Ε/ 5th Circle of Educational Webinars “Ethnografein” (2024-2025)

Ethnografein
Critical dialogues, epistemological challenges, field experiences, creative texts

Original film title: Words with Gods collective 2014

Photos: selection F. Tsibiridou

Since its launch, in the spring of 2021, ‘ETHNOGRAFEIN’ circle of webinars seeks to contribute to a critical and interdisciplinary debate on the theory and practice of ethnography, the epistemology of research, the importance of embodied experience, and the ways of disseminating the anthropological knowledge to the academic and non-academic public. It is required that anthropological study, as a research practice and as a writing policy, should involve critical appraisal, empathy, reflection and self-reflexivity, and highlight the importance of multimodal analysis of the local for understanding the general.

Organization and coordination
Fotini Tsibiridou – Ioannis Manos – Eleni Sideri

Organization and coordination of the 5th Circle
Fotini Tsibiridou – (in collaboration with Dimitris Kataiftsis)

The 5th cycle of “Ethnografein” webinars, starting in October 2024, entitled “’Religion’ in the ethnographic condition” (Western ontology, ecologies of knowledge, gendered suffering bodies, healing performances, sacred spaces, power relations, identity politics, subjects), includes 7 panels. It explores the religious phenomenon, opening the debate on how the question of religion needs to be deconstructed through the ethnographic condition and decolonized from the ontologies of the Western epistemological paradigm. The colonialities of modern citizenship and of nation/state sociality not only use religion instrumentally, both at the collective and personal level, but also crystallize the concept of religion spiritually and in one-dimensional terms, both beyond its materialities and narrowly in its anthropocentric character. Monotheism (in its Judeo-Christian and Muslim versions), colonialism and Western epistemology have systematically led to successive rationalizations of the concept of “religion”, as well as to its separation from the world of “magic”. This path leads to a Christian missionary ontology of knowledge in the context of Western colonialism, which creates deviations from the inclusive knowledge ecologies of the “noble savages” (see indigenous cults). The fact that anthropology and its related disciplines (see folklore studies) has pointed out the above very early on, has not prevented it in its colonial phase from reproducing Western-centric distinctions in their analysis. Earlier, since the time of Crusades, “religion” had begun to be conceptualized in a Western-centric way, as a synonym for “culture”, in an orientalist distinction of the Western Christian European world from the culturally Muslim Others of the East, while the Age of Discovery coincided with the Christian crystallization as segregation of religions in the European world (cf. Reconquista, persecution of Jewish populations, female witch-hunting). 

The seminars aim to highlight how religion and the religious phenomenon need not only to be deconstructed but also decolonized in research and analysis. In terms of political economy and seeking ecologies of knowledge, the webinars highlight practices for gendered bodies that suffer, are at risk and demand healing and comfort, in places and communities which sometimes use religious discourse inclusively with the afterlife, the non-human world and the environment, sometimes and/or instrumentally for identity politics in the contemporary world. All of these are examined in situ, within networks of power relations and hegemonies from above or from outside, and require systematic documentation inside ethnography and epistemological revision in terms of decolonizing knowledge. In these ways, the deconstruction of stereotypes and demonization is achieved, but also the understanding of religious experience and interreligious expression, both: as process of enchantment and re-enchantment of an often mundane and harsh everyday life, and as potential constituent element of the constitution of the self/subject in the complex contemporary world.

The 5th cycle of the Ethnografein webinars includes approaches and ethnographic case studies that focus on the religious phenomenon and beyond, re-examining in the heavy shadow of Western epistemological, cultural and political hegemony the issues of shamanism, spirituality, transreligiosity, and more broadly worldview construction, in Africa, Asia, the Balkans and Anatolia, the European north, the Mediterranean and Latin America worlds. By focusing on the practices of social actors, their representations, expectations and desires, the boundaries and meanings of religious expression from within and from below, in the long term and in the geopolitical context, beyond the hypostatized stereotypical naming and representations of the Other, the alien, the heterodox and the strange, are unfolded.

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Seminar Platform: ZOOM
https://zoom.us/j/8364531775?pwd=OVg3YVZlbmVCYWs3S0JYcEFGYlV1QT09

Makris, G. (Η οδός των πνευμάτων, Σουφισμός κ πνευματοληψία στο Σουδάν)και Κυριακάκης, Γ. (Εκκλησίες, πίστη, θεραπεία στη Γκάνα)

Kourgiotis, P. (Αδελφοί Μουσουλμάνοι, αποικιοκρατία, νεωτερικότητα  στην Αίγυπτο –  Tsibiridou, F. (Λαϊκό Ισλάμ και μειονοτική συνθήκη στα Πομακοχώρια)

Dionigi Albera (κοινά προσκυνήματα σε Βαλκάνια-Ανατολία)Gilles de Rapper (Βακούφια και Πελασγοί στην Αλβανία).

