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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261009T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261009T170000
DTSTAMP:20260923T160423Z
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SUMMARY:Film Screening: What Work Does Music Do?
DESCRIPTION:Film Event \nFriday 9 October 2026 7.00-9.00pm BST\nLocation: Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (43 Gordon Square\, London WC1H 0PY) \nRegister here for this free\, in-Person event:\nhttps://my.bbk.ac.uk/ords/f?p=832:100:0:::100:P100_EV_ID:64773 \n\nWhat Work Does Music Do?\nFour films on music\, labour\, belonging and displacement\nAs part of a new strand of public activities\, the Royal Anthropological Institute Film Office has been inviting external collaborators to explore its catalogue and bring new perspectives to it. What Work Does Music Do? was curated by Birkbeck MA Film Programming and Curating student Mariana Lafratta during her placement at RAI FILM\, where she researched the collection and selected four films that approach music as a social and cultural practice. \nThe films in this programme approach the work that music does from very different places and perspectives. In Singing Pictures – Women Painters of Naya\, songs accompany the painted scrolls of women in West Bengal\, carrying knowledge while contributing to changes within their community. Mind\, Hands\, Work – Fidel Sambou Builds an Ekonting follows a Senegalese musician and sculptor as he makes an ekonting\, revealing the relationship between craft\, sound\, memory and tradition. In The Beat Goes On\, samba brings generations together through the shared practice of carnival. Finally\, Ghetto PSA portrays a young migrant in Turin who uses hip hop to reflect on his past\, his displacement and his place in his new surroundings. \nMoving between South Asia\, West Africa\, South America and Europe\, the films reveal music as something deeply connected to everyday life. It can be a form of work\, a repository of knowledge\, a means of belonging\, an expression of resistance\, or a way of making sense of who we are and where we come from. What Work Does Music Do? invites us to listen differently – and to ask what music makes possible. \n\nFILMS (programme total duration: 84min)\nSinging Pictures – Women Painters of Naya \nLina Fruzzetti\, Ákos Östör & Aditi Nath Sarkar | United States\, India | 2005 | 40min. \nSynopsis: The film follows a group of Patua (also known as Chitrakar) women from the village of Naya in West Bengal\, India. Through their painted scrolls and songs\, they tell stories that share knowledge about important aspects of life\, from maternity and hygiene to women’s roles and value within the community. Their art is driven by the need to improve their living conditions and support their families. Yet\, in doing so\, these women are also challenging established norms and gradually transforming the social order around them. \nMind\, Hands\, Work – Fidel Sambou Builds an Ekonting \nScott Valois Linford | United States\, Senegal | 2024 | 22min. \nSynopsis: Fidel Sambou is a sculptor and musician who plays the ekonting\, a traditional three-stringed instrument from West Africa. The film follows him as he crafts a new instrument from scratch. His intimate knowledge of the materials\, combined with his sensitivity to the instrument’s sound\, allows him not only to preserve this musical heritage but also to reinterpret it\, demonstrating how tradition can remain alive through creativity. \nThe Beat Goes On (Batucada de Responsa) \nMatias Vellutini & Pedro Marques | Brazil | 2013 | 7min. \nSynopsis: Members of the bateria – the percussion wing of a samba school in São Paulo – are interviewed in their homes and at the storage space where the instruments are kept. Through their conversations\, we discover their dedication to taking part in the carnival parade and their commitment to passing this tradition on to younger generations. Here\, music creates and strengthens communal bonds\, fostering a sense of belonging that is renewed with every carnival. \nGhetto PSA \nRossella Schillaci | Italy | 2016 | 15min. \nSynopsis: With a lively\, mobile camera that closely follows its protagonist\, the film traces the daily life of Jacob\, a young migrant from Guinea living in Turin\, Italy. Having arrived in the country alone at the age of 11\, Jacob now works at the same institution that once welcomed him. Through his hip hop lyrics\, he reflects on his personal history and gives voice to his experiences\, making sense of his journey alongside others who share similar experiences of displacement and migration. \n\nABOUT RAI FILM \nRAI FILM is the cinema section of the Royal Anthropological Institute\, the world’s longest-established scholarly association dedicated to championing anthropology (the study of humankind). It presents a biennial film festival\, organises screenings and film events across the UK\, distributes ethnographic films for educational use\, and maintains an extensive film archive and library. RAI FILM aims to bring anthropological insight to broader audiences while celebrating cultural diversity\, encouraging dialogue\, and fostering an inclusive filmmaking community. \nABOUT BIMI \nBirkbeck Institute for the Moving Image – BIMI is a space for discovering the history of cinema\, television and screen media\, as well as exploring new directions in moving image culture. Located at Birkbeck\, it is a university-led cinema and cultural hub that has pioneered imaginative public engagement that brings together original programming with academic events and creative dialogue.
