Summary
- Topic Call For Papers — Workshop “Past Tense, Future Imperfect: Temporalities as Mobilising Force”
- When to (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
- Where Hybrid/Bonn — Germany
- URL https://easaonline.org/networks/naohh/events
- Download date as file get iCal file
Description
Call for Papers: Workshop “Past Tense, Future Imperfect: Temporalities as Mobilising Force”
The European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) networks of NAoHH (Anthropology of History and Heritage) and FAN (Futures Anthropologies Network) are inviting contributions to a two-day workshop in collaboration with the Global Heritage Lab at the University of Bonn.
This workshop will be held in a hybrid format on the 23rd and 24th of July 2025 at the University of Bonn and online.
Conceptions of past and future are mobilised in contemporary public debates on major issues such as climate change, migration, technology, the economy and democracy, as well as in the more intimate processes of belonging and identity formation. Retrospection and anticipation (Knight & Bryant 2019) are crucial aspects of human existence. The collaborative workshop will explore anthropological approaches to the study of time, its various registers and interrelations. Our exchange will focus on accessing, making sense of, and writing about temporalities and the social acts of remembrance, experience and anticipation through three focal points:
Methods: Accessing the past and the future poses similar methodological challenges and possibilities. Drawing on the diverse methodological approaches between FAN and NAoHH memberships, this session will examine creative research methods that explore how humans relate to past and future. Advancing methodological approaches to past-future studies may help shape a more responsible anthropology, critically engaged with the current sociopolitical struggles of our interlocutors.
Theory: Accessing the past and the future is tied to temporal orderings which, as studies on historicities (Hirsch & Stewart 2005) have highlighted, are far from being purely linear. We aim to devise new ways to understand the past in relation to the present and future beyond silencing (Trouillot 1995), ruptures and continuity. We will explore how diverse traces and materials from the past are maintained or marginalised in the present (Kopf 2024).
Dissemination: Reflections on theory and methods lead to critically rethinking the centrality of ethnographic writing, its modes of representation and our audiences. The Global Heritage Lab offers experimental space to explore multimodality and foster alternative forms of knowledge production (like exhibitions, film-making, and other forms of engagement). This can enable alternative approaches to think, teach and speak about temporal orderings and non-linearity as well as inform a more responsible anthropology.
The workshop is envisioned as the first ‘instalment’ of a long-term conversion on these overarching themes to foster further collaborative work among participants. From the methodology session, we plan to write a toolkit piece on ethnographic approaches to accessing the past and future for Allegra Lab’s ‘One shots’-series. From the theory session, we plan to work towards a special issue of a journal, potentially Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale. From the session on multimodality and writing (dissemination), we plan to take our discussions into a follow-up panel for EASA 2026.
We invite contributions that explore these issues in a variety of formats including audiovisual and multimodal forms of communication.
The workshop is open to all, though priority will be given to members of FAN and NAoHH.
To participate, please submit your 250-word abstract or an alternative format –such as video abstract, podcast excerpt or portfolio– outlining your contribution by Monday 31st of March 2025 using the link below. Please make sure to indicate which of the three thematic sessions your contribution speaks to (Methods, Theory, Dissemination).
Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hHU2a9ofhgQ96u4Va-LHIwvFgT_9ZPH015wxCVLwmTA/edit
Please note that limited funding is available to contribute to participants’ accommodation and travel within Europe which will be allocated on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any questions or queries please direct them to: nazliozkan[ at ]ku.edu.tr or tom.bratrud[ at ]uib.no
