Close Encounters: Bringing Anthropology Home
The University of St Andrews will be host to the 2013 student-led Royal Anthropological Institute Conference, <a target="_blank" href="http://rai-close-encounters.org/#&panel1-1″>Close Encounters: Bringing Anthropology Home.
The theme of this year’s Conference arose from the basic but compelling notion that anthropology is informed by and reliant upon close encounters. To bring anthropology home is to reverse the stereotype of the discipline as defined by a contact abroad with all that is foreign and exotic. Simultaneously, bringing anthropology home evokes the concept of driving home a point; in honing in and fleshing out relevant, if not immediately obvious aspects, both theoretical and in the field, it impels us to consider those subjects at the centre and those pushed to the margins of anthropological study. ‘Close’ and ‘home’ are words that prompt us to question ideas of distance and proximity, and to imagine in what ways these are permeable, and contextual notions, that are perpetually shifting and evolving. The challenging fluidity of these concepts inspires a move beyond our comfort zones, stimulating an examination at once of that which is both near and far, and prompting us to consider the possibilities unearthed by the closeness of anthropology’s most foreign meeting, and the foreignness even in its closest encounter.
Our hardworking committee of Undergraduates are excited to welcome students from all over the UK in April to our academic home, set against the beautiful backdrop of this little coastal town. The two-day Conference, featuring incredible speakers, exciting debates and workshops, an undergraduate call for papers, film screenings, art and music will provide a platform for students of all levels, beginning anthropologists and accomplished academics to meet, interact, learn and exchange in a wealth of close intellectual, creative and social encounters.
Please keep checking the <a target="_blank" href="http://rai-close-encounters.org/#&panel1-1″>website, as we will constantly update it with more details and info about the Conference.