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/film-screening-what-work-does-music-do-four-films-on-music-labour-belonging-and-displacement/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261009T090000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261009T173000
DTSTAMP:20260930T114144Z
CREATED:20260707T120741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260930T114144Z
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SUMMARY:Workshop: Durkheim and Nationalism 
DESCRIPTION:~ Workshop by the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies and the RAI ~ \n\n\n\n\n\nFriday 9 October 2026 – 9.15 – 17.30 (BST) \nat the RAI in 50 Fitzroy Street\, W1T5BT London \nRegister for this in person only event here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/durkheim-and-nationalism-tickets-2002559552529 \n\n\nDurkheim and Nationalism\n\n9:15 Welcome \n9:30 – 11:00 Panel 1: \nDurkheim: The Discussion Between Ethnic Nationalism\, Republican Patriotism\, and Civic Nationalism \n     Pierre Birnbaum\, Paris 1- Panthéon-Sorbonne (emeritus) \nThe Cultural Dynamics of White Nationalism in America \n     Eric Woods\, University of Leeds \n11:00 Tea and coffee break  \n11:30 – 1:00 Panel 2: \nSplintering Nation: On the Self-Destruction of Tradition \n     Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi\, Rutgers University \nThe Difference between Territorial Nationalism and a Hindu Nation \n     Sondra Hausner\, University of Oxford \n1:00 Lunch  \n2:15– 4:30 Panel 3: \nFace the Nation: Signs in Search of the Ineffable \n     Carla Jones\, University of Colorado Boulder \n Civilization: Antidote or Intoxicant to Nationalism? \n     Ji Zhe\, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) \nInheritances: Marcel Mauss’s ‘La Nation’ and Anti-Nationalism in the Shadow of Durkheim \n     Rosalind Morris\, Columbia University \n4:30 Tea and coffee break  \n5:00 Closing discussion
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/workshop-durkheim-and-nationalism/
CATEGORIES:Workshop
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261013T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261013T180000
DTSTAMP:20260716T122819Z
CREATED:20260713T171723Z
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SUMMARY:RAI Research Seminar: Jeremy MacClancy - On ethnographic satire
DESCRIPTION:RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR \nTuesday 13 October 2026\, 4.00-6.00pm (BST) \nThis is a hybrid event. \nTo join online via Zoom\, please register here. \nTo join in Person (at 50 Fitzroy Street\, W1T5BT London)\, please register here. \n\nOn ethnographic satire\nJeremy MacClancy\, Member of Common Room\, Wolfson College\, Oxford University \nDeploying ethnographic methods and style for satirical ends is one of the oldest\, most enduring forms of ethnography. Though the bestselling form of ethnography\, the genre has gone unrecognised\, surprisingly. As a form defined by its political purpose\, it can also be viewed as the earliest\, sustained example of critical ethnography. In this intervention\, I pass a brief critical chronology of the genre\, from Lucian to Montesquieu to today’s practitioners\, before focussing on the hitherto neglected interwar satire\, ‘Anthropological report on a London suburb’ by Vladimir Chernichewski (aka Charles Duff). \n\n(Image: Still from Nelson Pereira dos Santos’s film ‘How tasty was my little Frenchman’\, 1971\, Cagey Films.) \n 
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/rai-research-seminar-jeremy-macclancy-on-ethnographic-satire/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261015T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261015T170000
DTSTAMP:20261002T180359Z
CREATED:20260203T122845Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261002T180359Z
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SUMMARY:Folklore and Anthropology in Conversation: When loud rumour speaks
