Paper short abstract:

Nudging people to think anthropologically, Anthropour is an initiative that creates avenues for the CLASS. Using a five-series approach on Instagram, Anthropour builds capacity for diverse audiences to learn, unlearn and relearn anthropology.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores experiences to elevate the discipline of anthropology, fostering public recognition and acceptance within academia. Drawing parallels between conveying anthropology to non-anthropologists and practicing anthropology, Anthropour brings anthropology to the masses. Nudging people to think anthropologically, and imbibe that in their everyday life. Our goal is “To establish a solid foundation via capacity building that explores the horizon of working for fellow people.”

The paper delves into the methodologies employed by Anthropour. Through a five-series approach on Instagram, Anthropour brings out diverse anthropological concepts. The "Did You Know" series presents intriguing facts, while "Yours Anthropologically” is a series of open letters to throw light on the hidden practicality of the human world. Our approach is to reimagine a chosen concept using some daily life examples and case studies. In the "Engage" series, the audience is invited to actively participate by commenting on pressing topics. The "Reflection" series gives a space to match anthropology to behavioural consciousness. And each “Blog” post shares researched content. In addition, Anthropour actively takes part in Anthro Day celebrations. Key highlight being the "Agency in Objects" activity, which signifies the importance of mundane objects in our lives. This serves as a catalyst, enabling the public to swiftly grasp anthropological concepts.

The challenges encountered include greater enthusiasm and active participation by audience. To foster a sense of community among participants, Anthropour looks at the broader acceptance of anthropology in public and academic spheres to form a CLASS (Collective Learners of Anthropological Science and Social sciences).

Paper short abstract:

I highlight the interconnections between an academic and a non academic framework to new ecologies understanding. Communication and production of anthropological knowledge with students, teachers, parents, politicians, and friends to address the floods in the extended area of Thessaly are explored.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on the ways anthropological knowledge can help people to understand and anticipate difficult situations by bringing together the social and historical context, lived experiences, needs and expectations of the people. I highlight the interconnections in between an academic and a non academic framework. More specifically, I discuss a prerequisite student assignment during my course in University of Thessally (2021) and the sharing of anthropological knowledge / orientation to facilitate public engagement and involving non-anthropologists in a local research to a local disaster. My purpose is to highlight how different collectivities can get involved and how anthropological knowledge is produced through this dynamic process framing new ecologies of understanding. Different agents, a university department, two secondary schools, a municipality, two teachers' associations, a parents' association, a women's cooperative, local parliament members, a transnational overseas conference, a visiting researcher, a cultural centre and many local people from several villages in Pelion mountain. Students, teachers, parents, politicians, and friends collaborated and worked to understand each other to address disasters such as the floods in Thessaly.

Paper short abstract:

In a digitalized world where new ways of communication are taking over text, anthropologists are also in need to communicate their research in different forms. This paper discusses creative ways to share anthropological research on visual platforms by examples from the field in Siberia and Amazons.

Paper long abstract:

As an anthropologist working as a photojournalist since many years, in this paper I will discuss various ways we can communicate anthropological knowledge to different audiences. While publishing photo stories or popular science articles in magazines or newspapers is one of the ways, thanks to new developing digital platforms and technologies, there are many creative methods that anthropologists can use to make their research more available and understandable to general public even independently. Unfortunately, most anthropology departments do not provide enough training on the subject, leaving scholars only dependent on text. As a media practitioner, I will discuss various ways we can share our research with the public. In addition, based on my current research in the Amazons and Siberia where I aim to create a digital living map of a community I work with, I will give concrete examples on public outreach for anthropological research with the help of storytelling and visual materials. The example will discuss how to involve the communities with their own creativity into our research while using various visual methods and how anthropological research can be turned into interesting contexts by being a little playful.

Paper short abstract:

'Tiptoeing in the lands of the minarets' is a narrative Italian book, born out of true experiences of life in the Muslim world. It is a tool to introduce and communicate anthropology in public settings and stimulate discussions and insights among adults and young people of living in another culture.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how we can introduce anthropology in public settings, talking to people who are not anthropologists and involving various audiences of any age, opening debates and discussions on the main themes of anthropology.

