Engaging Vulnerability Research Seminar

Uppsala University
Schedule, Fall 2020

Time: Thursdays at 10.15-12.00
Venue: Campus Engelska parken, room ENG 3-2028
The seminars are conducted in English.
For more information and readings, contact mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se
Previous seminar series:
Schedule, spring 2016
Schedule, fall 2016
Schedule, spring 2017
Schedule, fall 2017
Schedule, spring 2018
Schedule, fall 2018
Schedule, spring 2019
Schedule, fall 2019
Schedule, spring 2020
Schedule, fall 2020 [this page]
Schedule, spring 2021
Schedule, fall 2021
Please note that because of the pandemic, the number of seats in the seminar room (3-2028) has been reduced to 10. For that reason, pre-registration to each seminar is mandatory (register via email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se no later than Tuesday noon the week of the seminar you wish to attend). Seats are distributed on a first-come, first served basis. To attend the seminars online, please see the Zoom links below.

Thursday September 17, at 10.15-12.00, room 3-2028

Chris Meyns and Anyssa Neumann

EV’s new postdocs, Chris Meyns and Anyssa Neumann, present their research projects.

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/67793053368 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

Thursday September 24, at 10.15-12.00, room 3-2028

Rachel Dolezal

Theme: BAD IDENTITIES, 1st seminar: “Bad race”
This seminar will discuss privilege and vulnerability, notions of appropriation, desire and identification, and the dynamics of identity politics in contemporary debates about “bad identities”; that is, about individuals who identify themselves in ways that fall beyond or challenge the limits of what generally is deemed legible and legitimate.

By focusing on individual cases – on both sides, on both accused and accuser – the seminar will explore issues of hegemony, subversion and the ontology of identity, and seek to understand why bad identities are so problematic for, and so generative of, so much contemporary thought and debate.

Before the seminar begins, come prepared by having read Stigma by Erving Goffman: https://www.freelists.org/archives/sig-dsu/11-2012/pdfKhTzvDIi8n.pdf

Suggestions of interviews with Rachel Dolezal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKRj_h7vmMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54QrcxCKo1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG9Q2_Hv83k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USr_bm39hrU
The Rachel Divide. Netflix (2018), 1 hr. 44 min.

Reading
Dolezal, Rachel 2017. In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World. BenBella Books.

Supplemental reading for those who crave more:

Larsen, Nella 1929. Passing. Any edition.

Rottenberg, Catherine 2003. “Passing”: race, identification and desire. Criticism Vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 435-452.

A. Cheree Carlson 1999. “You know it when you see it:” The rhetorical hierarchy of race and gender in Rhinelander v. Rhinelander, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 85:2, 111-128

Wikipedia. Hypatia transracialism controversy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_transracialism_controversy

Tuvel, Rebecca 2017. In Defense of Transracialism. Hypathia: https://archive.vn/20170512172506/http:/onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hypa.12327/full#selection-513.0-513.28

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/62210734216 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

[Research seminar in Cultural Anthropology] Wednesday September 30, at 10.15-12.00, room 3-2028

Kristian Sandbekk Norsted

Final review of Kristian Sandbekk Norsted’s dissertation manuscript. Deborah Cameron, Rupert Murdock Professor of Language and Literature at University of Oxford, will be the external examiner. Professor Cameron will appear via Zoom.

Thursday October 8, at 10.15-12.00, room 3-2028

Martín Ávila

Responding through design. Personal reflections on vulnerability
Martín Ávila is a designer, researcher and Professor of Design at Konstfack (the School of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm, Sweden. Martin obtained a PhD in design from HDK (School of Design and Crafts) in Gothenburg, Sweden. The PhD work (Devices. On Hospitality, Hostility and Design), was awarded the 2012 prize for design research by The Swedish Faculty for Design Research and Research Education. His postdoctoral project Symbiotic tactics (2013-2016) has been the first of its kind to be financed by the Swedish Research Council. Martin’s research is design-driven and addresses forms of interspecies cohabitation. See also www.martinavila.com

Reading: Realms of Exposure: On Design, Material Agency, and Political Ecologies in Córdoba

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/62607737149 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

Thursday October 22, at 10.15-12.00, room 3-2028

Alexander Sallstedt and Macario Lacbawan

Homecoming seminar for Macario Lacbawan and Alexander Sallstedt, EV doctoral students in Anthropology.

