[Linganth] Call for participants for AAA annual meeting: "Professional Divides" roundtable on the arts and public action

[Colleen Cotter]

 Professional Divides VII: Anthropologists and (Media) Practitioners in Conversation about the Arts and Public Action

Dear Colleagues,
This is a last-minute call for additional participants in a roundtable on the theme of "the arts and public action" -- and the media's and the academy's roles in that regard.

[Background: These "Professional Divides" roundtables for the past half-dozen years aim to bring together linguists, anthropologists, media professionals and activists from the local area to discuss language, discourse, practice and social-justice effects and how the media supports or detracts from it. In past years, we have highlighted case studies (academics) and perspectives on coverage (media practitioners) on topics such as gender, politics, fake news, immigration, reporting and representation, and incarceration. It is a guided discussion that allows a dynamic exchange of ideas.]

The "arts and public action" theme in relation to media (broadly construed) raises cross-disciplinary questions. Larger questions can look toward the role of the arts, how the media come into play, and the work that anthropologists can do across numerous analytical focal points (performance, representation, in situ interaction, social economies and scale, story-telling, narrative framing, critique, expertise, etc.). What is "the arts" and how are they sustained is an overarching question, of course. The conversation can also pursue the coverage of spectacle and its role in nation-identity-building. Or the official account of what could broadly be construed as an "arts event" (and what that might be) compared with online/social media commentary about the same thing. Or official vs guerrilla arts events and what gets produced in the course of a response. Or… [your choice].

Current cases planned for this roundtable include: The Public Theater in New York City -- "of, by and for all people" and how this is maintained; the media coverage of art, representation and The Great Famine and a concurrent surge in "famine walks" in Ireland, the US, and Canada; how a "shared perspective" develops across small discrete communities in Devon (UK) in relation to a mobile arts vehicle that minimizes social exclusion through “making” and understanding the natural environment; and the Extinction Rebellion movement that actively links arts organizations with climate activism and how that is communicated within and outside the group.

Roundtable participation can flexibly fulfill primary or secondary roles at the conference – let me know which.

Please let me know ASAP if you are interested/have questions/what you’d like to pursue. I must start the submission no later than 3pm EST Friday April 5 and complete it by 3pm EST Wednesday April 10.

Thank you!
Colleen
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Dr. Colleen Cotter
Reader in Media Linguistics | Dean for Education (HSS)
School of Languages Linguistics and Film
Queen Mary University of London
Mile End Road | Lndon E1 4NS |  UK



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