Society for Cultural Anthropology
Spring 2012 Meeting

Life and Death:
A Conversation

Location: Providence Biltmore Hotel

May 11-12, 2012

Organized by:
Jennifer Cole (Chicago), Peter Redfield (UNC Chapel Hill), and Danilyn Rutherford (UC Santa Cruz)

The deadline for proposals was January 15, 2012.

Life and death have long played a central role in anthropology’s efforts to define the human. Recent developments in the experience of both, however, suggest reconfigurations in these essential thresholds of being and a corresponding need to reexamine the analytic assumptions brought to bear on them. Alongside the emergence of new forms of biological science, medical technology and expertise, a concern for life pervades both international political discourse and the rhetoric of international moralism. Both individual bodies and figures of mass death feature prominently in political stagecraft, while calculations of risk define and measure life conditions. In addition to recognizing the emergence of humanitarianism, human rights, and ecology as key secular domains central to the construction of valued life, we ask participants to rethink classic topics in politics, ethics, kinship and religion around this concern for being and nonbeing. What phenomena mark an era that rediscovers economy in terms of precariousness, and sanctions state torture in the name of security? What new ghosts might it produce? How have these changes unsettled kinship, generations, and human horizons of the future by reconfiguring relations between the living and the dead or the young and the old?

At the 2012 SCA Conference, to be held in the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, we encourage discussion about matters of life and death, as perceived through anthropological and ethnographic inquiry. We explicitly call for conversations in the spirit of exchange and engagement rather than isolated analysis, and encourage participants to experiment with format and topic, cross boundaries and seek unexpected connections.

Our conference invites papers, films, photo essays, and multimedia installations that track, propose, or otherwise reveal and interrogate issues related to existence, nonexistence and relatedness in a manner that invites conversation. We are as interested in topics ‘traditional’ to anthropology (rites of passage or remembrance for example) as we are in thematic newcomers and related topics — such as biopolitics — that now fill the disciplinary horizon. Multi-disciplinary presentations and contributions by non-anthropologists are likewise welcome.

In our program thus far, we are pleased to announce that the David Schneider Memorial Lecture will take the form of a conversation between João Biehl (Anthropology, Princeton) and Vinh-Kim Nguyen (Social and Preventative Medicine, Université de Montréal).

Our plenary speakers include: Laura Bear (LSE), Erica Bornstein (U Wisconsin Milwaukee), Lawrence Cohen (U.C. Berkeley), Eric Fassin (Ecole Normale Supérieure), Gillian Feeley-Harnik (U Michigan), and Ilana Feldman (George Washington U).

View the Program

SCA Poster Images, Creative Commons, Courtesy of:

Luis Argerich, "High speed train." September 13, 2008 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrargerich/3115367361/)

Dan Brady, "Life Ring." January 1, 1980 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrady/1460272108/)

Keoni Cabral, "Now a spirit in the sand." November 11, 2010 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/keoni101/5202902213/)

Cynthia Goldsmith, "Influenza virus particle color." 1981 via Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Influenza_virus_particle_color.jpg)

Lorenzo, "Ghosts in Milan, chapter one - n.1." June 2, 2010 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lollomelo/4665483473/)

Jennifer Woodard Maderazo, "Multitude on Grant St." September 23, 2007 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferwoodardmaderazo/1433527421/)

Gene Selkov, "Life on the riverfront." May 9, 2008 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/selkovjr/2508830350/)

Amadeus Serey Yáñez, "Humanity's point of view." November 12, 2006 via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lentaslagrimasnegras/469262597)