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/62380390230 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

[Research seminar in Cultural Anthropology] Wednesday November 4, at 10.15-12.00, room 3-2028

Mirko Pasquini

Final review of Mirko Pasquini’s dissertation manuscript. Dr. Hannah Brown, Durham University, vill be the external examiner.

Thursday November 5, at 10.15-12.00, online

Theme: BAD IDENTITIES, 2nd seminar: “Bad trans”

Screenshot from the documentary “Ångrarna” (“The Regretters”).

Readings and screenings:
Ångrarna, dir. Marcus Lindeen, 2011, 58 min.
Bissinger, Buzz 2015. ”Call Me Caitlyn: the full story”. Vanity Fair July.
Caitlyn Jenner: transgender community has mixed reactions to Vanity Fair reveal, The Guardian 2 June 2015
Where is my Vanity Fair cover, Caitlyn Jenner? NY Post, June 5, 2015

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/66876695308 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

Thursday November 12, at 10.15-12.00, online

Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed, researcher at Department of Literature, Uppsala U.

Nefas: Rape and the unspeakable in Roman versions of the myth of Philomela 

The research project, ”Philomela Returns: Ancient Myth and the public secret of Rape” examines the role of literary representations of sexual violence and their potential to underpin and undermine the public secret of rape, focusing on the Ancient Greek myth of Philomela. Currently, I am working with Roman interpretations of the story, in which the focus turns from Procne and her infanticide to Tereus’ rape and mutilation of her sister, Philomela. From early on in Roman culture, this myth is associated with the Latin word “nefas”, denoting that which is forbidden by divine law but also (and etymologically) that which is unspeakable. At the seminar, I will present and discuss a few early Roman examples where the myth appears as an example of that which is “nefas”, from Lucilius (c. 100 B.C.) to Martial (100 A.D.), focusing specifically on Ovid’s hugely influential version of the myth in the Metamorphoses (c. 8 A.D.).

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/68139111129 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the passcode)

Thursday November 19, at 10.15-12.00, online

Fear, anger and desire: Affect and the interactional intricacies of rape humor on a live podcast


Rickard Jonsson & Anna Gradin Franzén.
The aim of this prestation is twofold. Firstly, we present our thoughts on a research project, in the process of getting started, called Humor på allvar, where we investigate humor practices in educational settings. Here, a point of depature is to treat jokes, laughter and unlaughter as highly ambivalent practices that are deeply connected to social order (Billig, 2005). Secondly we will exemplify this point with a specific case of aggressive and sexist humor, enacted in an infamous episode of a Swedish podcast, that evoked strong public criticism and condemnation due to its rape humor. We illuminate the humor employed in the pod cast in terms of affect, desire and repression, and how taboo-breaking humor practices arouse both pleasure and fear among the pod cast participants.

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/62414470180 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

Thursday December 3, at 10.15-12.00, online

Theme: BAD IDENTITIES, 3rd seminar: “Bad crips”

Cristopher Reeve as Superman

Readings:
Reeve, Cristopher 1999. Still Me. Ballantine Books.
Brown, Steven 1996. Super Duper? The (Unfortunate) Ascendancy of Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve is was an asshole
Peace, William 2012. The Reeve school of paralysis.
Shakespeare, Tom 2004. Christopher Reeve: you’ll believe a man can walk

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/66772747076 (send an email to mats.hyvonen@antro.uu.se to obtain the password)

Tuesday January 19, at 14.15-16.00, online

Karl Ekemans licentiate seminar. Details TBA.

Karl Ekeman, doctoral student in Rhetoric

 

 

End of January (date TBA), at 10.15-12.00, online

Theme: BAD IDENTITIES, 4th seminar: “Bad imagination”

Jeanine Cummins, author of “American Dirt”.

Readings:
Cumming, Jeanine 2020. American Dirt. Flatiron Books.
Alter, Rebecca 2020. Why Is Everyone Arguing About the Novel American Dirt?
Shapiro, Lila 2019. Who gave you the right to tell that story? Vulture.
Smith, Zadie 2019. Fascinated to Presume: in defense of fiction. NYRB.

map
English Park Campus – Centre for the humanities: http://www.engelskaparken.uu.se/?languageId=1