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Dear colleagues, Apologies for cross postings etc. This is a last call for papers for a panel at the IUAES Inter-Congress in Dubrovnik in early May. Panel Title: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology as/and Science: Addressing contemporary instrumentalist threats to the Humanities Short abstract: Anthropology and other Humanities are threatened by governments’ developmentalists asserting that they are not scientific disciplines. Can arguments that anthropology is a useful science simultaneously convince and be consistent with contemporary arguments that there are multiple anthropologies? Keywords: anthropology, ethnology, science, threats to humanities, multiple anthropologies Full panel abstract: Early social and cultural anthropologists and ethnologists regarded their disciplines as sciences that systematically gathered information about diverse cultures and societies and formally analysed it comparatively and structurally. Moreover, various social-cultural anthropologists, particularly some in colonial and settler contexts, insisted that their work was scientific which, with hindsight, it seems they did to counter colonial administrators’ critiques of their work for threatening the colonial enterprise. Recently, particularly since social-cultural anthropology’s interpretive turn, governments at various levels have lumped these disciplines together with various others in the humanities, and rubbished them as useless for ‘societal betterment’ – ostensibly because they are not scientifically objective, not properly evidence based, not statistical in their analyses. The critique has generated various public responses from the disciplines’ practitioners. The panel seeks two kinds of papers relating to the critique. The first is papers focused on the character of anthropology and ethnology as presently practised and how one might argue that their methods reveal them to be as much scientific as those of the so-called hard sciences, albeit differently so. The second is papers concerned with the kinds of arguments mounted in response to current threats to the disciplines and the humanities in general, and the extent to which those manage to reflect contemporary arguments that globally anthropology and ethnology are characterised by their own multiplicity and heterogeneity. Put differently: can responses to critiques that anthropology fails as a science succeed if they reflect an argument that there are many socially-positioned anthropologies drawing on multiple epistemologies? If you are interested in submitting a paper or poster abstract, please go online, register, and follow the instructions at: http://iuaes2016.com/submit-paper/ Full details of the panel can be found at http://iuaes2016.com/congress-panel/panel-29-09-2015-123617-andrew-mugsy-spiegel/ Deadline: 29 February 2016 Best wishes Mugsy Spiegel ----------------------------------------- Andrew D Spiegel PhD Emer Assoc Professor in Anthropology University of Cape Town P O Rondebosch 7701 Cape Town South Africa Treasurer, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences Member, Advisory Board of World Council of Anthropology Associations Disclaimer - University of Cape Town This e-mail is subject to UCT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT, it is sent by the sender in an individual capacity. Please report security incidents or abuse via [log in to unmask] ************************************************************* * Anthropology-Matters Mailing List * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * * To join this list or to look at the archived previous * * messages visit: * * http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML * * If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all * * those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: * * [log in to unmask] * * * * Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new * * CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com * * an international directory of anthropology researchers * * To unsubscribe: please log on to jiscmail.ac.uk, and * * go to the 'Subscriber's corner' page. * * ***************************************************************