“In punta di piedi nei Paesi dei minareti” (‘Tiptoeing in the lands of minarets’) by Giovanna Guslini, Nadia De Biagi, Rosanna Corda, Vita Activa 2022 is an educational tool, an Italian-language publication that was intentionally designed as a collection of attractive, engaging, appealing episodes set in a unitary narrative plot.

It tells about the experiences of life and the encounters of the three authors in Muslim Countries: its anthropological and educational insights were recently discussed during the last IUAES World Congress (Delhi, 14-20 October 2023).

The documentation is based on diaries, notes, letters, interviews, memories, newspapers, and personal photographic archives that produced 81 episodes, organised into 14 chapters, drawn in my case from field experiences, and for all three authors from autobiographical accounts of migration spanning a thirty-year period.

In its first year after the publication, the book has been tested in various public contexts: libraries, high schools, university attended by adults, academies, associations, cultural circles, reading clubs, and initiatives open to all, organized by the culture departments of different Italian municipalities,.

On all these occasions, it has aroused involvement and interest, raising public awareness of different anthropological issues.

The goal of the book is to show how enriching it can be to experience different cultures, despite the many difficulties that can still be overcome.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the reasons why anthropology should be taught outside the classroom to those in charge of public safety and social justice by narrating my experiences of teaching gender sensitivity to policemen in India and the consequent shocking misogynist responses that I faced.

Paper long abstract:

This is a narration of my experiences as a woman teacher, about teaching outside of the class room to a group of policemen and associated officials about gender sensitivity; who were most reluctant to receiving any kind of education from a female academic and totally resistant to learning about gender sensitivity. It is about my exposure to the deeply entrenched patriarchal values that is pervasive among those who are in charge of society and on whom women in particular depend for their safety. This effort exposed me to the mind set as well as the values that the men in power hold that act as barriers to women being given a fair deal in their daily lives, especially with respect to gendered violence that is so rampant in India. The reluctance to learn from a woman teacher was an eye opener to the gender stereotypes that are held in certain parts of the country and the huge gap between official policies and the motivations of those assigned to its implementation. It also exposes the chasm that exists in primary education and socialization about sensitivity to gender related issues and an ethics that is free from inherited prejudices and casteism and misogyny. This kind of experience brings out the realization about the value of anthropological education to all who are future custodians of law and society and the needs to make such education compulsory at least for certain kinds of jobs involving care for common citizens.

Paper short abstract:

Based on cultural anthropology and the practice of the visual arts, could help young students who have recently moved to Portugal to integrate and make themselves known and get to know different cultures. Also understand causes and forms of discrimination in order to promote intercultural dialogue.

Paper long abstract:

Portugal has recently seen the inclusion of students in classes from different countries. This is a new reality, which used to happen in larger cities like Lisbon and Porto. Nowadays, it is a reality in smaller cities further away from the coast. Students from Africa and South America are the main presence, although they also come from northern Europe.

Based on the premise that one of the main points of cultural anthropological studies is the figuration of thought through the production of images or objects, in short, artistic production, whatever form it may take, it was considered pertinent in visual arts classes that students could have contact with what are the main cultural manifestations of their countries of origin, so that they could share with the classes where they are included. Likewise, the Portuguese students will also be able to share their country's cultural assumptions with the young people in their classes.

It is hoped that within an intercultural framework, students will be encouraged to get to know the concepts of identity and belonging, culture(s), pluralism and cultural diversity.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing from a five-year experience of teaching and communicating anthropology to future elementary schools’ teachers in Mayotte island, this paper seeks to explore the dynamics and challenges of teaching anthropology to non-anthropologists in the context of elementary schools’ teachers training.