DESCRIPTION:‘Folklore and Anthropology in Conversation’ \nThe Tenth Folklore Society – Royal Anthropological Institute Joint Seminar \nThursday 15 October\, 2026\, 10:00-17:00\, at 50 Fitzroy Street\, London W1T 5BT \nThis is a hybrid event.\nTo join online via Zoom please register here.\nTo join in Person\, please register here. \n\n‘When Loud Rumour Speaks’:\n      Informal communication in the modern online world\n  \nAnthropologists know what it is to deal with networks of informal communication. Field research in small-scale\, face-to-face social situations\, be they villages\, neighbourhoods or organisations\, has always entailed coming to grips with this in one way or another. Folklorists\, whether collecting ‘traditional’ oral material of various sorts or documenting urban and contemporary legends and the online world of memes and viral narratives\, have always recognised the fundamental importance of informal communication. \nAnthropology and folklore meet here in shared and long-standing interests in rumour\, which have only been sharpened by the rise and rapid expansion of the Internet. \nThis meeting will consider the social roles of rumour in the broadest senses\, whether comparatively or in case studies\, and will explore what the two disciplines have in common in this respect\, what they can learn from each other\, and how\, if at all\, rumour has changed in the online era: are we witnessing the emergence of a new mode of communication\, somewhere between the face-to-face/oral and the literate? \nPresentations will be given in person\, but conference attendees may attend either on-site\, or via Zoom. There is no registration fee. For on-site attendees\, refreshments and a light lunch will be provided free of charge. \n\nProgramme\n09.30 Introduction \nSession One 10.00-11.00 \nRumours during uncertain times Henrik Olinder\, Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency \nNarratives of Uncertainty: Rumour\, gossip and vernacular communication in response to the events of January 2022 in Almaty\, Kazakhstan Dr Alexander Parkyn-Smith\, University of Cumbria \n11.00-11.30 Coffee \nSession Two 11.30-12.30 \n“When Childbirth Stories Speak Loudest”: Rumour\, Informal Knowledge\, and the Circulation of Rights in Maternal Care Dr Katrine Nohr\, University College London \nThe Shapeshifting Child-Eater: Constructing a Transgender Monster Gabriel Baxter-Baker\, University of East Anglia. \n12.30-14.00 Lunch \nSession Three 14.00-15.00 \nHaunted Estates: Supernatural Rumour\, Working-Class Memory and the Informal Archive in England Hannah Walton\, independent scholar \nCryptid continuum: the evolution of British cryptids from campfires to the digital realm Dawn Brissenden\, Leicester de Montfort University \n15.00-15.30 Coffee \nSession Three 15.30-16.30 \nIn Defence of Abigail Williams: The ongoing rumour mill of the Salem Witch Trials Dr Jessica Lloyd May\, independent scholar \n‘You’re Not Going to Like the Answer’ – An Analysis of Vagueposting in Contemporary Social Media Communication Kirsty Asher\, University of Hertfordshire \n16.30-17.00 Closing Remarks and Discussion \n\nAbstracts\nRumours during uncertain times \nHenrik Olinder\, Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency \nIt is clear that in recent years people have become more interested in preparing themselves for different types of crises that may affect them and their country. Pandemics\, the climate change and the war in Ukraine\, to name a few\, have obviously contributed to this. The ongoing war of words between different parties contributes to shifting in trust\, changed media consumption and the emergence of an information vacuum. Countries are now starting to prepare for a possible major war. This means that citizens must be protected and the authorities must give instructions by actively conducting crisis communication. This occurs when public concern arises at the same time as rumours spread rapidly in traditional ways and in media platforms. Whether the rumours are credible or plausible it is something that citizens and authorities must assess. Under these circumstances\, when citizens need information from authorities\, trust is tested and the risk of public concern arises. \nHow do rumours affect our ability to manage crises? And how can governments and organizations respond to public concern in a constructive way? The new book Rumours on the Agenda – Managing Public Concern Through Crisis Communication provides some answers to these questions. The book offers both research-based knowledge and practical tools to meet one of the greatest communication challenges of our time. The book is the result of a multi-year project with the goal of improving organizations’ crisis management and changing the way we communicate during crises. It is the first of its kind to focus on rumours as a central factor in crisis communication – and how they affect both public behavior and government actions. \nIn this presentation\, results from a study on crisis communication\, rumours and public concern will be discussed. \n  \nNarratives of Uncertainty: Rumour\, gossip