Session at the 16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe

We summon multispecies, interspecies, more-than-human and posthuman research efforts to explore the practical and methodological implications of working with multiple ontologies and non-human agents, and how this affects modernist dichotomies, environmental debates and scientific knowledge making.


The 'ontological turn' and 'species turn' have opened up new horizons for anthropological research, which we are still in the process of discovering, also with regard to their potential to affect our practices. In this panel we summon multispecies, interspecies, more-than-human and posthuman research efforts, to explore their methodological approaches and results. We are especially interested in the practical implications of working from the premise of a variety of ontologies and non-human agency, and ask what this means for how we reinvent methodologies, and how these innovative research strategies and results may impact and challenge our insights in and reflections on what scientific knowledge (making) entails. This is not only academically timely, but also inspired by recent developments across continents, involving a boom in professional careers, projects and documentaries on intuitive interspecies connections and interactions, as well as the urgency of global questions surfacing in relation to the Anthropocene and environmental concerns.

In this panel we aim to explore how dichotomies of human/animal, culture/nature, self/other and fact/value are related to and embedded in an Eurocentric modernist worldview, and how the underlying distinctions and connections operate in other contexts. We are interested to share insights in and experiences with experimental and innovative methods, approaches and themes that practically overcome these dichotomies, and may discuss and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and how anthropological research of this kind may affect and be of service to the futures of societies as well as the scientific knowledge making system.

Convenors:

  • Vanessa Wijngaarden (University of Johannesburg)
  • Riitta-Marja Leinonen (University of Oulu)