Technology and Anthropology Conference

STS Hosts a Conference
Conference theme was "Technology and Anthropology"

The topic was approached from 2 perspectives: 1) impacts of technology on the organization of human interaction, and 2) impacts of technology on the study of human interaction. The ability to engage with new technologies does not just entail a new context for conventionalized practices, but also creates new potentials for the human perceptive system and new forms of participation, experience, and research.

Scholars from France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and the U.S. joined together for an intense two day workshop to share research into how new technologies are reshaping communication and human interaction. The goal of the conference was to begin a research and publication group to investigate both how technology shapes what we do as humans and the history of technology in anthropology and closely related disciplines. New themes were identified as foundational in terms of understanding technologies from a language and culture perspective, and aspects of the ethnography of technology were discussed.

The working group plans to meet several times over the next few years.

Alessandro Duranti (University of California, Los Angeles)
Maria Egbert (University of Southern Denmark)
Charles Goodwin (University of California, Los Angeles)
Elizabeth Keating (University of Texas at Austin)
Maria Beatrice Ligorio (University of Bari, Italy)
Lorenza Mondada (University of Lyon, France)
Olga Solomon (University of Southern California)
Samuel Wilson (University of Texas at Austin)
Dario Mangano (University of Palermo)
Marko Monteiro (Brazil and U.S.)
Christoph Engemann (Germany and U.S.)

Graduate Students in Anthropology at UT Austin:
Chiho Sunakawa
Emi Nagai
Amy Brown
Inger Mey

For further information contact: Professor Elizabeth Keating.