March 9, 2015
Symposium for The Unexpected From the Field (STUFF)
On February 21, 2015 AGORA hosted a one day graduate research symposium at the University of California, Berkeley. This symposium brought anthropology graduate students at various points in the academic careers to discuss the discipline and the nature of fieldwork. This year the symposium theme encouraged participants to consider the implications of "the unexpected" in anthropology in relation to field sites, field methods, field writing, and the field in the contemporary. Participants interrogated how anthropologists locate "the field" by redefining field sites as translocated entities that shape the position of the anthropologists while they conduct fieldwork and thereafter. In a similar vein participants discussed the inside-outside dimensions of fieldwork by exploring how non-human organisms and manufactured items are used by interlocutors to define social relationships. In addition, participants discussed anthropological research design and research strategies that focused on the emergent qualities within ethnographic and archaeological contexts. Lastly, this years symposium featured two round-tables that engaged in lively discussions related to dissertation writing and public archaeology. AGORA is grateful to our sponsors Department of Anthropology, the Archaeological Research Facility and the UC-Berkeley Graduate Assembly for making this event possible.