ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future

BRITISH MUSEUM/SOAS/RGS, 4 – 7 JUNE 2020

We are very pleased to announce the call for panel proposals for the fifth of the RAI’s recent major conferences. It will be jointly organised by the RAI, the RGS, the British Academy, the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, and the BM’s Department for Africa, Oceania and the Americas. The conference will be held in SOAS, Senate House, and the Clore Centre of the British Museum. The opening, keynote lecture will take place at the RGS on the evening of 4 June.

The RAI believes that anthropology and geography should be close, all the more so as the two disciplines have so much in common, both today and in the past. It hopes very much that through this conference, existing dialogues can be explored and further conversations take place on a host of vital issues including the Anthropocene, definitions of ethnology, methodology and fieldwork, contemporary understanding, education and public awareness, and the place of our disciplines in the modern world. We hope equally that this will lead to a shared intellectual understanding of our past and the emergence of the two disciplines, and an even closer engagement in the future, particularly in terms of emerging fields of mutual interest: e.g. digital media, geospatial mapping, and satellite photography.

The RAI welcomes panel proposals on any theme, and indicates a few below. However, it would not wish to restrict any potential suggestion, and proposals are welcome on any aspect of the theme, whether theoretical, methodological or ethnographic. Proposals from any of the sub-fields of anthropology (social anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology or linguistics) are welcome, as well as any of the sub-fields of geography. We would particularly welcome panel proposals that have anthropologists and geographers as co-convenors in order to maximise our mutual discussions. It will also be possible to propose exhibition stands devoted to specific projects, the fee for which will include a conference registration.

Amongst the possible areas which may be considered (but not confined to these) are:

Anthropocene
Infrastructure and governance
Mobility: of ideas, peoples, and objects
Borders, nationalism and transnationalism
Decolonisation and empire
Aid, development and sustainability
Health and well-being
Spatial aspects of evolution
Exploration, travel and ethnography
Disciplinary use of archives and collections: complementary approaches
Maps, mapping and representation
Education and public awareness
The future: changing institutional contexts and working together

Proposals for panels should be made by 2 September 2019 via the online form. All participants must pay the conference fee.

Informal enquiries may be made to admin@therai.org.uk

Call for Panels opens 1 May 2019 and closes 2 September 2019

Call for Papers opens 23 September 2019 and closes 8 January 2020

Registration opens 24 February 2020