With Miroslava Prazak, current Anthropology professor at Bennington College retiring after this semester, five candidates were invited to campus to meet with students and faculty, and give talks on their work. Luckily all candidates were able to come to Bennington before the hiring freeze was put in effect, meaning students won’t need to worry about a nonexistent Anthropology department next semester.
The first candidate to arrive was Kathryn Boswell. Kathryn is a professor of Anthropology at Simon’s Rock at Bard College, an extension school of Bard, which provides an undergraduate education to high school students. Kathryn spoke about her work researching the power of radio in Montserrat after a devastating Earthquake. The presentation was quite interesting, and Kathryn herself was a warm lady with years of experience in advising undergraduates, which I learned during the student lunch.
A few days after Kathryn came to Bennington, Mark Chatarpal arrived. Mark is an adjunct professor at Vassar College who specializes in the Anthropology of Food and Caribbean studies. He has also taught courses at the Culinary Institute of America. Mark had an obvious passion for teaching and using anthropology for what he called “activism with a small a.” During lunch with students, he explained that his mentors had shaped him and he intended to provide long term mentorship for students.
He told the students at the lunch his talk would be “dry” presentation on indigenous organization in Guyana presented a fascinating approach to engaged anthropology. His work on decolonial studies, asking what the word really means in practice compelled the audience. The investigation into what concepts such as “decolonialism” and “food sovereignty” actually entail is, I think, an important one.
Ana Del Conde spoke about Engaged Feminist Ethnography. Ana is a Post Doctoral fellow at Smith College in the Women and Gender Studies department. Like Mark, Ana was focused on anthropology with an active participation in Social Justice work and in the communities one is researching. She also paid attention to emotion in Ethnography and the importance of an anthropologist taking care to recognize their own emotions.
Discussion was heated after Ana’s presentation! One audience member began his question with the phrase “I don’t buy it,” and proceeded to list off Anthropologists who had done work focused on reflexivity and emotion in Anthropology, including Ruth Behar, to explain why he did not buy that Ana’s approach was completely new. Another audience member wondered about the limits of this approach and proclaimed she was attached to “masculine detachment in her academics.” Ana handled the disagreement well, explaining that her method does not center only the ethnographer and that it builds on past Anthropological work while adding new elements.
The fourth candidate to arrive was Meredith McLaughlin, a visiting professor of anthropology at Pitzer College in California. She was professional with a breadth of knowledge in her field. When I mentioned an interested in narrative and epistemic justice she was quick to recommend a book on the topic to me. She explained that she had written a novel herself and was interested in the connection between fiction and anthropology both for fiction writers and anthropologists.
Meredith’s presentation was on welfare policies in rural India and in New England. During the presentation she spoke about the moral demands that come with welfare and how that is navigated in rural India and the U.S. She presented a guaranteed income model for welfare that allowed recipients to choose what they used money for.
There were meant to be four candidates interviewed, but another candidate was able to be invited to the school the week after Meredith came. Marios Falaris is a PostDoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University whose work focuses on the effects of militarization in everyday life. His presentation focused on male intimacy in Kashmir. The presentation allowed a close look at the relationships of a group of friends as they navigated dangerous realities. There was a moment describing a picnic the friends shared one day that was quite vivid and touching.
All five candidates would be a great addition to the Bennington Community. It’s a tough call, and the decision on the new professor will likely be announced soon. I recommend taking a class with whoever is chosen!
Be First to Comment