[REPORT À 2021] Migration, Representation and Reflexivity

December 11-12

Mme Sara Wiederkehr, UNIL

Mme Federica Moretti, UNIL

Mme Serjara Aleman, UNIL

Prof. Susan Ossman, University of California Riverside, USA

Prof. Monika Salzbrunn, UNIL

Partially responding to Arnd Schneider's call for "a new engagement with visual forms of research and representation beyond the sub-disciplinary confines of visual anthropology", the workshop addresses questions about representation and reflexivity in current anthropological research. Yet, taking into consideration that the recent proliferation of transnational migrations calls for new modes of representation, this workshop aims to discuss the possibilities and the necessity of questioning categories and concepts in current anthropological studies. By relying on research experiences, we will reflect upon a methodological framework, which promotes the use of visual elements as key methods in the context of a critically reflexive research practice. This approach points out performative and alternative narratives of research, a methodology based on the notion that an aesthetic decolonization is needed to disarm the colonial project and build decolonial subjectivities, alternative forms of understanding and explaining realities.

Participants have the opportunity to present their ongoing research projects, discuss it with the invited experts, and conduct practical exercises that will result in artistic outcomes. Students discuss the boundaries and points of encounter between anthropological research and artistic practice, as well as reflect upon the ways anthropologists have been representing both their fields of research, and research participants.

to be announced

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