Call for Papers: Digital Anthropologists’ Current Engagements with 21st Century Publics

DANG Call for Papers

Deadline April 10^th (To Meet April 15^th AAA Deadline for Sessions)

Email Abstracts to sydneyyeager@gmail.com

Digital Anthropologists’ Current Engagements with 21^st Century Publics: #Digital Publics, #Ethics, #Methods, #Insights

The future publics, which anthropologists of the 21^st Century will engage with, occupy a social space in which the digital and the physical overlap.  Therefore, ethnographic study of these future publics merits consideration of the corresponding and relevant digital social spheres.

In light of this year’s conference theme “Future Publics, Current Engagements,” this panel intends to demonstrate how digital anthropologists are currently engaging with and researching “digital publics.”   This panel will highlight the current engagements of anthropologists conducting field research which bridges the overlap between digital publics and physical public spaces.  This panel strives to foster a discussion of the methods, ethics, and insights that Digital Anthropology can offer for “engaging with future publics” as digital technology continues to become a part of the everyday lives of the people anthropologists study around the world.  Major questions include: How do anthropologists collect and analyze data while doing digital field work?   What are the ethical issues facing anthropologists who rely on visual data and texts collected in the digital publics of the internet (social networking sites, forums, websites, etc)?  How does digital anthropology intersect with the physical as people increasingly act in physical space in response to the digital realm?  What kind of “future publics” are being constructed through today’s “current engagements” by users and anthropologists in the cyberspatial plazas of the internet (social networking sites, etc.)?

Furthermore, as digital technology continues to become a part of the everyday lives of the people anthropologists study, what insights can Digital Anthropology offer the broader discipline for “engaging with future publics”?  A discussion of ethnographic examples and evidence of the interactions between digital/online and physical life is pertinent to both the future of anthropological engagements with the public and to current concerns about digital studies in anthropology.

Building off goals established in the first organizational meeting of the newly formed Digital Anthropology interest group (DANG), this panel will address critical questions relating to the methods and ethics of digital fieldwork.  Presenters will demonstrate the applicability of insights, drawing from their current engagements with digital publics to advance the discipline of anthropology and prepare anthropologist for engagement with future publics.

Digital Anthropologists’ Current Engagements with 21^st Century Publics: #Digital Publics, #Ethics, #Methods, #Insights

DANG Call for Papers

Deadline April 10^th (To Meet April 15^th AAA Deadline for Sessions)

We are seeking presenters with papers which will address questions of ethics in digital anthropology.   We want to include papers which demonstrate innovative methods solutions to issues particular to digital fieldwork.  Papers with findings and insights applicable to digital anthropology and the future of anthropology as a whole are strongly encouraged.  We are particularly interested in having papers that discuss the overlap and interactions between digital/online and the physical.   We invite presenters to submit paper abstracts pertinent to the themes outlined above; however, we do not wish to limit abstracts to strictly these themes.  

We invite abstracts of 250 words to be submitted by April 10, 2013 to sydneyyeager@gmail.com  Look for email confirmation.