and vernacular communication in  \nresponse to the events of January 2022 in Almaty\, Kazakhstan \nDr Alexander Parkyn-Smith\, University of Cumbria \nBased on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Almaty\, Kazakhstan\, this paper explores how young urban middle-class respondents create vernacular narrative accounts of their lives in response to dramatic social\, political and economic change and the threat of future existential risks. \nConceptually\, I draw on Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis (1959)\, developed by Scott into onstage/offstage categories (1985). My research found that a young post-Soviet generation created onstage narratives to provide structure\, control and certainty in everyday life. However\, ruptures to the everyday—such as a flood\, earthquake\, currency devaluation\, or even a marriage—expose vulnerabilities only discussed in informal private contexts. \nDrawing on the anthropology of gossip and rumour (Besnier\, 2009; Gluckman\, 1963; Paz\, 2009)\, I analyse offstage communication. When faced with uncertainty\, research participants turned first to trusted relations such as kin and close family. When these sources could not provide answers\, rumour and gossip took on a significant role\, allowing public discussion of uncertainty without destabilising onstage narratives. \nThis paper focuses on an anthropological case study of the January 2022 events of Almaty\, Kazakhstan\, when a violent government crackdown on public protest produced intense uncertainty. Drawing on new interviews and analysis of online information flows on Telegram channels\, forums\, WhatsApp discussions and a government–sponsored feature film\, I bring this case study into a discursive space to explore how the conceptual and analytical frameworks offered by the study of folklore could further our understanding of narratives of uncertainty. \n“When Childbirth Stories Speak Loudest”: Rumour\, Informal Knowledge\, and the Circulation of Rights in Maternal Care  \nDr Katrine Nohr\, UCL \nAnthropological work on childbirth has long recognised the central role of storytelling in shaping women’s expectations\, fears\, and strategies of care. Drawing on comparative ethnographic research with mothers in Tanzania and the United Kingdom\, this paper examines how informal communication—childbirth stories\, whispered warnings\, peer advice\, and digitally mediated narratives—functions as a form of rumour that travels alongside\, and often against\, formal biomedical and human-rights discourses. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation\, the paper shows that most mothers did not primarily engage with human rights through formal legal knowledge or institutional mechanisms. Instead\, understandings of “what is safe\,” “what is dangerous\,” and “what one can demand” were produced and circulated through informal networks: conversations between women after birth\, maternity ward anecdotes\, WhatsApp groups\, antenatal classes\, and online forums. These narrative exchanges operated as a hybrid communicative mode— neither purely oral nor fully institutional—through which experiential knowledge was collectively evaluated\, moralised\, and transmitted. In Tanzania\, childbirth rumours about abusive staff\, abandoned patients\, or fatal outcomes shaped women’s risk calculations and discouraged overt rights-claiming during labour. In the UK\, digitally amplified birth stories—often framed as trauma narratives—produced a parallel economy of expertise that both empowered women and intensified anxiety\, contributing to post-birth complaint cultures. Across both sites\, rumour did not function as misinformation but as a pragmatic\, socially embedded form of knowledge-making under conditions of uncertainty and power asymmetry. By situating childbirth stories as folklore-like narratives with real social effects\, this paper argues that informal communication is central to how rights are interpreted\, negotiated\, and resisted in practice. It contributes to debates on rumour by showing how contemporary maternal knowledge circulates in a space between face-to-face storytelling and online virality\, reshaping authority\, trust\, and agency in modern healthcare settings. \n  \nThe Shapeshifting Child-Eater: Constructing a Transgender Monster \nGabriel Baxter-Baker aka þ (Thorn)\, University of East Anglia. \n‘Myths’ about minorities are circulated by word of mouth\, at hyperspeed via the Internet\, and – often – by the deliberate circulation of