Panagiotopoulos, Α. (για Afrocuban τελετουργίες) καιRoussou, Ε. (για το κακό μάτι στην Ελλάδα)

Riboli D. (σαμανισμός στο Νεπάλ και Άπω Ανατολή) – Terzopoulou, Μ. (γυναίκες και μάνες στα Αναστενάρια)

Yiakoumaki, V. (υπάρχουν εβραίοι στα Χανιά;) και  Katiƈ, M. (εθνικοποίηση της θρησκείας στη Βοσνία-Ερζεγοβίνη και τα Δυτικά Βαλκάνια)

Barmpalexis. Α. (νέο-σαμανισμός στη Σκωτία)και Ευγενία Φωτίου (γεωμυθολογία στην Ελλάδα)

Short CV’s

Fotini Tsibiridou, (Dr. of Ethnology-Social Anthropology, EHESS-Paris 1990), is    professor of social anthropology in the department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, and director of the Culture-Borders-Gender/Lab at the University of Macedonia (cbg-lab.uom.gr). She carried out ethnographic research in a refugee village of 1922, among Pomak populations and minorities in Greek Thrace, in villages in Macedonia, the Peloponnese, in Istanbul, in the Sultanate of Oman and more broadly in the Middle East and the Balkans. As of 2018 and in the context of postcolonial and feminist criticism, she explores the genre of religiosity, statehood, and gendered subjectivity in post-Ottoman topologies and geographies. Since 2020, as a founding member of the dëcolonıze hellàş initiative (https://decolonizehellas.org/), she has been dealing with issues of coloniality, postcolonial archives and cultural heritage, the decolonization of religion and gender as well as the defacement of patriarchy.

Dimitris Kataiftsis is Dr. in Cultural Studies (University of Paris-IV Sorbonne 2014) and external collaborator, teaching anthropology courses at the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies of University of Macedonia. Since 2010 he has been conducting field research in communities of returnees from the former USSR, in Greece and abroad, mostly focusing on gender and economic reproduction. During his last postdoctoral research he studied transnational networking, ethnic and cultural economies in the context of the Russian-speaking world and return migration, publishing articles in international journals and volumes and participating in international conferences. Finally, he actively participates in the scientific and editorial team of the journal EIRINI/Studies of Young Scholars on Gender, and in numerous activities of the Laboratory/Culture-Border-Gender (cbg-lab.uom.gr), at the University of Macedonia, as a regular member.

Ο Γεράσιμος Μακρής είναι καθηγητής Κοινωνικής Ανθρωπολογίας στο Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο, Αθήνα. Έχει διδακτορικό δίπλωμα στην Κοινωνική Ανθρωπολογία από το London School of Economics. Τα κύρια ερευνητικά του ενδιαφέροντα είναι η ανθρωπολογία των ισλαμικών κοινωνιών, η ανθρωπολογία του χριστιανισμού, η ελληνική διασπορά στη Μέση Ανατολή και η ανθρωπολογική μελέτη της θρησκείας. Βιβλία στην αγγλική γλώσσα: The Sudanese Zār Ṭumbura Cult: Slaves, Armies, Spirits and History. Λονδίνο: Routledge, 2023. Islam in the Middle East: Α Living Tradition. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Changing Masters: Spirit Possession and Identity Construction among Slave Descendants and Other Subordinates in the Sudan. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2000. Βιβλία στην ελληνική γλώσσα: Ο Δρόμος των Πνευμάτων: Αθήνα: Σουφισμός, Πνευματοληψία και Μαγεία στο Σουδάν: Αθήνα, Πατάκης, 2016. Ισλαμ: Πεποιθήσεις, Πρακτικές και Τάσεις. Αθήνα, Πατάκης, 2014.

