Short Abstract:

This panel explores how spaces “outside” of ethnology, folklore and anthropology—both in terms of disciplines and institutions/departments—are vulnerable to different forms of “unwriting.” At the same time, we argue that such unwriting can offer fertile ground for scientific excellence.

Long Abstract:

Look around you at a SIEF conference and you are likely to spot many colleagues not trained in ethnology or folklore. Attend an anthropology symposium and you will undoubtedly find other disciplinarians among the masses of card-carrying anthropologists. Most of us today are compelled to traverse both geographic and disciplinary boundaries, often seeking employment outside of our "main" discipline in other fields, or in area studies departments or interdisciplinary centers. Such vocational mobility highlights both the value and adaptability of ethnographic approaches, and the current academic job market, which often requires casting a wide net when seeking employment. Ethnologists, folklorists and anthropologists working outside their home discipline often face challenges regarding job stability, recognition, metricization, and organizational representation. Similarly, when we engage with other fields, we may encounter challenges in needing to justify our disciplinary legitimacy or may find ourselves stymied in career advancement. In this panel, we examine how spaces "outside" these fields serve as highly productive arenas for scientific work, while also recognizing that these spaces are susceptible to forms of ‘unwriting’ in terms of canonical imaginaries. The spaces outside of our disciplines are becoming an evermore important and common, yet often unwritten space, where significant methodological and theoretical innovations take place.In this sense, we see the space of being ‘unwritten’ as both a mode of marginalisation and an opportunity. This panel wishes to shepherd a diversity of scholars towards exploring how practices of unwriting emerge at the margins of and beyond ethnology, folklore and anthropology .

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