Annual anthropology conference

The annual conference of the Australian Anthropological Society will be held at the University of Western Australia, Perth from 27 to 29 November 2024.

This is the first year the conference will be held as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which draws together various association conferences. The theme of the 2024 conference is Anthropology in Crisis: Reclaiming the Discipline in Contested Spaces and Times.

ANSA will organise a panel (Becoming Anthropologists) during the conference, a pre-conference day workshop and social event aimed specifically at honours & postgraduate students, and early career researchers on Tuesday, November 26th. The ANSA Annual General Meeting (AGM) will also take place on the same day as the pre-conference day.

 

Pre-conference workshop

November 26th | EZone 206 |11:30 AM - 5:00 PM

  • During the start of the afternoon, we will open the pre-conference post-graduate workshop and have a engaging meet-and-greet with fellow participants. Some light lunch will be served alongside the introductions, courtesy of the AAS and the University of Western Australia Conference team.

  • The workshop has been generously sponsored by UWA's Anthropology Discipline.

Dr Gretchen Stolte

Dr Stolte is currently a Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences, Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, specialising in research design, the ethics of research, the history of anthropology, material culture research and First Nations Studies. She is a Nimi’ipuu (Nez Perce) American Indian and has degrees in art history and anthropology focusing on the material culture of First Nations peoples both in North America and Australia. Her PhD research focused on the relationship between images and identity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in urban and regional centres around Cairns, Queensland. Dr Stolte is also a practicing bead artist, weaver and ribbon-skirt maker.

Practice-based research can be part of a larger toolkit for researchers if done with the appropriate cultural protocols and research ethics in mind (Stolte and Oliver 2022). In this hands-on basket weaving workshop, attendants will explore the principles of practice-based research. It must be noted though that this is not just a workshop on basket weaving. It is a workshop that explores - 1) a serious anthropological methodology; 2) a crucial intervention scheme to address social health concerns; 3) a way of understanding Indigenous technologies; and 4) a format for demythologising how we know what we know and how we learn. All are welcome – no previous experience required and all materials will be provided. Workshop has been generously sponsored by UWA's Anthropology Discipline.

  • No details needed. There will be tea, and probably some biccies.

  • For this interactive session, you can choose to participate in one of 3 concurrent workshop/ session to produce creative material that examines the AAS Conference through an anthropological lens. Choose from:

    CONCURRENT SESSION 1: The Anthropology of You: A Stream of Consciousness Writing Workshop’ with Nikki Manolakis (ex ANSA Executive member). As anthropologists, we are storytellers - collaborating with individuals and communities to disseminate knowledge. The story we can most intimately know, however, is our own. In this workshop, you are invited to examine your positionality and reflect on how your own story fits into and plays out in your research through stream of consciousness (SoC) writing. Activities will include traditional SoC exercises (pen and paper or laptop) and "visual" SoC methodologies incorporating photography (smartphone camera required).

    CONCURRENT SESSION 2: Interdisciplinarity: a Cross-Disciplinary Perspective with Dr Ari Jerrems (UWA) and Sebastian Antoine Salay (UoM). Interdisciplinarity evokes inclusivity – it helps researchers go beyond the limits of traditional boundaries of research methodology, lays the foundation for new perspectives, and opens the door of ethnographic methods to fresh interpretations and applications. However, interdisciplinarity comes with its own challenges and hurdles – for both those coming into anthropology, and anthropologists trying to justify their methods! Join us for a discussion with Dr Jerrems and Sebastian to discuss ‘doing anthropology’ inside and outside the discipline.

    CONCURRENT SESSION 3: How to Conference with ANSA Executive members - Cindy Stocken, Pallavi Borkar & Susannah Ostojic. Conferences are a mainstay of academic life – but whether you are a first timer or experienced attendee, the academic conference can feel like navigating a maze of unwritten expectations and etiquette. Join for an interactive and participatory session on ‘How to Conference’, where we will aim to decipher and lay bare the opportunities and pitfalls of conferencing from a student perspective.

    Note: we will need to distribute participants equally across the workshops, due to limited materials.

