL
3.00-3.30: Refreshments
3.30-5.00 Future scenarios
Does diversity in providers of education and research lead to better or worse higher education? What might be appropriate balances between public and private provision? What should universities' relations to research, employers, community, and/or international partners be?
Addressing these issues will be Liam Burns, President, National Union of Students; Carl Lygo, BPP; Terri Kim, Brunel University; Mike Rustin, UEL and Peter Scott, Institute of Education
Chair: Ann Mroz, Times Higher Education
Unwaged/low-waged and full-time students: £5. Part-time students and employed attenders: £10
To book a place and pay, please apply online at: http://universityfutures.eventbrite.com/
Get that job!
An afternoon of employment advice and workshops for all students on International Development programmes
Friday 4 November 2-5pm
EB 2.44
- Inspiring speakers
- CV Workshops
- Tips from employers
- Publication worshop
- Networking opportunities
- Refreshments
Development in Three Dimensions: Development, International Politics and Migration - Where do qwe go from here?
5 November 2011 at the University of East London
Brought to you by The University of East London International Development Society, in partnership with the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
This open conference will centre upon the themes of Development, International Politics and Migration Studies. The papers will be written and presented by undergraduate students. This unique conference will give those who attend a chance to hear from students, the field workers and policy makers of the future on the following topics:
- War, Conflict and Migration
- Power Inequalities in Society
- Environment, Resources and Livelihoods
- Governance, Institutions and State Building
- The Economics of Migration
- Healthcare and other Social Safety Nets
- Civil Society, Social Movements and Grassroots Initiatives
