Short Abstract:

Anthropologists using research methods inspired by the performing arts are invited to reflect on being together and the co-creation of knowledge. We welcome work on any topic, in any style. We want to know what your methods are and what opportunities they pose for anthropological theory.

Long Abstract:

This panel invites anthropologists working with research methods inspired by the performing arts to reflect on ways of being together and the co-creation of knowledge. Theatrical methods are increasingly recognised as valuable additions to the ethnographic toolkit, but we still require spaces for knowledge exchange of specific practices. Our panel is one such space. We aim to draw together scholars currently working with performance-based methods on any topic, in any style. We want to know what your methods are and what opportunities they pose for anthropological knowledge.

We particularly invite scholars to reflect on the relationship between sociality and process in their methodological experiments. As an art form built on live presence, performance allows participants to conjure past experiences while acting in the subjunctive mode, ‘as if’ the future is already present. How does this relationship to time, experience and potentiality help us access and understand people’s worlds? What is the relationship between our methodological process and the ‘final performance’? Is it the way performance pulls us together into a novel ethnographic space? How do we create ways of being together through performance? What might our performative methods teach us about diverse modes of sociality?

We invite anthropologists working with performance-based methods to share insights from the particular forms of performance creation with which they experiment. We encourage PhD students, early career researchers, and anyone thinking through new approaches to performance as ethnographic method to submit their work. Traditional academic papers will be considered, as will multi-modal and interactive presentations.

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