Paper long abstract:

Mayotte: French at Any Price (Blanchy, 2002) is a European outermost territory situated in the Indian ocean in the channel between Mozambique and Madagascar. It represents the last French Department and faces enormous challenges: great part of the population live under the poverty line, witnesses a great immigration pressure from the neighboring islands and half of the population is less than 17 years old (INSEE 2019). By focusing on the importance given at the local level to the educational system and the urgent need of training the future elementary schools’ teachers, we will discuss in this paper the importance of teaching anthropology to non-anthropologists by using two different points of view: one of an anthropologist and the other one of a researcher in educational sciences. In the context of accelerated changes of Mayotte island, the authors will show here how it's difficult to get the “institution” to accept Master thesis dissertations focusing on anthropology research topics (i.e. children and/or students' living conditions outside school ; school and immigration issues; the student/child experiences in and outside the school etc.) that are supposed to aid the future teachers better understand their students in order to help them learn better. We will try to answer here the following questions: In which way the anthropological thinking can be of service to elementary school teachers in order to change their way of teaching and interacting with their students? How the teaching institutions and academia can be more sensible to anthropological issues?

Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to discuss some experimental experiences of teaching and dissemination of anthropology, in academic and non-academic contexts, aimed at an audience of nursery/pre-school teachers and future educators.

Paper long abstract:

Nurseries, kindergartens, schools and, in general, any educational context represent privileged places in which to apply anthropology, not only because in them one can experience daily contact with cultural diversity, but also because educational structures are bearers of specific cultures, made up of established habitus and rituals. This paper intends to reflect on two concrete experimental training experiences I carried out, on the one hand, with a group of nursery and kindergarten teachers in a non-academic context, and, on the other, with bachelor students in education.

In the first experience, anthropological knowledge was presented to teachers as a tool to promote reflexivity in their work through a combination of different methodologies: more “classical” lectures, analysis of documents used for educational planning, focus groups with teachers and parents, observations, and, finally, organisation of discussion moments. This path started online at the beginning, due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic, and then continued in presence.

The second experience I will briefly focus on concerns, instead, the university context, where I introduced some practical experiences during lectures where they were not initially planned. Students were invited to leave the classroom and explore the campus and/or neighbourhood, alone or in groups from a research question I had proposed to them. The outcomes of these observations were finally uploaded to an online platform, leaving the students free to use their preferred form of expression (photos, videos, field notes, etc.), and then we commented on them together.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the use of science fiction and the context of the Star Trek universe as a method to teach anthropology to science and engineering students in France.

Paper long abstract:

A consequence of employment precarity in academia nowadays often means that the traditional context of teaching anthropology through an anthropology or sociology department, and the traditional target audience of undergraduate or graduate students in the social sciences, are changing. This paper focuses on teaching anthropological concepts to non-anthropologists, students of science and engineering at a French grande école for engineers. These students, despite their background in mathematics and the physical sciences, often have a strong interest in philosophical questions; their education is built on interdisciplinary inquiry, where value is placed on solving real-world problems, where it is acknowledged that these need to be understood in context of the social world in which they exist. Many students have a personal interest in questions of cross-cultural understanding and communication as well, since they know they will enter careers that require them to work collaboratively across cultures. I describe in this paper how I use the science fiction genre of literature and film, which is a genre widely read and enjoyed by most of these students, as a context in which to engage with anthropological theory and ethnographic data. Specifically, I focus on the Star Trek television series, which often explores anthropological concepts such as cultural relativism, evolution, identity, language, gender, race and ethnicity and social issues such as inequality, power, and communication across cultures. Students engage in creative writing exercises, modelled on writing ethnography, to further explore these issues.

Paper short abstract:

Based on my experience as a teacher of Social Anthropology in the Social Work degree at the University of Granada, I formulate reflections and proposals aimed at better conveying the tools of the discipline and its critical/deconstructive potential to future social workers.

Paper long abstract:

These reflections are based on my experience as a teacher of Social Anthropology in the Social Work degree at the University of Granada.

It is a mandatory course within a degree with a strong orientation towards social intervention, and with the presence of different disciplines from the Social Sciences, many of which are characterized by more normative, legal, or “positivist” epistemologies (in a broad sense).

