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The Phenomenological Anthropology Workshop took place last month at the University of Haifa. The workshop was funded by the Israel Science Foundation and organized by Prof. Carol Kidron, Prof. Daniel Knight & Prof. Stavroula Pipyrou.
Since its formative years, anthropology has been inspired by, experimented with, selectively adopted and at times forcefully resisted core (philosophical) phenomenological readings of perception, consciousness and lived experience. Epistemological genealogies and agendas, held in common, particularly surrounding subiectivity/intersubiectivity and everyday corporeally and sensually experienced lifeworlds constituted an interdisciplinary shared micro person-centered analytical lens - with which the discipline's pioneers might potentially zoom in and zoom out in efforts to account for and capture the subject's perception of everyday life.
Bracketing or 'reduction' would in particular powerfully resonate with anthropological methodological and ethical agendas, yet, at the same time trigger epistemic debates concerning disciplinary commitments to holism and the call for social, political and economic contextualization. While the last century's critical social science, in particular critical sociology and anthropology, appeared out of sync with the so called subjectivism and potential depoliticalization of micro-phenomenological analytical lenses, a recent plethora of subdisciplinary turns in anthropology re-conceptualizing subjectivity/intersubjectivity, materiality, temporality/memory, kinesthetics in space/place, inter-corporeality and affect have generated a renewed interest in multi-layered and dynamic micro phenomenological experiences. These turns however continue to grapple with the wav macro cultural. social and discursive formations mediate subjective/intersubjective experience and are thereby forever enfolded within micro phenomenological experience
On January 8-10, fifteen scholars from around the world spent three days thinking through the above concepts of experience, subjectivity, temporality, emotions, materiality and more, through insightful presentations and lively discussions. Scroll to see photos and more event details below. Thank you to all of those who participated and attended and made the workshop a success!
