The call for papers is now open. Deadline is Feb 16, 2018. See the list of panels.
This is also the webpage where we provide practical information will be provided (hotels etc.). We expect more information to be up quite soon.
Call in English: http://www.sant.engagingvulnerability.se/
Inbjudan på svenska: http://www.sant.engagingvulnerability.se/#swe
SANT/FAS 2018 Conference: Vulnerabilities
19-21 April, Uppsala
Keynote Speakers
Robert Bernasconi, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Veena Das, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology, John Hopkins University
Setha Low, Professor of Anthropology, Environmental Psychology, Geography and Women’s Studies at the Graduate Centre, City University New York (CUNY)
Conference abstract/call
Vulnerability is a structuring feature of human existence; one that is lived and understood in historically shifting conditions. Today, global displacement, politico-military polarisations, and recurring environmental and humanitarian crises importantly shape the experience, distribution and interpretation of vulnerability.
Traditional engagements with vulnerability have portrayed it as a position or a state of helplessness, silence, disempowerment and lack. Anthropology has a long history of documenting vulnerability in this regard. Together with activists and humanitarians, anthropologists have worked to “give voice” to vulnerable people, thereby drawing attention to perspectives and lives that otherwise may have escaped notice or attention. SANT/FAS 2018 welcomes panels and papers that build on this solid academic legacy of engaging with vulnerability.
The conference also invites research that approaches vulnerability as something more than a condition from which subjects should be defended, rescued or liberated. SANT/FAS 2018 encourages participants to explore vulnerability as a productive position or condition that does something. Vulnerability makes demands for accountability and responsibility. Focusing on the productive dimensions of vulnerability can also change the focus of research, awareness and engagement. SANT/FAS 2018 encourages participants to ask:
What does vulnerability mean?
How is vulnerability experienced and positioned?
How is vulnerability manifested in everything from architecture to interactional practices?
How can vulnerability be thought about in ways that do not disavow it or just wish it away?
Local hosts
Department of Cultural Anthropology & Ethnology, Uppsala University;
Engaging Vulnerability, Uppsala University