selected rumour by billionaire-backed media. Currently\, trans+ people are caught in a web of insidious stories and positioned as a perfect fairytale villain: shapeshifting\, myriad\, and simultaneously unimaginably strong yet easily defeatable. \nWebsites such as MumsNet have been pivotal to the growth of the anti-trans movement; rumours of detransition rates\, manipulation and predation have led to large-scale attacks on trans healthcare\, personhood and legal status\, such as the Cass Review and the Department for Education’s guidance regarding gender-questioning students. A Transgender Monster is constructed\, held up as a corrupting\, or polluting\, force against the Innocent Child. \nAnd yet\, the internet\, rumour – and humour – are our social defence. We make forums\, Subreddits and Signal groups to pass on community knowledge of DIY transition\, sources for grey-market hormones\, safe places to live\, and reviews of doctors who may be willing to work with us or who mean us harm. The finer the rumour mill grinds us\, the stronger our own whisper networks become. \nThis creative-critical intervention is a timely consideration of the tensions between the mainstream trans panic and the underground rumours that keep trans+ people alive. It will argue that the generation of anti-trans rhetoric\, and the survival strategies trans+ folk share between ourselves\, not only draw heavily from folklore and fairytale archetypes\, but rely almost entirely on rumour shared at various scales. \nThis presentation runs for twenty minutes\, including an eight minute performance drawing on themes of shapeshifting\, DIY transition and the monstrous\, as enabled or created via rumour. \n  \nHaunted Estates: Supernatural Rumour\, Working-Class Memory and the Informal Archive in England \nHannah Walton \nThis paper examines supernatural rumour in working-class communities in England as a form of informal communication that does social work. Focusing on council estates\, post-war housing landscapes and their digital afterlives\, it asks how stories about haunted flats\, dangerous stairwells\, uncanny underpasses\, “bad” houses and returning presences circulate as more than entertainment. I argue that such narratives can be read as vernacular care: they warn\, socialise\, memorialise and help residents navigate place-stigma\, neglect and uncertainty. \nBringing folklore studies into conversation with cultural heritage\, oral history\, urban geography and digital culture\, the paper treats supernatural rumour as a moving category between rumour\, legend\, warning and neighbourhood talk. Indicative examples include estate-based oral memories\, childhood warning narratives tied to routes and thresholds\, and public digital materials such as local Facebook threads\, comment cultures around paranormal media\, and urban-exploration videos and retellings. Across these settings\, rumours work as an informal archive through which working-class memory attaches itself to ordinary infrastructure. \nMethodologically\, the paper is exploratory and interpretive. It draws on folklore scholarship\, oral-history collections\, heritage policy work on living heritage\, and a small pilot set of publicly accessible digital examples. Rather than asking whether a place is “really” haunted\, it asks what these stories do: how they encode social knowledge\, attach memory to everyday housing\, and convert ordinary built environments into informal heritage. In doing so\, the paper speaks directly to the seminar’s interest in the social roles of rumour across oral and online worlds. \nCryptid continuum: the evolution of British cryptids from campfires to the digital realm.  \nDawn Brissenden\, Leicester de Montfort University \nIn the digital age the way that we communicate and form communities is ever changing. While some may question whether folklore can continue to exist with an increasing amount of communication occurring online\, folklorists acknowledge that wherever communication occurs folklore can exist and be created. This presentation will provide an overview of my PhD project in which I am exploring the evolution of British cryptids from oral tradition into contemporary digital representations\, specifically through the use of YouTube as an archive. This presentation will also consider rumour and hoax in the narratives around British cryptids. This project considers how\, and in what ways\, social media can be used as a tool for the preservation and remediation of folkloric creatures. \n  \nIn Defence of