10:00 Register and Explore the Stalls
Clore Education Centre & Studio, British Museum
Once you have registered at the reception desk, visit the university and exhibitor stalls to ask questions about undergraduate anthropology courses and admissions. Stalls are in the Clore Centre hallway and Studio room. Be sure to check the ‘Guide to Participating Universities 2024’ in your London Anthropology Day bags.
11:00 Welcome and Introduction
BP Lecture Theatre
11:30 First Workshop Session
Anthropology of Heritage: Economic Development (BP Lecture Theatre), Alanna Cant, The University of Reading
In this session, we will explore some of the social changes initiated by heritage-based economic development by looking at case studies of heritage tourism in Antigua, Guatemala and Machu Picchu, Peru. We will discuss issues such as gentrification and infrastructure, overcrowding, power relations, and cultural resilience.
Can Anthropologists be Activists? (Stevenson Lecture Theatre), Marco Di Nunzio, The University of Birmingham
Anthropology, as a discipline dedicated to understanding human cultures and societies, often engages with issues of social justice and inequality. What is the role of anthropologists in the face of exclusion and oppression? Should they just observe and describe, or do they have a responsibility to help fight for change? Drawing from my own involvement in housing struggles and anti-eviction movements in Birmingham and Addis Ababa, I’ll talk about how anthropology can help document but also challenge how local governments and big companies displace communities and contribute to new forms of urban precarity.
Forensic Anthropology – Building a biological profile (Clore A), Hannah Koon, University of Bradford
A key role of a forensic anthropologist is to aid in the identification of skeletal material by building a biological profile. In this workshop, we will use casts taken from real human remains curated at the University of Bradford to try to estimate the age and sex of individuals based on specific features of the pelvis.
Music and Politics: An Anthropological Perspective (Clore B), Ioannis Tsioulakis, Queen’s University Belfast
How can we examine music (and performance more widely) in politics from an anthropological perspective? How does participation in performance affect our political sensibilities? What can we learn by taking performance seriously as a political act, while experiencing it first-hand as anthropologists? Come and find out about how music, creativity and performance offer some of our key teaching strengths in Anthropology at Queen’s University, and about how you can do university-funded fieldwork on this and other exciting topics!
Towards an Ethnography of Restitution (Moser), Charlotte Joy, The University of Southampton
In this workshop, we will look together at the growing call for the return of objects from museums to countries of origin through an anthropological lens. Why is anthropology at the heart of this debate? How can anthropologists help to solve the problem they were a core part of creating?
12:25 Second Workshop Session
Ten by Ten a film by Jami Bennett: Ethnographic Film Screening and Q&A with the filmmaker (BP Lecture Theatre), University of Manchester
There is no denying the evocative power of food to remind us of who we are and where we come from. And after living in Asia for over fifteen years, Jessica was longing for the burgers and barbecue of her native Tennessee. With the help of her husband Dongseop, Jessica opened an American-style diner out of her home on Jeju Island, South Korea in 2018. But after being featured on one of the country’s most popular television shows, the couple must now adjust to the shock of their newfound TV fame, the crowds of curious new customers it brings, and all this against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploring themes of food, home, identity, and celebrity, Ten by Ten is an intimate portrait of Jessica’s journey through these events as she learns to navigate the blurred boundaries between private life and public persona. The filmmaker, Jami Bennett, an alumni of the University of Manchester’s Visual Anthropology Programme, will give a brief talk and a Q & A after the film screening. Ten by Ten has won numerous awards including Best Student Documentary at the 2022 Grierson British Documentary Awards and the Reel South Short Award at the Nashville International Film Festival.
