This announcement is for one of the panels of the 2nd Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists Greece (SKAE), “Anthropology, Ethnography in/for uncertain times”. This panel aspires to serve as the starting point for a conversation on the lived experience of carrying out doctoral research in contemporary Greece as well as on the conditions in which such research takes place. While there is a special focus on the field of Social Anthropology, the scope of the said conversation includes the broader area of the Social Sciences.

Argument

This announcement is for one of the panels of the 2nd Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists Greece (SKAE) (Panel #7). This panel aspires to serve as the starting point for a conversation on the lived experience of carrying out doctoral research in contemporary Greece as well as on the conditions in which such research takes place. While there is a special focus on the field of Social Anthropology, the scope of the said conversation includes the broader area of the Social Sciences. We depart from the realization that the observed tensions between the academic production of anthropological knowledge and the labour market as a field of ‘practicing’ anthropology (Angelidou, Balandina and Kolovos 2021) traverse doctoral studies as well. Nonetheless -we observe that- researchers’ collectives, critical epistemologies, reflective methodologies, and the studying of previously ‘invisible’ topics and subjects emerge and serve as barricades against these ‘uncertain’ times. We address our call to doctoral candidates trying to carry out their research from and against a place of intersecting ‘vulnerabilities’ and interlocking ‘crises’ (Brekke, Dalakoglou, Filippidis and Vradis 2014) affecting both anthropologists and the subjects of research. As suggested by the following questions, we are particularly interested in contributions which take a reflective approach and critically engage in ethnographising the situated positionalities of being a PhD researcher. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather serves as an indicator of the direction in which we hope to move:

• In what ways have the ethnographic methodologies, anthropological epistemologies and research ethics been transformed by the experiences and conceptualizations of these ‘uncertain’ times? In what ways have ‘crises’ transformed, closed off, or opened up the ethnographic field itself?
• “Should I stay or should I go? Things are simply better abroad.” The intersubjective experience of researchers as seen through borders. Writing from within/outside Greece, and the academic alterity of an always “exemplary West’’. Who is the “Other” within the Greek university?
• What alternative forms of collective ways of anthropological knowledge production and collaborative ethnographic methodologies, which question the self-centered monad that is the PhD researcher, emerge in this institutional, financial, social and political framework? In search for an ethnographic imaginary as a heterotopia or utopia.
• What kind of counter-publics and informal collectivities emerge from below in an attempt to resist -in solidarity and through practices of care- repeated institutional disappointments, emotional exhaustion, financial precarity and the general undermining of Anthropology, and the Social Sciences more broadly in Greece?

Coordinators

This proposal is presented by the PhD candidates’ collective “How will you deliver that thesis, babes?”:

• Paraskevi Zotali PhD candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University
• Nefeli Roumelioti, PhD candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University
• Bessy Polykarpou PhD candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University
• Natalia Botonaki PhD candidate in the Department of Humanities: Philosophy, Language and Literature, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
• Effie Mastrodimou PhD candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University
• Panagiotis Antoniadis, PhD candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University

Submission guidelines

The panel will be conducted in-person and in Greek, without excluding submissions in English. We strongly encourage the participation of collectives and the submission of multimodal contributions.

Interested applicants are invited to submit proposals for presenting papers in the conference panels announced below by 21 December 2023 (24:00) to this email addresses:

panant88@hotmail.gr

Εach proposal should include your name and affiliation, title and abstract (300 words), and short bios (200 words). The e-mail subject should be “2nd SKAE Conference”.

Practical information

• The 2nd Conference of SKAE will be held in person with the possibility of a limited number of digital panels, in Thessaloniki, May 24-26, 2024.
• The working languages of the Conference will be Greek and English, with the panels/workshops coordinators defining the language per session.
• Participation in the conference amounts to 50.00€ for non-SKAE members, 40.00€ for SKAE members, and 20.00€ for those not employed. Participants attending in person will also have the opportunity to register with SKAE during the Conference should they wish to do so. Finally, undergraduate students will participate free of charge.