Abigail Williams: The ongoing rumour mill of the Salem Witch Trials  \nDr Jessica Lloyd May \nRumour was central to the unfolding of the Salem Witch Trials\, shaping accusations\, testimony\, and public perceptions in ways that had devastating consequences. More than three centuries later\, the same event continues to circulate through informal channels of communication\, but now within the algorithmic environments of social media. Contemporary platforms reward sensationalism\, simplified narratives\, and emotionally engaging content\, allowing historical rumours and long-discredited interpretations to reach new audiences with remarkable speed. \nThis paper examines how social media has become a site for the continual reinvention of Salem’s history. Popular content frequently revives the disproven ergot poisoning theory as an explanation for the trials\, presents Abigail Williams as the calculating architect of the persecutions\, or reframes those executed as historical witches whose identities are reclaimed by contemporary magical practitioners\, rather than as victims of a miscarriage of justice. These narratives privilege compelling storytelling over historical evidence\, illustrating how online informal communication perpetuates myths that have become culturally embedded despite scholarly challenges. \nBy exploring the intersection of folklore\, digital culture\, and public history\, this paper argues that social media functions as a contemporary rumour mill\, where historical events are continually reshaped through repetition\, reinterpretation\, and viral circulation. In doing so\, it considers how the modern transmission of folklore and misinformation influences public understandings of the past\, demonstrating that the mechanisms through which rumour gains authority have evolved in form rather than function. Through case studies drawn from TikTok\, Instagram\, and online witchcraft communities\, this paper explores how folklore\, rumour\, and platform algorithms combine to create persuasive but historically inaccurate narratives\, raising broader questions about authority\, authenticity\, and the digital afterlives of historical events. \n  \n‘You’re Not Going to Like the Answer’ – An Analysis of Vagueposting \nin Contemporary Social Media Communication \nKirsty Asher\, Independent Researcher  (graduated from University of Hertfordshire) \nVagueposting has emerged as a significant Internet communication trend in 2026. Previously known as Vaguebooking due to its connections with Facebook\, the early form of the term was associated with cries for help or attention-seeking in withholding key information from Facebook statuses. Since 2025\, vagueposting has now developed into a viral Internet trend through which misinformation and rumour is facilitated in the expansive lack of key information. This trend is coinciding with social media being increasingly charged by algorithmically-driven engagement\, and Internet oral tradition being appropriated for clicks and likes. \nThis presentation will present a case study on contemporary vagueposting on X (formerly Twitter) as an emerging form of viral narrative. Focusing particularly on posts which encourage speculation about a certain subject\, I will demonstrate how vagueposting engages with human curiosity\, contributes to a development in Internet meme culture\, and has the capacity to create unfounded rumours. Additionally\, this presentation will confront the notion that social media which prioritises viral engagement is contributing to an oral tradition which is compromised and inauthentic\, and the increasingly negative effect this has on Internet users as individuals\, and on broader online human interaction. \n\nImage: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/yarn-phone-communication-network-2091195/
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/folklore-and-anthropology-in-conversation-when-loud-rumour-speaks/
CATEGORIES:Conference
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261019T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261019T180000
DTSTAMP:20260924T094112Z
CREATED:20260826T162421Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T094112Z
UID:10004441-1792425600-1792432800@therai.org.uk
SUMMARY:JRAI Special Issue Launch: Nightmare Egalitarianism
