Anthro-in-Action Speaker Series:
MacEwan [Winter 2022]
Topics covered: Age; gender; culture
What is Biology: Navigating Post-Truth Paralysis
Harper Paranich, BSc, BA (Edmonton)
The recording will be available on:
Monday, January 24, 2022 | 9:00 a.m. MST
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated an already infectious movement of alternate facts and fake news arguments. Ideas of subjectivity, bias, objectivity, logic, uncertainty, and rationality coalesce in confusing and upsetting ways. We are in the whiplash of a pendulum that swings from absolute scientism to post-truth realities. It is a condition that is complicated by historical knowledge hierarchies amidst colonial moralities. It is a paralyzing vortex of spiraling questions: what is science? What is medicine? What is an environment? What is a fact? What is life, or reality, or anything?
Sociocultural and philosophical scholars have grappled with this vortex for centuries. But it is not a futile pursuit. It is possible to examine our assumptions about the world in a way that allows reality to be grounded and concrete. It is possible to examine how things and ideas combine and change each other, how perspective and context create different experiences of the same phenomenon in ways that we can still write functional legislation. It is possible to ask these questions without losing touch with the reality that exists outside of us–the reality that is consistent enough to create reliable survival techniques and convergent technologies for millenia.
Frustrated with the nebulous and often slippery language used around science and truth, I have used my academic predecessors' expertise to create a conceptual touch-stone that we can use in everyday life. It is not perfect, but it is not meant to be. It is adaptable. Rather than deconstructing science until there is nothing substantial left to ground ourselves with, we will spend this time disaggregating science instead. We increase the resolution of our cameras for a clearer picture, instead of zooming in to the pixels.
I chose to demonstrate this with biology because it deals directly with our physical selves, not just in terms of disease and pandemics, but with transphobia, homophobia, racism, and misogyny as well. These are violent movements that often use biology as a justification for bigotry.
We are going to use this rough-hewn tool to navigate the extremes of pure objectivity and relative ambiguity. It will not tell you what to believe, but it is a step towards building an intellectual resilience to post-truth paralysis.
Biography: Harper Paranich is an anthropology graduate student at the University of Alberta whose research intersects the language, products, and practice of science, as well as the history of science as and in culture. Their background in geoscience drives many of their research questions involving human relationships between land, physicality, and knowledge, grounded in the lived experience of our daily lives.
Docile Victims or Resisting Heroes: Re(examining) Muslim Women’s Agency in the Middle East
Samira Torabi, MA (Edmonton)
The recording will be available on:
Monday, February 7, 2022 | 9:00 a.m. MST
Abstract: In the aftermath of 9/11, Muslim women’s lives became the target of mass media analysis, fiction writing, movie making, etc. It also led to scholarly focus on studying women’s agency in Muslim world. With the history of colonialism and orientalism on one hand, and more recent Islamist revivalism movements and forced wars in the region on the other, studying Muslim women’s agency was largely shaped through the lens of political claims and agendas. A great body of social science literature emerged with the ambition of granting power and resistance to those who are considered devoid of any (Durham, 2008).
For many scholars, this became an unchallenged assumption that all women have inherent desire to resist patriarchy, and Muslim women’s passivity or indifference toward patriarchal demands has been explained in terms like “internalized patriarchy.” Muslim women are praised for asserting the “right” kind of agency, the one consistent with the liberal conception of autonomous self.
Asef Bayat (2013) believes that: “certain distinct and unconventional forms of agency and activism have emerged in the region that do not get adequate attention, because they do not fit into our prevailing categories and conceptual imaginations.”
In my research, I am interested in finding out how women, each with a unique lived experience, with different sets of struggles and hopes, make use of what is available to them and in doing so, they enhance their meaningful connections to the larger world, material or immaterial, physical or metaphysical.
Biography: Samira Torabi is a PhD student at the University of Alberta. She did her BSc in Information Technology Engineering in Iran and her MA in Anthropology at the University of Alberta. She is in socio-cultural anthropology and is now working on gender and sexuality in Islamic contexts. With the turn of the century, the Islamic notion of piety has received scholarly attention in studying Muslim women. Her research examines how explicit sexual expression overlaps with a notion of piety. Most studies examining the impact of online social networks on transforming religious communities and intimate relationships have treated these two as separate and/or even antithetical. She intends to challenge dichotomies of modern discourse by examining the mutually transformative intersection of Islamic piety and public sexuality.
Othering and Belonging: Social Relationships and Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities and Immigrant Care Workers
Deanna Joyce Neri, MA (Edmonton)
The recording will be available on:
Monday, March 7, 2022 | 9:00 a.m. MST
Abstract: Social relationships generally improve an individual’s quality of life and well-being. However, research shows that people with intellectual disabilities face challenges in forming and maintaining social connections. Immigrant care workers play an indispensable, yet under- recognized role in developing social networks for people with intellectual disabilities. Yet because care workers are disproportionately immigrant women, as they facilitate the inclusion of their clients, they too experience social isolation. This talk explores the barriers and pathways to social inclusion and how interdependence strengthened these two marginalized communities.
Biography: Deanna Joyce Neri graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines Mindanao (2016). Recently, she completed her graduate studies (MA) in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Alberta. Her current research interests lie in migration, inclusion, care work, and disability studies.
A Generation of Progress Lost? The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mothers in Academia
Andrea DeKeseredy, MSW, RSW (Edmonton)
The recording will be available on:
Monday, March 7, 2022 | 9:00 a.m. MST
Abstract: Mothers in academia face systemic barriers that limit their ability to engage in valued activities such as publishing, conferences, and network building. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a large impact on academic mothers, exacerbarting these existing structural inequalities. These influences have resulted in women experiencing higher rates of attrition throughout their academic careers and lower rates of tenure status. This talk explores current research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers in academia and discusses potential strategies institutions can take to mitigate potential long-term impacts.
Biography: Andrea DeKeseredy is currently a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. She holds a BSW in Social Work (Ryerson University) and an MSW (West Virginia University), where her practice focused on gendered interpersonal violence. Her current research examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothering. You can follow her on Twitter @AndieYEG.