    As part of the Ethnographic Salon at the conference dinner on Wednesday the 27th, there’ll be a chance to exhibit our work during an impromptu visual anthropology exhibition.

  • Nikki Manolakis

    Nikki is an aspiring medical anthropologist, artist, and grassroots community practitioner, holding an Advanced Graduate Diploma in Arts (Anthropology) from the University of Melbourne. She is interested in researching psychedelics in Australia, specifically focusing on ontological conflict between medical models following the TGA’s rescheduling of psilocybin and MDMA. Nikki is excited to continue exploring how creative methodologies can be combined with anthropology and the emerging field of psychedelic studies to forge, foster, and nurture community.

  • Dr Ari Jerrems

    Dr Jerrems is a Lecturer (International Relations and Political Science) at the University of Western Australia. He has expertise on critical approaches to security, heterodox international relations and socio-spatial theory. He is interested in colonial histories of political space and its everyday, urban & infrastructural dimensions. He is the co-convener of the Australian Critical Border Studies Network and the Political Geography Study Group of the Institute of Australian Geographers. Currently, he is completing a book manuscript titled ‘The Politics of Neighbouring: Crisis, Security and the Limits of Political Community’.

  • Sebastian Salay

    Sebastian is an anthropologist and Research Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. He works with A/Prof Jennifer Day on an ARC Discovery Project on urban settlements and customary land agreements in Port Vila, Vanuatu. He has previously conducted anthropological research with West Papuan musicians in Melbourne and with British anthropologists doing critical anthropological practice, what he calls ‘anthropology as a martial art’. His commitment to participatory and politically engaged research draws on his professional background in disability advocacy and youth policy in Victoria, Australia, and experience supporting peacebuilding in Bougainville. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Politics & International Studies and Anthropology; 2017) with Honours in Anthropology (2021) from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Science in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford (Wolfson College; 2023).

  • ANSA Executive Committee

    Susannah is the ANSA Chairperson and a PhD candidate at La Trobe University. Her research project focuses on women’s creative and strategic engagements with kastom belief and practice in Maewo, Vanuatu.

    Cindy is the ANSA Secretary and a PhD student at University of Melbourne. She is interested in ritual creativity and especially how this is given shape in deathcare movements.

    Pallavi is the ANSA Web and Media Officer and a Masters student in Human Rights and Democratisation at Mahidol University in Thailand. Her research interests include tribal rights, eco-cultural adaptation, peace & conflict studies, and grassroots development.

  • The ANSA AGM is held at the AAS Annual Conference. During the AGM, the outgoing Executive reports on its activities, undertaken during the preceding year. Members in attendance discuss future activities that ANSA might undertake, and elections are held. The Executive and Committee are elected during the AGM.

  • Evening social and informal drinks. Buy your own drink & dinner, and participate in some games and casual gathering to get to know each other better before the conference kicks off properly tomorrow.

We look forward to welcoming you to the ANSA Pre-Conference Day. Please ensure you have indicated your attendance on conference registration - or if you missed ticking this box or will not be attending the AAS, please contact us at ansa.exec@gmail.com to save your place! Participation in the ANSA pre-conference workshop is free to ANSA Members.

This is an in-person event, although we are committed to continue the conversations during online workshops and gatherings in the coming year(s).

ANSA Panel: Becoming anthropologists

EZone 209
Nov 27 and 28

The panel provides space for any student anthropologist to engage with and reflect upon their own research. Postgraduate students who are still exploring varying theoretical and thematic avenues are especially vulnerable to exclusion from themed annual conferences as they may not yet have found their niche. ANSA aims to provide students at various stages of their research journey the opportunity to propose a paper that relates to their developing research interests, even if it does not necessarily align with the theme of the conference.

In the past years, HASS disciplines have had to deal with budget cuts and the dissolution of entire departments. This has put HDR students in increasingly precarious positions. Involvement in an encouraging disciplinary community is invaluable to any level of student or early-career academic, yet access to conferences and other career-development opportunities are increasingly limited by funding and travel-grant restrictions. In line with ANSA’s goals and the pre-conference workshop, this panel encourages the expression of student voice and student work and looks forward to proposals from presenters which explore their own exciting and enriching research. Co-authored papers will also be accepted.

