Education and Science, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Forum

The influential American anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli will deliver the keynote speech. Professor Povinelli has done research on work, politics, intimacy and media with an aboriginal group in Australia since the 1970s. Povinelli’s keynote, entitled “Downloading the Dreaming - All of it extinguished but none of it dead?” will focus on efforts of this group to make a meaningful living in a political climate that Povinelli calls “late liberalism”.

The president of European Association of Social Anthropologists Noel B. Salazar (University of Leuven) will be giving a paper, founding member Adam Kuper (London School of Economics) raises a question in his presentation, whether the mission set by the organization in 1989 has been completed or not.

The 150 discussion panels, film screenings and laboratories during the conference will provide arenas for discussing current anthropological research and developments in social and cultural theory. The 21st century has provided anthropology with new types of data, new methods for research and collaboration, and new interdisciplinary connections.

“Our main expectations for this event is to promote the Baltic’s, and Estonia in particular, as an inspiring location for international researchers to come to and carry out their projects,” said one of the conference organizer, Tallinn University professor of anthropology Patrick Laviolette. "It is fortuitous that a major conference addressing such important issues will take place in Tallinn. This year’s conference, which also celebrates the 25th anniversary of European Association of Social Anthropologists inaugural meeting, takes place a quarter-century after the end of the Cold War and the events that triggered dramatic changes around the world. Along with other Baltic states, Estonia initiated the Singing Revolution, which has been credited playing a central role in the country’s move towards independence and post-Soviet reformation."

Tallinn University’s Estonian Institute of Humanities will be hosting the conference in collaboration with the European Association of Social Anthropologists, the University of Tartu and Riga Stradins University.

For more information, please visit the conference website: www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2014