You know us well! We, at Allegra, are always on the look out for exciting anthropological events from around the world. Which is why we have cooked you up a very special menu this week, one that is all about events.
But first things first: if you’d like an upcoming event of yours to be featured on Allegra, do get in touch with Andrea at andreak@allegralaboratory.net or Aude at audef@allegralaboratory.net. We’d be delighted to add it to our next monthly events list as well as our calendar. You just organized an event? We hope all went well! If you feel like writing a short report, do let us know as well!
Our first post this week is one such report. Thiruni Kelegama and Madlen Kobi, from the University of Zurich, tell us all about their thought-provoking workshop about change and social transformation, topics at the core of contemporary research in HSS. Drawing from a variety of perspectives based on rich and diverse data, they reflect upon the ways in which these notions are dealt with in scientific qualitative research, both methodologically and theoretically. They challenge us to rethink the often expected linear pattern of the processes of change while emphasizing the fact that any and all accounts of social change we have access to remain “snapshots of change”.
Great change is under way within the world of anthropology itself as increasing numbers of scholars are aiming for a more socially and politically engaged practice outside the realm of academia.
Reporting from the “Responsibility and scholarship in the current political moment” graduate conference, Alison Hanson and Sara Stiehl, from the University of Colorado Boulder, discuss the ethical and political stakes of such public and engaged endeavours while stressing the need for collaboration with non-academic professionals.
Following on from this, Henni Alava, from the University of Helsinki, will take us down the rabbit hole into the dark world of academic hoaxes, faux journals and fake conferences. An enlightening and cautionary tale about the tricks and traps of pseudo-academia.
And last but not least, we’ll conclude this Allegra week with yet another one of our monthly events’ post! No thematic focus this time but opportunities to further explore the topics of this week’s posts with an eclectic array of conferences, call for publication and workshop.
Featured image by David Amsler (flickr, CC BY 2.0)