DESCRIPTION:JRAI Special Issue Launch Event \n\nMonday 19th October 2026\, 4.00 – 6.00 pm BST \nThis is an online event. Please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PgmgVIjjRc-j66rcuSeLug \n\nNightmare Egalitarianism –\nCommensuration\, Autonomy and Imagination\nList of speakers \nEditors:\nDr Natalia Buitron (University of Cambridge)\nProf Florian Mühlfried (Ilia State University\, Tbilisi)\nProf Hans Steinmüller (London School of Economics) \nContributors:\nDr Matthew Carey (EHESS and University of Copenhagen)\nDr Grégory Deshoullière (Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale\, Paris)\nDr Sam Farrell (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine)\nDr Rémi Hadad (EHESS)\nProf Dame Marilyn Strathern (University of Cambridge)\nDr Sam Wilby (University of East Anglia) \nDiscussants:\nProf Eric Gable (University of Mary Washington)\nDr Chloe Nahum-Claudel (University of Manchester)\nDr Judith Scheele (EHESS) \nThe event will be chaired by Associate Editor: Prof Simon Coleman (University of Toronto) \nEgalitarianism – creating equality among people – always requires levelling and measurement. Levelling\, however\, is often violent\, and potentially in tension with local autonomy. Based on case studies from Amazonia\, Burma\, Georgia\, India\, Malawi\, Morocco\, and the Ancient Near East\, this special issue probes into the dark sides of egalitarianism. Contributors show how the very forces that level differences also generate new exclusions. \nThe collection offers a solid framework to distinguish different modes of egalitarianism; the main variable being the strength of commensuration: universal levelling in ‘general egalitarianism’\, partial commensurability in ‘segmentary egalitarianism’\, and the refusal of equivalence in ‘non-egalitarianism’. By tracing the social dynamics of autonomy\, imagination\, and containment\, the issue invites readers to rethink one of anthropology’s most cherished concepts. \n  \n\nYou can read the Special issue here: https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14679655/2026/32/S1 \n 
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/jrai-special-issue-launch-nightmare-egalitarianism/
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261104T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261104T180000
DTSTAMP:20260922T193250Z
CREATED:20260921T151954Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T193250Z
UID:10004445-1793808000-1793815200@therai.org.uk
SUMMARY:RAI Research Seminar: Aleksandar Bošković
DESCRIPTION:RAI Research Seminar \nWednesday 4 November\, 4-6pm GMT \nThis is a hybrid event. \nTo join in person at the RAI (50 Fitzroy Street W1T 5BT London)\, register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2002089970998?aff=oddtdtcreator \nTo join online via Zoom\, register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M5Pca19zT–UBl1xlK8DHA#/registration \n\nWomen in history of anthropology:\nForgotten or marginalized?\nAleksandar Bošković\, Institute of Archaeology\, Belgrade (Serbia) \nRecent research in the history and theory of anthropology brought to light more data about the role of women in the history of our discipline. Even in cases where female scholars were instrumental for the establishment of a discipline (like Winifred Hoernlé in South Africa)\, they were – until very recently – curiously omitted from many narratives of anthropology’s heroic past. Of course\, anthropological research is very much influenced by the attempts to understand the discipline’s history and different trajectories that led to its institutionalization in different cultures and different cultural and social contexts. At the same time\, these attempts take place amid complex sociopolitical crises that lead to questioning of the dominant ideological narratives. In recent years\, scholars like the Bolivian sociologist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui have questioned the “decolonial” narratives that were trying to explain the lives and histories of indigenous nations of the Americas. Like any other segment of human life\, anthropology is influenced by the actual political narratives\, and some of them will be examined in this presentation. \nIn the present lecture\, a particular emphasis will be placed on the trajectories of several scholars\, like Zora Neale Hurston\, Ruth Landes\, and Germaine Tillion – and the ways in which they carved the place for themselves. Some other examples (renaming of the Kroeber Hall at Berkeley) will also demonstrate some – more or less – subtle attempts to erase women from anthropology’s history. \n\nImages in the public domain:\nZora Neale Hurston; Ruth Landes at Museu Nacional (cropped); Germaine Tillion carte d’étudiante 1934.
