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Paper short abstract

How can we prepare the next generations to deal with the growing list of ‘wicked’ problems our planet is facing, threats characterised by uncertainty in knowledge and values? I analyze the outcome of an experimental university course that methodologically fosters students’ “practical wisdom”.

Paper long abstract

How can we meaningfully prepare the future generations of anthropologists to deal with the growing list of ‘wicked’ problems Planet Earth is facing, threats characterised by uncertainty in both knowledge and the values at stake (AI being one of the more recent challenges on the horizon)? My involvement in the governance of anthropology at the international level, first at the European (EASA) and then at the global (IUAES, WAU) level, made me think critically about what is actually being taught in anthropology programmes worldwide and how this is being done. I got together with some like-minded colleagues and we obtained funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to research this. Our project, termed ‘Antro Radikoj’, aimed to inventarize the current state of teaching anthropology, with a particular focus on ‘decanonizing’ the curriculum, and creating openings for ‘alter-native’ pedagogies. To a certain extent, this entails a return to the traditional roots of anthropology, which was all about communicating the knowledge and wisdom anthropologists had observed in other cultures, often Indigenous ones, across the world. I critically analyze the outcome of an experimental university course that methodologically fosters students’ “practical wisdom”, asking the right type of questions and being open to different perspectives. This alternative model to the dominant educational focus on merely conveying knowledge may be better attuned to the current AI-dominated era and to what anthropology as a discipline needs to survive in it.