Proshant Chakraborty

Sal: 407

Drawing on our learnings and reflections from the previous seminar, we will now look at how we can effectively use feminist and anthropological ideas on co-authorship in both, praxis (i.e., collaboration with interlocutors, communities, etc.) and practice (i.e., working with local and global institutions).

Our discussing will focus on the following themes:

Co-authorship is the norm rather than the exception in collaborative engagements, whether practice or practice/policy. How does that change or affect the idea of "publics" that has been central in most discussions on public anthropology?
How do we address problems of translation and power relations in co-authorship? By drawing on feminist or anthropological ideas (eg, power, hegemony, resistance, etc.), are we imposing our terms on that of local actors? Or can these terms have positive effects in collaborative encounters?
Alternatively, how can we take local or emic terms and scale them upwards, into transnational domains or circuits?

Readings:

Sangtin Writers & Nagar, R. 2006. Introduction and Chapter 1. From Playing With Fire.