You are warmly invited to the EASA LAWNET workshop in collaboration with Allegra Lab: From Critique to Political Practice. The workshop will take place on 12 May 2023 at University of Sussex, in Room JUBILEE-115.
Or on Zoom:
https://universityofsussex.zoom.us/j/99476503164?pwd=SUg3d3lyQjJvVVdNLzBwOHNWSC9kdz09
Meeting ID: 994 7650 3164
Passcode: 869970
Workshop rationale
What is the role of researchers in articulating critique in a time of heightened political, social, economic and environmental upheaval? What kind of critique is necessary, possible, and useful in our current times, when the very idea of critical thinking seems threatened by authoritarian, illiberal power and post-truth politics? As such, we ask: What are the moral implications of a social science that remains mostly concerned with critique? What are the limitations of such a framing outside the walls of academia? What alternatives do we have? Linked to this conceptual preoccupation is a practical one. In a time when critical perspectives are often not welcomed by institutionalised power, ethnographers face ever more difficulties in gaining and maintaining access to legal and governance institutions. What does increasing institutional closing down mean for political and legal anthropology as a field of research, but also of practice? Brought together, these ethical and methodological dynamics in many ways reflect the balancing act between pragmatism and utopianism we also witness in our interlocutors’ experiences. These experiences, which chart a delicate track between utopia and dejection can serve as a yardstick for our own reflexive practice, beyond the intellectual double impasse of cynicism and relativism. As such, we encourage participants to reflect on the positionality of political and legal anthropologists as researchers-in-the-world and, through this, on the future of research on legal and political processes.
PROGRAMME
8.30-9.00: Welcome + Coffee
9.00-9.15: Opening statement
9.15-10.45: Panel 1
Discussants: Julie Billaud (Geneva Graduate Institute) and Agathe Mora (University of Sussex)
- Rafael Carrano Lelis (Geneva Graduate Institute): Embodiments of Global South and North Narratives on Sexuality at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
- Samuel Shapiro (Laval University): Of What Is a Political Anthropology of Institutions Critical? How Is It Complementary?
10.45-11.00: Coffee break
11.00-12.30: Panel 2 [ONLINE]
Discussant: Lieselotte Viaene (University Carlos III de Madrid)
- Sepalika Welikala (The Open University of Sri Lanka): Protests, positionality and critique: reflections from a native anthropologist.
12.30-13.30: Lunch break
13.30-15.00: Panel 3
Discussant: Jane Cowan (University of Sussex)
- Ali Huseyinoglu (Trakya University): Human rights of minorities in Europe and critical thinking about the positionality of researcher: Greece as a case study.
- Deniz Duru (Lund University): Problematising the Politics of Recognition of Alevis on Conviviality in Burgaz Island, Istanbul: Fixing ambiguity, losing heterogeneity.
15.00-15.15: Coffee break
15.15-17.00: Panel 4
Discussant: Matthew Canfield (Leiden University)
- Pedro Rocha Lima (University of Manchester): Humanitarian secrets: negotiating disclosure, studying ‘up’ and ‘sideways’.
- Noah Walker-Crawford (University College London): From critique to engagement: Anthropology between legal and political practice.
17.00-18.00: Roundtable – Critique, Political Practice, Anthropology
Discussant: Agathe Mora
- Jane Cowan (University of Sussex)
- Matthew Canfield (Leiden University)
- Lieselotte Viaene (University Carlos III de Madrid)
Featured image by Ted Eytan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