Bodies and Performances (Stevenson Lecture Theatre), Meike Fechter, University of Sussex
In the West, a beautiful body is often defined as a thin body. It may be surprising to learn, then, that in other cultures entirely different ideals of beauty exist. Among Fijians, for example, a full, rounded body is desirable, and is proof that a person is well cared for by their family and community. Bodies and bodily performances are important across all cultures and have been throughout history. Quite often, however, the very same bodies or practices carry different meanings depending on the respective cultures. In this workshop we will explore some anthropological approaches to the body, considering practices such as tattooing, piercing, scarring, masking, and wearing clothes, and find out how they express differences in individual, ethnic, religious, or gendered identities. Students will be venturing into the space of the British Museum to gather examples from past and contemporary peoples, which we will discuss together.
Bringing Them Home: The Contribution of Forensic Anthropology for the Repatriation of Soldiers’ Remains (Clore A), Matteo Borrini, Liverpool John Moores University
During the 20th century, many countries have lost thousands of civilians and soldiers around the globe in cities and on different battlefields. Today, these remains are still being discovered, sometimes unexpectedly, and other times as results of a programmed search. Forensic anthropology is crucial for investigating human rights violations and for the recovery, identification, and repatriation of human remains. This presentation will describe cases where forensic anthropologists contributed to reconciliation and justice, serving humanitarian, legal and historical needs.
Possessed by the Spirits: The Anthropology of Ritual, Magic and Shamanism (Clore B), Brian Campbell & Ivan Tacey, The University of Plymouth
In this interactive workshop, you will take the role of a junior anthropologist who has just arrived at their fieldwork site in the highlands of Indonesian Borneo. On the first day of your fieldwork, you are invited to take part in a ‘Luangan Ritual’. How do anthropologists start making sense of socio-cultural practices that seem radically alien and exotic? How can you do fieldwork, when you have not even learnt the language? This workshop will give you an idea of the exhilarating experiences of starting fieldwork and provides an introduction to anthropological approaches to ritual, possession, trance and shamanism.
Exploring Cross-cultural Universality and Diversity in Folk Music (Moser), Sally Street, Durham University
Music is universal to all human societies, and yet there is huge diversity in traditional musical styles across cultures. Anthropologists can therefore study music as a window into both human universality and diversity. In this interactive workshop, we will listen to diverse examples of folk music from around the world and discuss both common themes and culturally-specific features. We will also discuss some of the challenges of cross-cultural research, including objectivity and ethics. All very welcome – no musical training necessary!
13:10 Lunch Break
Bring a packed lunch or purchase lunch at the museum. Please do not leave the museum premises.
13:40 Re-registration and Time to Explore Stalls
14:10 Third Workshop Session
Politics and Relationships in the US: An Anthropological Perspective (BP Lecture Theatre), Siobhan Magee, The University of Edinburgh
In this talk, Dr Siobhan Magee will discuss her research on marriage and other relationships in Virginia, USA. Personal relationships are very often at the centre of how people think about and discuss their lives, but they are also of great interest to governments, faith groups, activists, and the general public. The talk shows how marriage laws in Virginia have changed in line with changing attitudes towards ‘race’ and sexuality. It also discusses how changes to marriage law might themselves have the power to change social attitudes. How do anthropologists learn about history and memory in the place where they are doing research? How might they explore both big news stories and very personal memories?
Falling in Love with a Robot? (Stevenson Lecture Theatre), Fabio Gygi, SOAS University of London
Anthropologists do fieldwork in many different places; they may go to study the culture of remote islands and secluded villages, but they are as likely to be studying scientists in laboratories or engineers on building sites. This workshop looks at our everyday relationship to technology. Participants are invited to reflect on their own use of technology (smartphones, laptops, chatGPT etc.) and about the emotional bonds that we form with our devices. What does it mean to be human in a world in which machines are programmed to simulate human communication and contact? Through anthropological case studies we will explore how roboticists from different cultural backgrounds think about “human nature” and how they imagine the next twenty years of human-machine interaction.
7 Million Years of Human Evolution in 45 Minutes! (Clore A), Simon Underdown and Sam Smith, Oxford Brookes University
In this interactive workshop you will work with others to learn about shifts in what counts as biological knowledge and to think about how we use the human body to make difference and index social identities. Be prepared to speak from your heart, to learn things that will go against your gut reactions and to encounter others in the room in ways that could re-make your world – and theirs. No preparation necessary except an open mind. Darwin’s dangerous idea? And then some!
