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Paper Short Abstract:

How can we prepare ourselves, our students, and colleagues for the ways in which the 'good life' fantasies continue to ensnare us in anthropology? The forming of ‘anxious solidarities’ around mental health might lead towards a more equitable distribution of recognition and security in anthropology.

Paper Abstract:

There has been much talk of a rising mental health crisis in anthropology in recent years. In the “Precarity Report”, Fotta et al. (2020) outline a couple of factors that could help us understand the impact of working conditions on mental health and well-being: only 42.7% of surveyed EASA members covered their living expenses solely from wages and from one full-time job; 53% experienced discrimination, unfair treatment, harassment, bullying, physical and emotional abuse. Last but not least, while 68% think it is unlikely they will get a permanent post within the next 5 years, only 4% are seriously planning to get out of academia. This keeps academics into a deadlock: the uneven distribution of security and stability re/produces the existential precarity of academics, including the inability to plan the future. How have rising rates of academic precarity and the incessant push towards mobility have contributed to mental health issues and lack of social support? These insecurities impact the doing of both teaching and research in anthropology. However, anthropologists have a duty of care towards themselves, their students, colleagues and supervisors to talk about the impact of academic precarity on mental health. As Eli Thorkelson (2018) put it, how can we prepare ourselves, our students, colleagues, and supervisors for the ways that our fantasies of a good life continue to ensnare us in anthropology? The forming of ‘anxious solidarities’ (Kingsmith 2023) and alliances around mental health and academic precarity can hopefully lead towards a more equitable distribution of recognition and security.