Convenor
Sarah Winkler-Reid
University of Bristol
Co-covenor
Ditte Strunge Sass
Mahidol University International College
Abstract
Tim Ingold once asked “why it should be so phenomenally hard to write about the stuff of ordinary experience in terms that others can readily comprehend?” (1996:1). Anthropology is the study of everyday experience, and in our eagerness to convey the importance of the ‘everyday stuff’ we often lose the essence of what makes it everyday. Lived experiences become academic ‘verbal labyrinths’ (Ingold 1996:2) in the anthropologist’s description, and as we further mire ourselves in conceptual abstractions, and definitional debates, we run the risk of becoming unintelligible, even to our fellow anthropologists.
Ask yourself, how many times have you felt lost listening to a paper, or found your mind wandering far from the very ideas to which you have chosen to devote your career? If we as anthropologists do not understand each other, then how do we expect ‘outsiders’ to engage with, and make use of our findings? Surely it must be possible for us to be critical, analytical and rigorous and still make ourselves understood, not just by our colleagues, and the wider academic faculty, but also, and perhaps most importantly, by our research participants.
This panel attends to this paradox by presenting ourselves and our colleagues with a challenge; to present a paper to an audience that includes eleven and twelve year old children as discussants. This panel is proposed as a fun and lively way to ask some big questions about our work and the discipline. What is gained and what is lost when we challenge ourselves to have conversations with those not schooled in the conventions of the academy (we do this during our fieldwork, so why not the rest of the time?). Why when we have had the privilege to spend time living, participating and trying to understand the lives of others, can we not share our insight with a broader audience? And importantly, according to the opinions of our young discussants, have we succeeded in the challenge we set ourselves?
Papers can be on any subject, and should be analytical and not just descriptive. Presentation times will be short (8 minutes) and panel members will be asked to submit a version of their papers to be read by the discussants beforehand, who will be supported in this task by the panel organisers. There will also be an opportunity for panel members to reflect on the experience of the challenge in relation to their anthropological practice.