Selected Recent Events and Lectures
'How to Catch a Rabbit' at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011
Members of the LSEs Revolving Shed student theatre company, including three from the Department of Anthropology, are putting on a play they have written and produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer.
Entitled 'How to Catch a Rabbit', the play is based on ethnographic research around Roma Gypsies in London and features three anthropology graduates from the BA/BSc class 2011: executive producer Alexandra Kane, and cast members Steph Linsdale and Matilda Williams.
Previews of 'How to Catch a Rabbit' took place on 27th, 28th and 29th July at 7.30pm in the Shaw Library.
Anthropology in London 2011
Date: Monday 20 June 2011
LSE anthropologists Maurice Bloch|, Peter Loizos|, Harry Walker| and Denis Regnier gave presentations at this year's Anthropology in London, organized by Brunel and hosted at UCL. Andrew Sanchez| and Aude Michelet were on the organizing panel: they and other staff members acted as discussants and participated in various panels. The department's band The Funktionalists provided entertainment at the party. http://www.soas.ac.uk/anthropology/anthropology-in-london-day---2011/|
For photos of the event see this link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/salinachristmas/|
LSE Occasional Seminars on Development, Christianity, and Health Care
Culture, Colonisation and Christianisation: Negotiating Health Care Provision in East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands
Speaker: Dr David MacLaren, School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University - Cairns Campus
Date: Tuesday 21 June 2011 10:30-12:00
Venue: OLD 6.05 (Seligman Library), LSE
The Kwaio people of Malaita, Solomon Islands, who practice the culture and religion of their ancestors, have historically faced a stark choice when seeking medical treatment at Atoifi Adventist Hospital-relinquish precepts fundamental to Kwaio culture and religion, or remain true to Kwaio beliefs and stay away. Many choose the latter. The presentation overviews a participatory action research process with hospital, church and community groups to provide culturally appropriate health services in East Kwaio. The presentation describes the collision of beliefs and practices of a church-run health institution and the community it is there to serve.
For more information contact: Michael W. Scott, m.w.scott@lse.ac.uk|
Malinowski Memorial Lecture 2011
Torture, Compassion, Doubt - Dr Tobias Kelly
Date: Thursday 12 May 2011, 6.30-7.30pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE
Torture survivors are, formally at least, singled out for specific legal protection. Yet, in practice they also often face widespread suspicions about the veracity of their claims. It is compassion in the face of suffering that leads to torture survivors being seen as particularly deserving of refuge. However, this lecture explores the ways in which compassion can also lead to doubt. Based on fieldwork amongst the British torture rehabilitation movement, lawyers, and asylum tribunals, it concludes by arguing that similarity, as much as difference, can be a stumbling block to acknowledgement.
For details about our seminars and lectures| please click on the link to the left.
The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development and the Practice of Politics - Professor Tania Murray Li, University of Toronto
Date: Monday 9th May 2011, 5.30 - 7.30pm
Venue: Seligman Library (OLD 6.05), Old Building, LSE
An event organised jointly by Goldsmiths and the LSE.
From the colonial period to the present, governing authorities, experts and self-appointed "trustees" have diagnosed deficiencies in landscapes and populations, and devised technical schemes to bring about improvement. In this talk, I examine the origins of the "will to improve," the steps required to translate it into programs of intervention, and the effects of these interventions when they hit the ground. My example is a massive World Bank development program in Indonesia that ran under the label "poverty reduction" but focused, instead, on the conduct of the poor and the promotion of participatory techniques for village planning. To move beyond the impasse of "development" requires a practice of politics that is both critical and forward looking: there are conjunctures at which the question of poverty is understood in terms that clearly demand political settlements, and we may see signs of this in the distributive welfare regimes currently emerging in parts of the global south.
Tania Murray Li is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. She has written extensively on questions of development, indigeneity and agrarian transformations, with a focus on Indonesia. Her most recent books are The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics, Duke University Press 2007 and Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia, NUS Press 2011 (with Derek Hall and Philip Hirsch)
When China met Africa: Q&A with Solange Guo Chatelard
Date: Wednesday 23rd March 2011, 5:00-7:00pm
Venue: NAB 1.07, New Academic Building, LSE
'When China met Africa' is a BBC/Arte-sponsored documentary by Marc and
Nick Francis.
A historic gathering of over 50 African heads of state in Beijing
reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold. Mr
Liu is about to buy his fourth farm; Manager Li is upgrading one of
Zambia's longest roads and the Zambian Trade Minister is on route to
China to secure millions of dollars of investment. Through the intimate
portrayal of these characters, a global shift in power from west to east
is laid bare.
www.whenchinametafrica.com|
Solange Guo Chatelard is a PhD Candidate in Comparative Politics at
Science Po in Paris and a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute
for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. Her PhD is an ethnography of
Chinese migration to Zambia based on long field work in Zambia from
2008-2011. She was the production assistant in Zambia for this
documentary and will be present for a Q and A session after the
screening.
The Human Economy: an ongoing international project - Professor Keith Hart
Date: Thursday 27 January 2011, 6.30-8.00pm
Venue: Hong Kong Theatre
Chair: Professor Stuart Corbridge
The eminent anthropologist Professor Keith Hart will be talking about his recent book, 'The Human Economy'. The global financial crisis has raised concerns about whether capitalist markets are the best way of organising economic life. This book brings a new economic vision to general readers, covering topics ranging from globalisation to corporate social responsibility.
Professor Keith Hart is Emeritus Professor at Goldsmith's College and Honorary Professor at the University of Kwazulu Natal. He has taught at numerous universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He contributed the concept of the informal economy to development studies, and has published widely on economic anthropology, especially about money. He has investigated Atlantic society from the point of view of Africans in West Africa, North America, the Caribbean, Britain, France and South Africa.
For a podcast of this lecture please go to: www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm|