November 30th – December 1st
Call for Papers & Panels
Community, Collaboration and Co-production
Anthropologists have always relied on the trust, collaboration, and co-production of knowledge among informants/interlocutors and one another. Now, in an age of rapid social change, geopolitical tensions, increasing disasters and human-induced climate change, such collaborations are needed more than ever. How does collaboration strengthen and improve theoretical based work? And how do such collaborations feed into societal movements and revitalization initiatives from traditional arts and crafts to pop culture, to disaster recovery and new modes of community revitalization, such as volunteerism and umigyō in coastal areas?
In this Call for Papers we ask, what knowledge is co-produced? What are the ways collaboration takes place? And what are the merits and demerits of different ways of collecting data and conducting fieldwork? As collaboration and co-production blur the lines of “subject” vs. “researcher” where does etic end and emic begin? What advantages are found from combining emic and etic perspectives? Does the cool, authoritative voice of the anthropologist enhance the project, or are there times when it is actually better to let the people speak for themselves?
Collaboration also includes working with fellow anthropologists and specialists in other fields, in addition to local, cultural insiders. Deep immersion by a single researcher is the stereotypical approach to fieldwork. But anthropology in the Japanese Academy is often done in groups, influenced perhaps by Yanagita-type folklore studies and the University of Michigan-led work in the 1950s. The institutional framework also favors group projects in the way that grants are handed out. What are the relative merits and demerits of solitary fieldwork against the group project?
Tell us your reflections on Community, Collaboration and Co-production in the anthropology of Japan in Japan, how it’s changed your methods and research, or how it could in the future.
Panel abstracts and paper abstract submissions (250 word limit) are due October 15, 2024 and can be submitted to Alyne Delaney (replace ‘at’ with @) alyne.delaney “at” tohoku.ac.jp. Please put AJJ 2024 in the subject line.
The AJJ is also proud to announce the continuation of two prizes:
The HARUMI BEFU PRIZE for a gifted junior scholar, and the MARK BOOKMAN PRIZE for an emerging scholar researching people with disabilities or other minority groups in Japan. All presentations by non-tenured scholars at the annual AJJ conferences will automatically be considered as candidates for the Befu and Bookman Prizes.
Conference Fees
Tenured faculty and permanently employed: ¥5,000
Non-tenured faculty and non-permanently employed: ¥3,000
Post-docs and graduate students: ¥2,000
Undergraduates: free
Reception Fees (November 30th evening)
Tenured faculty and permanently employed: ¥3,000
Non-tenured faculty and non-permanently employed: ¥2,000
Post-docs, graduate students: ¥1,000
Undergraduates: ¥1,000
Location: Tohoku University, Aobayama Campus, Aobayama Commons building
Further details, including a more detailed Access map and the Reception Banquet location coming soon!
*If there is enough interest, a fieldtrip to the Matsushima Bay area is possible (Friday or Monday)