One of the main expectations of students regarding this course is that it provides them with an exhaustive knowledge of the different “cultural characteristics” of service users, with the aim of carrying out a “better” and “more effective” social intervention. Adopting an essentialist notion of culture, the emphasis is placed on the "Other(s)" – the marginalized, racialized, impoverished Other(s) - and their specific characteristics, with the result of undermining both the relational element of the Construction of Otherness and the existence of power relations and deeper structural dynamics that condition the interaction between social intervention professionals and service users.

How can we break with the epistemological assumptions implicit in such expectations? How can we convey to the class the deeper and more critical contribution of Social Anthropology?

This communication, based on my own teaching experience, emphasizes the importance of the emotional/affective dimension for the teaching/learning process; in fact, far from opposing the cognitive dimension, emotions and affects constitute a necessary complement to it. To illustrate this relationship, I draw on concrete examples of dynamics, dramatizations, musical performances, and other "hybrid" teaching tools developed in the classes.

Paper short abstract:

The aim of this work is to reflect on the challenges of integrating the anthropological approach in the training of dietitians-nutritionists and in the construction of an interdisciplinary, critical and holistic view of food among these professionals.

Paper long abstract:

In the last three decades, the field of dietetics has progressively become professionalized and dietitians-nutritionists have become important actors in the medical field, both at the level of individual and collective attention, in the creation and transmission of dietary norms. This professionalization has occurred in parallel (and as part) of the process of medicalization of food. The latter has led to the consolidation of "nutritional rationality", based on a mechanistic and technical paradigm, favoring the biological and nutritional dimensions of food to the detriment of the social, cultural, symbolic and economic dimensions. Although nutrition is a complex bio-psycho-socio-cultural fact, in the training of dietitians-nutritionists, this nutritional approach based on modern biomedical thought and the tradition of scientific positivism is privileged.

The anthropology and sociology of food have theoretical-methodological perspectives of great relevance for understanding the act of eating in all its complexity and for the development of a professional practice that is critical and that considers the social, cultural, economic and political dimensions of food. However, the study programs in dietetics usually include marginal and/or secondary subjects or knowledge of the social sciences.

The aim of this work is to reflect on the challenges of integrating the anthropological approach in the training of dietitians-nutritionists and in the construction of an interdisciplinary, critical and holistic view of food among these professionals. It will also address how anthropology has been included in this field, as well as how relationships are established with professors from other academic fields.

Paper short abstract:

This paper, based on two decades of experience sharing anthropological knowledge with artists and art students, aims to discuss experimental techniques and approaches that allow us to reconfigure and reimagine ways of nurturing an anthropological sensibility beyond the boundaries of the discipline.

Paper long abstract:

Communicating and nurturing an anthropological sensibility in learning and artistic processes involving non-anthropologists has been my challenge over the last two decades. This experience has become an epistemological feedback loop, in which sharing processes allow me to interweave the knowledge and actions of the people I work with with my own practice as an anthropologist. The territories in which this happens are mainly an arts and design school that has always welcomed anthropological knowledge enthusiastically, as well as artist collectives that engage with the discipline as part of their creative processes. Although I call on the well established connection between the fields of anthropology and art (Fernandes Dias 1999, 2001; Sansi 2015, 2020; Schneider & Wright 2010; Foster [1996] 2004), over the years I have simultaneously developed a set of experimental methodologies. These include leaving the classroom and the academic context, assuming the potential for nomadism and affectation that fieldwork calls for. Long walks in different settings, discussing academic texts in unlikely contexts and conditions, materialising and sharing knowledge through visual and performative resources are some of the approaches I have developed trying to reimagine forms of communicating anthropological expertise. It has been also an endeavour to devise sensitive ways of relating to a "world on a knife edge" (Ingold 2018) and its urgencies, crossing agendas that circulate between the two fields, such as ecology, gender politics or decolonial processes, among others. In this paper I intend to share some examples and formulate a set of reflections about this journey.

