led by Dr Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic
The workshop consists of a lecture/seminar and practical research activities where attendees will learn about anthropological approaches to questions of time, history, and their material culture, including archival documents, images, monuments, and commemorative art. Through a series of comparative empirical examples, the workshop will discuss experiences of time as knots rather than lines and explore challenges of interpreting history on the basis of partial records and silenced stories such as stories of slavery and political dissent. In particular, the workshop investigates why archives play such a key role in shaping our understanding of the past, how official archives can be biased, and how alternative, participatory archives subvert them. In other words, the workshop focuses on the social contexts and politics of historical and archival research.
In addition, the workshop will introduce the attendees to two anthropological methods: ethnographic participant observation and archival research. There will be practical learning opportunities to engage with various documents and to practise new analytical skills. The workshop cuts across several disciplines and will appeal to anyone with a general or professional interest in how we live in history.