Back to the Futures: Anthropology and Time
A Graduate Student Conference hosted by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder
Friday, September 28 - Saturday, September 29, 2018
What role do futures play in anthropological research? While some scholars have pointed to anthropology’s longstanding preoccupation with the past, memory, and tradition (Appadurai 2013), interdisciplinary movements such as indigenous futurisms, queer futures, and science and technology studies challenge us to consider time in a different register (Muñoz 2009). Adams et al (2009) suggest that the current moment is characterized by anticipation, or speculative forecast of what the future might hold, and Taussig et al (2013) read scientific projects such as the Human Genome Project in terms of their potentiality, or the quality of something that does not yet but might one day exist. Black feminist futurity, on the other hand, actively imagines a future anterior, the "performance of a future that hasn't yet happened but must" (Campt 2017).
While allowing for radical imagination and political action, the future might also lead us to ponder what will become of the informants and topics we expose through our work. But how does the future engage with the increasingly interdisciplinary and intersectional nature of our discipline? Futures, in a plural configuration, focus on the multiple intertwining of desires and realities.
In this conference, we will consider the multitude of applications of futures within anthropology and the social sciences. We might apply this framework, for example, to energy futures, the future of human migration and displacement, the technological futures of robotics, or the future as a structure of feeling (Williams 1977). We seek to engage in the ever-present question of the direction of the discipline: What are the futures of anthropology and its methods? How does an anthropology keenly aware of its futures remain engaged with an ever-changing world?
Back to the Futures is a two-day conference organized by graduate students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. All anthropological sub-disciplines and students in the social sciences are encouraged to apply. Dr. Sarah Vaughn (Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley) will deliver the keynote address. We will also hold two workshops for all attendees, and we look forward to building connections across universities. Come join us!
Back to the Futures is pleased to invite presentations in three different formats: a)15-minute long conference papers, b) multimodal installations, and c) roundtable submissions. Please see the full guidelines for submitting to each format below.
Accepted panelists will be limited to current and incoming graduate students in all subdisciplines of anthropology and related social sciences (including sociology, geography, and ethnic studies). Meals will be provided for visiting panelists throughout the conference. There will also be opportunities to hike and explore beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Additionally, our goal is to provide lodging with other graduate students for all participants. However, space may be limited, and we will accommodate lodging for panelists on a first come, first served basis. Please indicate your need for housing by filling out the housing form on the Submit Abstracts page. We invite applicants to submit an abstract through the “Submit Abstracts Here” link below by June 8, 2018.
Please choose one submission style based on your interests and current work.
Option A: Conference paper (15 minutes)
Works Cited:
Adams, V., Murphy, M. & Clarke, A. Subjectivity (2009). “Anticipation: Technoscience, life, affect, temporality” 28: 246.
https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.18
Appadurai, Arjun (2013). The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.
Campt, T. (2017). Listening to images. Durham: Duke University Press.
Muñoz, José Esteban (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Taussig Karen-Sue Taussig, Klaus Hoeyer, and Stefan Helmreich (2013), "The Anthropology of Potentiality in Biomedicine: An Introduction
to Supplement 7," Current Anthropology 54, no. S7 (October 2013): S3-S14. https://doi.org/10.1086/671401
While allowing for radical imagination and political action, the future might also lead us to ponder what will become of the informants and topics we expose through our work. But how does the future engage with the increasingly interdisciplinary and intersectional nature of our discipline? Futures, in a plural configuration, focus on the multiple intertwining of desires and realities.
In this conference, we will consider the multitude of applications of futures within anthropology and the social sciences. We might apply this framework, for example, to energy futures, the future of human migration and displacement, the technological futures of robotics, or the future as a structure of feeling (Williams 1977). We seek to engage in the ever-present question of the direction of the discipline: What are the futures of anthropology and its methods? How does an anthropology keenly aware of its futures remain engaged with an ever-changing world?
Back to the Futures is a two-day conference organized by graduate students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. All anthropological sub-disciplines and students in the social sciences are encouraged to apply. Dr. Sarah Vaughn (Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley) will deliver the keynote address. We will also hold two workshops for all attendees, and we look forward to building connections across universities. Come join us!
Back to the Futures is pleased to invite presentations in three different formats: a)15-minute long conference papers, b) multimodal installations, and c) roundtable submissions. Please see the full guidelines for submitting to each format below.
Accepted panelists will be limited to current and incoming graduate students in all subdisciplines of anthropology and related social sciences (including sociology, geography, and ethnic studies). Meals will be provided for visiting panelists throughout the conference. There will also be opportunities to hike and explore beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Additionally, our goal is to provide lodging with other graduate students for all participants. However, space may be limited, and we will accommodate lodging for panelists on a first come, first served basis. Please indicate your need for housing by filling out the housing form on the Submit Abstracts page. We invite applicants to submit an abstract through the “Submit Abstracts Here” link below by June 8, 2018.
Please choose one submission style based on your interests and current work.
Option A: Conference paper (15 minutes)
- Submit a 100-150 word abstract with the title of your paper by Friday, June 8.
- Submit a 100-150 word abstract with the title of your installation by Friday, June 8.
- Additionally, please indicate whether your installation falls into the following categories: photography, film, VR, poster presentation, audio, or other installation.
- Please also indicate to us what space concerns and audiovisual needs you have for your multimodal installation (ie AV hookup, etc).
- Choose one roundtable theme from the list below and submit a 100-150 word abstract with the title of your research by Friday, June 8.
- Energy and environmental futures: environmental anthropology, human/non-human interactions, the Anthropocene and its future
- Human migration: displacement, dispossession, refugee futures, humanitarian interventions, borders beyond the state
- Technology: automation, robotics, virtual worlds, data, surveillance, cybersecurities
- Critical race theory: indigenous futurisms, critical mixed race methods, intersectionality, subjectivities
- Applied anthropology: future of museums, UX design, community-based research, collaborative filmmaking, applied medical and environmental anthropology
Works Cited:
Adams, V., Murphy, M. & Clarke, A. Subjectivity (2009). “Anticipation: Technoscience, life, affect, temporality” 28: 246.
https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.18
Appadurai, Arjun (2013). The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.
Campt, T. (2017). Listening to images. Durham: Duke University Press.
Muñoz, José Esteban (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Taussig Karen-Sue Taussig, Klaus Hoeyer, and Stefan Helmreich (2013), "The Anthropology of Potentiality in Biomedicine: An Introduction
to Supplement 7," Current Anthropology 54, no. S7 (October 2013): S3-S14. https://doi.org/10.1086/671401
Photograph: Havana, Cuba, 2016, by Arielle Milkman