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/rai-research-seminar-aleksandar-boskovic/
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261117T170000
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DTSTAMP:20260910T152944Z
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LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T152944Z
UID:10004443-1794934800-1794938400@therai.org.uk
SUMMARY:The Royal Anthropological Institute Blacking Lecture: Laudan Nooshin
DESCRIPTION:The Royal Anthropological Institute 2026 Blacking Lecture and Inaugural Professorial Lecture\n\n\nDate: Tuesday 17th November 2026\, 5 – 6.30pm\, followed by drinks reception \nVenue: Performance Space\, College Building\, City St George’s\, University of London\, 280 St John St\, London EC1V 4PB \nThe lecture is free\, to book tickets please CLICK HERE. \n\n\nBuilding Bridges\, Making a Difference: Reflections on Music Scholar as Cultural Mediator\nProf Laudan Nooshin\,  City St George’s\, University of London \nFor much of my academic career\, I have sought to contest polarising and excluding binaries and to build bridges\, including between different areas of music study and across cultural divides. My PhD dissertation challenged the orientalising binaries between so-called ‘composition’ and ‘improvisation’\, in part inspired by the writings of John Blacking. I later went on to research and write about popular musicians in Iran whose work was rarely heard about in academia outside Iran at that time. More recently\, from the mid-2010s\, I became involved in work aimed at creating a more equitable and diverse Music Higher Education sector in the UK. All of this led increasingly to a desire to work beyond the confines of academia and to find new audiences in contexts where my research would make a real difference\, particularly in promoting greater understanding of Iranian culture in the UK. My personal background as British-born with Iranian heritage no doubt had an impact\, since from a young age I often found myself in the role of cultural mediator or translator\, particularly given widespread negative media representations in which Iranians are often dehumanised and ‘othered’. Whilst the idea of applied scholarship is nothing new\, in the context of divisive international politics it becomes crucially important to work to counter such dehumanising narratives. \nIn this lecture\, I will reflect on almost 20 years of applied work\, focusing on a number of projects\, including an educational trip to Iran (2008)\, a project with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (2011-12)\, a children’s book project (2018-19)\, a project using sound in a historic house to draw attention to subaltern and lesser heard voices (2022)\, and my current Leverhulme Trust funded project on Polish Refugees in Iran during World War 2. I consider the value of this work and discuss how\, of all the activities during my almost 40 years in academia\, it is these that I have found most satisfying and meaningful.\n \n\nBiography \nLaudan Nooshin is Professor of Music at City St George’s\, University London\, where she has taught since 2004. She completed her PhD at Goldsmiths\, University of London\, and taught there and at Brunel University before moving to City. Laudan’s research interests include contemporary music and youth culture in Iran\, music and sound in Iranian cinema\, urban sound studies\, and sound and equity in public space with a focus on museums and heritage spaces. Laudan has published widely and is currently writing a book on the sounds of Tehran. In 2023-24\, she was seconded to the theatre and acoustic consultancy Charcoalblue (AHRC funded) and is currently in receipt of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship for a project exploring the musical and cultural lives of Polish exile-refugees in Iran during World War 2.
URL:https://therai.org.uk/events/the-royal-anthropological-institute-blacking-lecture-laudan-nooshin/
LOCATION:City St George’s\, City St George’s\, University of London\, London\, London\, EC1V 4PB\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Lecture
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