Ioannis Kyriakakis was born in Athens-Greece. He studied Political Science in Athens (Panteion University) and holds a pHD in Social Anthropology in London (UCL). He conducted fieldwork in England, in Ghana and Greece. He teaches in the Hellenic Open University. Ηis main interests revolve around methodology, religion/cosmology, global inequalities, economy and the anthropology of capitalism. In July 2020 his ethnography The Witchcraft of Capitalism-How Academy supports the global class system, was published. In 2023 his book Economic Anthropology and Capitalism and in 2024 his e-book Colonizing the Mind- The Witchcraft of the global class system (Syneditions) were published.

Panos Kourgiotis (Dr. of the Department of Political Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 2013), is Assistant Professor at the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, since 2024, specializing in the field of Area Studies (Middle East) and contemporary Islam. He speaks Arabic and Hebrew. Part of his PhD thesis has been published (in Greek) under the title The first youth of Islamism; discovering the Muslim Brotherhood and the world surrounding it, which is the first historical study devoted to the Muslim Brothers in the Greek bibliography. Between 2004-2007 he studied the Arabic language in both Tunisia and Syria, while in the latter he conducted field research which was published (in Greek) under the title ‘‘Inheriting the Umayyads? Globalization, resistance and coexistence in Bashar al-Asad’s Syria’’ in the collective volume Ethnography and Daily Life in ‘‘Our Near East’’ (2020). He has published in highly influential academic journals, such as The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, The Maghreb Review and Religions.

Dionigi Albera Dionigi Albera is an anthropologist and senior research fellow at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He is based at the IDEAS (Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Aix-Marseille University). His research focuses on Europe and the Mediterranean, and his interests include migration, kinship and family, pilgrimage and interfaith mixing. He published Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries (Indiana University Press, 2012), co-edited with Maria Couroucli, He is one of the curators of the touring exhibition Shared Sacred Sites held at the Museum of Mediterranean and European Civilizations in Marseille (Mucem, 2015), the Bardo Museum in Tunis (2016), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki (2017), the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris (2017–2018) and the Museum of Confluences-Dar el-Bacha in Marrakesh (2018).

Gilles de Rapper is an anthropologist, currently Director of Modern and Contemporary Studies at the École française d’Athènes. He holds a PhD in Ethnology and comparative sociology (University of Paris X Nanterre, 1998) and a Habilitation à diriger des recherches in Anthropology (University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 2019). Since 1994, he has conducted numerous fieldworks in Albania and the Balkans. His work has focused on the coexistence of Christians and Muslims in southern Albania, on cross-border relations between Greece and Albania and on the effects of Albanian migration to Greece. More recently, he has been interested in the trajectory of photographs produced during the communist period in Albania and their role in the current perception of the communist past. Finally, he is interested in the history of theories on the origin of Albanians through the revitalization, since the 1990s, of the nineteenth century ideas making Pelasgians the ancestors of modern Albanians.

Anastasios Panagiotopoulos (PhD 2011, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, UK), has conducted research on Afro-Cuban religiosity, divination, spirit possession, and mediumship in Cuba and Spain. More recently, his research interests have been directed towards contemporary religiosity and spirituality, alternative therapy,metaphysical views, and secularism in Europe, especially in Spain and Greece. He has been a postdoctoral and, subsequently, a senior researcher at the Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropología (CRIA) and FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Since May 2023 he is a distinguished researcher at the Department of Social Anthropology of the University of Seville, Spain.

Eugenia Roussou, (PhD in sociocultural anthropologist UCL, University of London, 2010), is a senior researcher at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA-Iscte), Lisbon, Portugal, and the Principal Investigator of the project ReSpell: Religion, Spirituality and Wellbeing: a Comparative Approach of Transreligiosity and Crisis in Southern Europe (https://respell.cria.org.pt), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and hosted by CRIA. She is the author of Orthodox Christianity, New Age Spirituality and Vernacular Religion: the Evil Eye in Greece. London: Bloomsbury (2021). She has edited collective volumes and special issues and has written extensively on the themes of religion and spirituality, vernacular and lived religion, religious pluralism, ritual healing practices, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), transreligiosity and spiritual elasticity, among others, with comparative ethnographic reference to Greece and Portugal.

Diana Riboli (PhD in Ethno-anthropological Sciences (University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 1996), is a professor at the Department of Social Anthropology of the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. From 1992 to date, she has conducted over twenty ethnographic studies in South and Southeast Asia (Nepal and Peninsular Malaysia), with a particular focus on the therapeutic, political and spiritual functions of ethno-medical systems among marginalized indigenous communities. Since 2019, she has been directing a research project examining the ecocosmological perceptions of minority and marginalized groups in the context of the recent rapid spread of Christianity and the significant increase in environmental disasters in Nepal. He has authored and co-authored over forty publications on a range of topics, including indigenous ethno-medical systems, concepts and responses to violence in egalitarian societies, cultural resistance of indigenous cultures, disaster anthropology, concepts of person and personhood in the philosophies of indigenous groups, and anthropological research methods.