Paper short abstract:

This work examines the self-imposed siloing of anthropology as a discipline, and simultaneously, its underestimated holistic approach in organizational and management disciplines, arguing for translating anthropological language to bridge disciplines and enrich understanding across various fields.

Paper long abstract:

In a contemporary context marked by multiple emergencies and crises, the effective communication of anthropology to non-anthropologists presents itself as a crucial challenge. This work explores personal experiences in teaching and researching anthropology, ranging from a private secondary school in Argentina to the National Pedagogic University (Argentina), the Intercultural Management program at Universidad del Salvador (Argentina), and the project department at the Faculty of Organization Studies in Novo Mesto (Slovenia). It discusses the resistance and disciplinary silos encountered, not only in non-anthropological scenarios but also from inside anthropology.

The goal of this presentation is to highlight how anthropology is valued in the educational and pedagogical field for its ability to holistically unravel connections and unspoken themes. Simultaneously, the perception of anthropology in academic spheres linked to organizational studies and management is examined, where it is often considered a subdiscipline focused solely on culture and human behavior, underestimating its holistic, lateral, and more people-near approach. This analysis is based on my direct experience in teaching and project development. It will be argued that the "translation" of anthropological language into a more accessible format opens and enriches the anthropological discipline, fostering bridges to other disciplines and knowledge.

Paper short abstract:

Anthroday MI-TO – a three-day program of public events meant to strengthen the work of anthropologists with institutions, third sector, and enterprises – shows innovative ways of communicating anthropology, through and beyond academia, to create collaborations with territories and professionals.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, we will reflect on innovative ways of communicating anthropology to engage a broad, non-academic, audience, by presenting the case of World Anthropology Day | Public Anthropology in Milan and Turin (AnthroDay MI-TO), which our team has organized since 2019 under Milano-Bicocca University’s coordination and in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Anthroday MI-TO is a three-day program of more than 80 public events meant to make visible and recognizable the daily work of anthropologists in dialogue with institutions, third sector, and enterprises. Resonating with the potential of multiple social realities, it relies on formats that emphasize active and experiential engagement, such as workshops, ethnographic-walks and exhibitions, showing what anthropologists know and do “at large”. The goal is twofold: to give public visibility to a little-known discipline like anthropology, by displaying effective collaborative experiences widely implemented in the two cities; and to enable the emergence of new collaborations with professionals from other fields, embedded in the territories, through and beyond academia. AnthroDay MI-TO is an incubator of new projects, arising from synergies between anthropological knowledge and diversified professional know-how, between research and public engagement of the discipline, designed to meet a growing “demand for anthropology” through hybrid and applied tools and languages capable of forming an inclusive and dynamic anthropological “community of practice” (Lave, Wenger 1991). In our presentation, we will first describe AnthroDay MI-TO’s experience; we will then focus on exemplary activities, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of a way of communicating anthropology that entails experience and practice.

Paper short abstract:

Communication involving cross-cultural and interdisciplinary teams can address health issues. How do we involve local communities and develop interdisciplinary teams to address health emergencies? This paper examines how to develop culturally appropriate communication to address health emergencies.

Paper long abstract:

The initial response to epidemics such as the West Africa Ebola epidemic tended to have a biomedical focus with little consideration of traditional healers and local knowledge practices. The flow of information tended to be top down and one directional, from the West to the local communities, rather than multi-directional exchange of knowledge. The one directional flow of information marginalized the local communities and traditional healers in developing culturally appropriate communications to address epidemics such as Ebola in West Africa. The one directional approach resulted in lack of trust and misinformation. Furthermore, involvement of anthropologists who could help navigate the local cultures was minimized at the beginning. Lack of understanding the “norms” and value of the “other” discipline may inhibit interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. This paper examines the following: 1)the flow of knowledge to address health emergencies; 2) the potential benefits of working with local communities and traditional healers to address a health issue; and 3) the development and use of interdisciplinary teams to address health emergencies. Collaborating with local communities and traditional healers and interdisciplinary teams may result in more effective and culturally sensitive communications to address health emergencies.