Recently, anthropologists have challenged the usefulness of "culture" as the discipline's focus and as a category to characterize human groupings. Sometimes it may be handy as a shorthand for acknowledged complexity. But too often it is granted an explanatory power over life-as-lived that no abstraction actually has. In education research, "culture's" offspring like acculturation, enculturation, socialization, and habitus underwrite this error.

This conference explores some of the alternatives that anthropology offers to engage human struggles and gain richer accounts of the world.

The conference is free and open to the public. RSVP required; please register HERE.

Learn more about the conference HERE.

See a more detailed schedule with paper titles HERE.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Friday October 21st

10:00 - 10:15  Introduction and Greetings: President Susan Fuhrman and Professor Juliette de Wolfe

10:15 - 12:00  Plenary Session 1
“Culture, cultivation, and the rise of the new normal”
Chair: Bruce Burnside

10:15 - 10:30  Introduction: Hervé Varenne:
"Do anthropologists concerned with education need a learning theory?"

10:30 - 11:15  Keynote Address: Amy Stambach:
“Old School, New Times, and Innovation after the Internet”

11:15 - 12:00  Panel discussion
        Katherine Richardson-Bruna 
        Mimi Ito 
        Hervé Varenne

12:00 - 1:00  Lunch

1:30 - 3:30  Paper Session 1
“Who are participants and where is participation, in the new normal?”
Chair: Amelia Herbert
Presenters:
        Juliette de Wolfe
        Gregory Poole
        Jessica Sierk
        Jessie Curtis
Discussant: Lalitha Vasudevan

3:00 - 4:15  Paper Session 2
“How do we teach and how are we taught, in the new normal?”
Chair: Tonya Bushway-Flynn
Presenters:
       Katherine Richardson-Bruna and Elizabeth Kersey
       WaiChi Chee
       Kristina Baines
Discussant: Grey Gundaker

 4:30 - 5:30  Evening Reception

Saturday October 22nd

10:00 - 11:30  Plenary Session 2
“Designing educational things: from the vernacular to the political”
Chair: Michael Scroggins

10:00 - 10:45  Keynote Address: Grey Gundaker:
“Tyrannies little and large: The politics of design and innovation”

10:45 - 11:30  Panel discussion
        Lesley Bartlett
        Ray McDermott
        Nicholas Limerick

11:30 - 12:45  Paper Session 3
“Undertaking and remaking identity politics in everyday social and institutional practice”
Chair: Michelle Zhang
Presenters:
        Nicholas Limerick
        Stephen Peters
        Holly Link
        Ariana Mangual Figueroa
Discussant: Lesley Bartlett

12:45 - 1:30  Lunch

1:30 - 3:30  Paper Session 4A (Milbank Chapel)
“Action and learning in new places and spaces”
Chair: Jill Siegel
Presenters (A):
        Debora Friedmann and Melissa Proietti
        Sunanda Samaddar Corrado
        Shelley Wu
        Maria Battor
        Rodrigo Mayorga
        Cassie Smith
Discussant: Gabrielle Oliveira

Paper Session 4B (Macy 130)
“Forces and voices in motion”
Chair: Meghan Chidsey
Presenters (B):
        Casey Richardson
        Victoria Manning
        Christiana Kallon
        Christien Tompkins
        Mai Alkhamissi
Discussant: Nicholas Limerick

3:30 - 5:00  Plenary Session 3
“What are we to do with ‘learning’?”
Chair: Juliette de Wolfe

3:30 - 4:15  Key Note Address: Mimi Ito: 
“Geeking Out and Leveling Up: How gamers, fans, and makers learn through affinity networks”

4:15 - 5:00  Panel discussion
        Amy Stambach
        Grey Gundaker
        Lalitha Vasudevan

5:00 - 5:15 Closing Remarks
Hervé Varenne