The panel is a fantastic space to meet fellow anthropology students, and offers a great forum for feedback and discussion.

The 2024 ANSA Panel will take place on the 27 and 28 November at the AAS Conference. This year’s presenters are:

Panel 1 | Respondent: TBC

Amber Patterson Ooi | The Ontology of ‘Ma’: a blueprint for domestic placemaking in Singapore

Zane Pinyon | Collaborating with Software Engineers Generatively and in Good Faith

Nikki Manolakis | Altering States: Australia’s shifting psychedelic landscape

Ashleigh Beaney & Amy Fitzpatrick | Pathologising social divergence

Panel 2 | Respondent: TBC

Dewi Hermawati Resminingayu | The Art of Being a Commoner: Wellbeing of Lower-Middle-Class Muslims in Probolinggo

Fang Chi Chang | Reevaluating Footscray Psychiatric Centre, Victoria (1977-1996): The Role of Medical Anthropology in Healthcare Heritage Practice

Lara Skerratt | The Effectiveness of Expanding Legal Personhood as a Response to the Climate Crisis

Rani Dwi Putri | Hungry for knowledge: Qur’anic learning among young Salafi women in Indonesia

Ethnographic Salon

AANSA warmly welcomes you to participate in the now annual Ethnographic Salon, taking place just prior to the conference dinner. Run entirely by the ANSA team, the aim of the salon is to bring together all conference attendees - from academics who have been in the field for years to students just commencing their anthropological journey - for an evening of creative exploration and play which explores the convergence of art and ethnography.

We welcome any and all creative entries to the salon, whether pre-planned or spontaneous! Last year’s salon incorporated poetry readings, dance numbers, as well as visual art - and this year’s salon will once again include an exhibition featuring the visual anthropology competition entries (and announcement of the prize winner!) as well as any ‘in-situ’ pieces made during activities at the ANSA pre-conference workshop. 

The events and games will be completely voluntary, with attendees choosing their level of participation. We hope this will act as a fun and informal platform for conference attendees to share their experiences, insights, and observations in a poetic and engaging manner - and even if you do not wish to participate, we encourage you to attend in support of performers, students, and all creative anthropologists.

If you’re interested in participating, please let us know to help us plan. We look forward to seeing you there! 

TBC (during conference dinner)

Annual General Meeting|EZone 206|Zoom

ANSA AGM

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is the prime opportunity for members to connect, share their opinions on the goings-on at ANSA, and to let their voice be heard.

We will meet in EZone 206. The meeting is also accessible to members via Zoom (the link will be shared soon). Please be there on time, as we only have an hour.

Agenda

  1. Welcome & introductions

  2. Chairperson’s report presentation

  3. Nominations for ANSA Executive & University Representatives

  4. Elections of 2025 ANSA Executive & University Representatives

  5. Looking forward & Any other business

 

If you are interested in taking on a position on the ANSA Executive, please let us know!
More information on the purpose of the Exec & Uni representatives can be found in the about section of our website, and in our constitution.

Note: ANSA Scholarships will be distributed after the completion of the conference.

ANSA student scholarships for the aas conference

Applications are now closed

Every year, ANSA distributes scholarships to aid students in attending the Australian Anthropological Society conference. These are generously funded by the AAS to ensure anthropology students and early career researchers have the opportunity to present their research and participate in formal conference proceedings.

This year, ANSA are delighted to announce we have funding for travel stipends from the AAS and University of Western Australia. We thank both AAS and UWA for their support of students. Applications for student scholarships have now closed and recipients have been informed. Keep an eye on this space for next year’s round of scholarships.

To be eligible for funds from the AAS, applicants must:

  • Be members of both the AAS and ANSA

  • Be presenting a paper at the AAS Conference in 2024

  • Be current (or recently graduated) post-graduate students

  • Not have received an ANSA/AAS travel stipend before

To be eligible for funds from the UWA, applicants must:

  • Be presenting a paper at the AAS Conference in 2024

  • Be current (or recently graduated) post-graduate students   

Applications for student scholarships have now closed and recipients have been informed.

Keep an eye on this space for next year’s round of scholarships.