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Paper short abstract:

Redesigning and reimagining scholarly forms of dissemination requires scaffolding infrastructural pedagogical supports, collective knowledge sharing, and contextual understanding of current publishing ecologies and economies.

Paper long abstract:

With their commitment to form-sensitive arguments and the practical know-how of how to not only produce but also theorize the relationships between image, text, sound, and performance, multimodal anthropologists are well positioned to reimagine and redesign traditional scholarly forms of dissemination. We must, however, scaffold these ambitions with infrastructural pedagogical supports, collective knowledge sharing, and contextual understanding of current publishing ecologies and economies. In this presentation I draw on my experience creating and publishing multimodal scholarship in society-sponsored journals and art presses, co-editing and co-leading the redesign of Visual Anthropology Review, and developing curricular pathways for students to explore and engage multimodal projects at the graduate and undergraduate level. This work has not only revealed various pinch points—how to control layout on dynamic platforms and evolving technology, maintenance required to ensure accessibility, building audience and reach and enhancing discoverability, guiding authors to engage with layout and design choices, and so on—but also the necessity of working collaboratively, fostering information sharing and defining on our terms the value of labor and work.