ASA2022: Anthropology Educates
Online, 14 March to 7 November 2022

Anthropology is, above all, a way of education. Anthropological study is potentially transformative for all involved, be they teachers or learners, researchers or participants. At its best, it is an education that opens to the wisdom, experience and knowledge of people everywhere, in a sustained, collaborative, and critical reflection upon the conditions and possibilities of collective life, both presently and into the future. Yet all too often anthropological education reproduces authorised knowledge and paradigms, shaped by institutional demands, thus perpetuating exclusion and privilege.

The purpose of this conference is to explore both the potential of Anthropology to educate, and what the limits of such education might be. This goes far beyond questions of teaching and learning, as posed within standard pedagogic protocols. We are not thinking of Anthropology as a subject to be taught, finding its place in the curriculum of higher education alongside other subjects like History, Geography or Sociology. Nor are we primarily concerned with studies in the anthropology of education which have treated institutions and practices of pedagogy principally as objects of ethnographic attention. We aim instead to focus on the work of Anthropology, whether in the classroom or in the field, as a fundamentally educational endeavour.

In order to put this aim into practice, we are adopting an entirely novel format. Following an introduction, the conference will comprise five consecutive studios, each extending over a month, with opportunities for ongoing conversation on the virtual conference platform. Our intention is not so much to provide a forum for the presentation of finished work as to open up a space for conversation, with a view to advancing the topic under discussion. By the conclusion of the conference, then, we expect to be in a very different place from where we began. This, in turn, will be reflected in the eventual conference volume, which we conceive less as a collection of papers than as a multi-stranded compilation of voices and perspectives.

Schedule

All times quoted are in UK time. The conference will be conducted entirely online, for a period of eight months, from March to November 2022. Each of the five studios will be devoted to a particular theme, as follows:

Note about the timing of sessions: the timings of the sessions have been chosen to accommodate the different time zones of those involved. Please also note that contribution to themes does not require attendance at the live sessions. The conference has been designed to enable asynchronous, as well as synchronous participation. If you would like to contribute asynchronously, please submit a contribution as usual, watch the recorded studio in a time that suits you and then add your reflections and contribute to the discussions via the comments on the studio you are taking part in, on the studio platform.

• Anthropology as education
• Decolonising the academy?
• Academic-student collaborations (May 9 to June 6)
• Anthropology across disciplines (September 12 to October 10)
• Anthropology and the university (October 10 to November 7)

These studios are spaced at monthly intervals - see the online timetable. Sessions on May 9, will conclude ‘Decolonising the academy?’ (morning) and open ‘Academic-student collaborations’ (evening). That studio will then wrap-up before the summer break on June 6 . After the break ‘Anthropology across disciplines’ will open. Sessions on October 10, will conclude ‘Anthropology across disciplines’ and open ‘Anthropology and the university’. The final session, on November 7, will begin by concluding the studio on ‘Anthropology and the university’, and end with a general conclusion to the conference as a whole.

In the month-long interval between the opening and closing sessions for each studio, participants are encouraged to continue their readings and discussions, using the online conference platform.