Is the Uncanny ‘Real’? Ghosts and UFOs in Anthropology (Clore B), Laura Bear, London School of Economics and Political Science
Many people have experienced hauntings and UFO sightings. Yet these uncanny experiences are not treated as ‘real’ in secular societies across the globe. Or they are explained as effects caused by the biology of the brain. How do anthropologists look at these experiences and why do they treat them as ‘real’? This workshop will explore different anthropological approaches to the supernatural. Focussing on ghost stories and alien abduction it will show how these reveal the relationship between mind and society. Unsettling the ‘real’ by taking these phenomenon seriously can give greater understanding of what it is to be human and reveals important forms of visceral politics.
Anthropology and Archaeology in Forensic Investigations (Moser), Diana Swales, University of Dundee
Forensic Anthropology is the application of biological anthropology techniques to medico-legal investigations, primarily to identify missing persons or provide information on living individuals, such as estimations of age. In forensic cases involving deliberate disposal of human remains, either as individual burials or mass graves or in instances where skeletonised remains are found in indoor and outdoor environments, the combined expertise of forensic anthropologists and forensic archaeologists can help recover the remains, inform of the circumstances surrounding death alongside identification and individuation of skeletal or decomposing remains. This workshop involves scenarios that let you experience the roles of the forensic anthropologist and forensic archaeologist.
15:05 Fourth Workshop Session
Why is the Amazon burning? What anthropology can teach us about real world issues (BP Lecture Theatre), Amy Penfield, University of Bristol
What can we, as anthropologists, do about urgent global issues such as climate change and environmental degradation? This workshop discusses the potentials of anthropology beyond academia by taking a voyage through a rainforest in decline. We will begin the story from the aerial view of policymakers, law enforcement, international agencies, and news outlets. But then we will zoom down to the anthropologist’s level, seeing the phenomenon through the eyes of those on the front line – from those who destroy the environment and those who protect it.
Would you eat your dog? What’s good to eat in South India (Stevenson Lecture Theatre), James Staples, Brunel University London
Why is it that some of the foods we relish evoke disgust in others, or that things you might reject as inedible are considered delicacies elsewhere? This session draws on my own fieldwork in South India, where my status as a non-meat-eating anthropologist opened up unexpected questions about the role of meat—and particularly beef—in everyday social life. What can the ethnographic study of different foodways tell us about the places we undertake research in? What informs decisions about which foods become excluded or taboo?
“Becoming a Museum Anthropologist” a workshop on the critical building blocks of museum practice & theory (Clore A), Sultan Doughan, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The workshop will offer a short presentation concerning Museum Anthropology and why this is an important field of inquiry in a context where the role of museums, other similar institutions, and historical monuments, is increasingly being examined in relation to a growing awareness of the continued impact of forms of colonialism. You will then be invited to explore these issues in a series of discussions around what the curation of objects means and involves, what constitutes a “collection”, what the purpose of museum collections is in the contemporary work – and how these issues relate to debates around decolonization, restitution and the return of objects to indigenous communities, and the way we produce knowledge about material culture and the kinds of items we find in museums.
Crises, which crises? Doing anthropology in the 21st century (Moser), Fiona Coward & Patrick Nevelling, Bournemouth University
Critical political economists have coined the term “poly crisis” to capture the many upheavals holding planet earth and humanity in their grip. Climate, global warming,
global warring, greed-elation (as an inflation driven by runaway corporate profits), the lingering Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain insecurities, housing prices, are but some
of the many challenges facing humanity. This workshop casts the spotlight on some of anthropology’s many research pathways for capturing lives in crises. We invite
participants to delve with us into the many uprisings, revolutions, technological advances as well as backlashes and ruling class repressions across human responses to crises, past and present and in time and space. The workshop will address themes from social anthropology and biological anthropology.
16:00 Finish