Disrupted Ethnography

Thursday, October 21

Friday, October 22

Please note that this is preliminary schedule and times are indicated in CET. For your timezone, please see: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

We will consider the time zones of participants and facilitators who will attend remotely and will try to find the best suitable and humane options for all. Please note, that we might not be able to find a good option for everyone. The final schedule will be circulated among participants by October 1, 2021.

Dominic Boyer is an anthropologist who teaches at Rice University where he also served as Founding Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (2013-2019). His most recent books are Energopolitics (Duke UP, 2019), which analyzes the politics of wind power development in Southern Mexico and Hyposubjects (Open Humanities Press, 2021), an experimental collaboration with Timothy Morton concerning politics in the Anthropocene. With Cymene Howe, he made a documentary film about Iceland’s first major glacier (Okjökull) lost to climate change, Not Ok: a little movie about a small glacier at the end of the world (2018). In August 2019, together with Icelandic collaborators they installed a memorial to Okjökull’s passing, an event that attracted media attention from around the world. During 2021-22 Boyer will be a Berggruen Fellow with a research project, „Electric Futures,“ which focuses on efforts to decarbonize the global economy via greater electrification.

With travel restrictions and the issue of safety in the world struck by the humanitarian crisis, access to the field has become a major challenge for media practitioners and academics. In this workshop, I will try to reflect on how a journalist or academic can access their field remotely and still attempt to do the job as they would otherwise with their physical presence in the field. We will discuss how all of us can make contact, get in touch with strangers and thus, manage access to the field remotely. We will think and find ideas on how one builds trust with people and how to test their trustworthiness while remaining transparent about the whole process. Through this workshop, you will learn how you can work around the limitations of borders and boundaries utilizing digital tools. You will learn how to find gatekeepers and contact persons who can help you overcome the language barrier, lack of internet access, and other country specific challenges. The workshop will also provide an open forum for the participants to exchange and discuss their experiences and challenges with the group.

Led by Jignesh Patel (Alt News, India)

In a practical and interactive workshop, we will use films and lived experiences from the field to explore parallels and diverse perspectives and cultural practices that inform, impact and color our lives and work as researchers/academics and media practitioners – with the intent of developing some common ground and identifying best practices we can draw on in our personal and professional spheres. We will review a selection of films, reading/reference materials, and media stories, and use them as references; to be precise, we will explore identity and intersectionality, „to be cultures“ which is Nepal and much of South Asia“ and „to do cultures“ like Germany and reflect how and why this determines our world views. We will revisit our understanding of concepts like fatalism, power, patriarchy, and paternalism and discuss how they inform and influence the north-south development and media narratives.

Led by Ramyata Limbu (Panos South Asia, Nepal)

This workshop seeks to revise the concept of objectivity in journalism and the role of documentation in shaping, transforming, or reinforcing social communities. It seeks to draw on the Palestinian experience as a case in point of the multi-layered dynamics within the sphere of reporting. It seeks to unpack the realities of populations under struggle as simultaneous „reporter and reported“, where the lines of being objective are unblurred. The workshop also seeks to engage with participants in the form of participatory discussions with reading assignments prior to the start of the workshop and reflection writing assignments during the workshop.

Led by Mariam Barghouti (Palestine)

Drawing in from a decade of experience covering conflict and politics across the Middle East, as well as long term documentary work, the workshop aims at covering the practice of photojournalism and the challenges it faces today. It will also discuss the ethical aspect of a continuously developing and divisive field. We will talk about the process one has to go through as a photojournalist when working on stories – from the research of a topic to establishing contact and executing a photo trip, while maintaining a coherent visual narrative. Participants attending the workshop should have some interest in photography with background of politics and current affairs. Practical aspects could include producing a photo story or editing a timeline, depending on the participants‘ requirements.

Led by Mosa’ab Elshamy (The Associated Press, Morocco)

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