Miranda Terzopoulou, Ethnologist/Folklorist, is a former researcher at the Greek Folklore Research Center of the Academy of Athens. She carried out many field investigations inside and outside Greece by traveling, experiencing and recording ethnographically. She has studied many aspects and patterns of popular culture and especially traditional music and folk rituals, working with various ethnic, linguistic, religious groups, minorities, women. She records and films, compiling an important archive of rare audio-visual material, while at the same time she publishes studies, drawing on its relevant topics.

Vassiliki Yiakoumaki (PhD, New School for Social Research, 2003) is Assistant Professor of Social Anthropology at the Department of History-Archaeology-Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly (Volos). Her research interests focus on ethnic groups and minorities, multiculturalist policies, religion/s, and Jewish identities.  Her teaching focuses on matters of religion and the public sphere, Jewish identities in Greece and Europe, and “Middle Eastern” societies.  Her current research area is contemporary Israeli society, and “Greek identity” among citizens of Israel with “Greek” origin.

Mario Katic (Associate Professor, Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, University of Zadar). makatic@unizd.hr. My areas of expertise concern pilgrimage, oral traditions, historical anthropology, and heritage. I am doing extensive ethnographic research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro. I co-edited several books: Approaching Pilgrimage: Methodological Issues Involved in Researching Routes, Sites, and Practices (Routledge, 2023); Military Pilgrimage and Battlefield Tourism: Commemorating the Dead (Routledge, 2018); Pilgrimage, Politics and Place Making in Eastern Europe (Routledge 2014), Pilgrimage and Sacred Places in Southeastern Europe: History, Religious Tourism and Contemporary Trends (Lit Verlag, 2014).

Athanasios Barmpalexis (Ph.D. in Ethnology (and Folklore) Εphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom). His doctoral thesis was on “western” folk healers practicing contemporary shamanisms in the wider area of North-East Scotland. He currently is a postdoctoral researcher at the sector of Byzantine Literature and Folklore Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow and a Visiting Lecturer at the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen. His research interests are Scottish/Irish myths and legends, folk music in contemporary extreme metal music, oral traditions of resistance, and folk medicine, vernacular healing, and traditional witchcraft.

Η Ευγενία Φωτίου (Δρ. Πολιτισμικής Ανθρωπολογίας, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010) είναι 

Evgenia Fotiou (Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010), is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Crete, since 2023.. Her research has focused mainly on indigenous religions and healing traditions, especially their transnational aspects, as well as on the role of tourism, focusing geographically on Latin America and contemporary Greece. She has contributed to the ethnography of contemporary shamanic practices globally by analyzing the multiple aspects of the shamanic tourism phenomenon. More recently, her research addresses the critical interdisciplinary issues of knowledge systems, comparative epistemology, otherness, and cross-cultural translation. She specializes in ethnomedicine, the anthropology of religion, tourism, and gender and has taught courses on these topics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Luther College, and Kent State University in the United States.

References

Albera, D. and M. Couroucli, eds. (2012) Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims, and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Asad, T. (1993) Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Asad, T. (2003) Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

Barmpalexis, Α. (2020) The Birth of The New Urban Shaman’s Oracle: The Creation and the Crafting Process of a Contemporary Tarot Card Deck for Personal and Community Healing and Transformation Εθνολογία on line 10(2) · Ethnologhia on line 10(2) ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ ΕΘΝΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ (GREEK SOCIETY FOR ETHNOLOGY) ISSN: 1792-9628 19 https://www.societyforethnology.gr/images/volume-10-2/Vol_10(2)_2020_whole.pdf

Danforth, M. L. (1995) Tα αναστενάρια της Αγίας Ελένης. Πυροβασία και θρησκευτική θεραπεία. Αθήνα: Πλέθρον.

Fotiou, E. “Transreligiosity and Religious Revitalization in Modern Greece: Bridging Religion and Science through Geomythology”. Religions 2023, 14, 754. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060754

Geertz, C.  (1973) “Religion As a Cultural System.”  in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, pp. 87-125.   New York: Basic Books.

Federici, S. (2019) Το κυνήγι μαγισσών χθες και σήμερα. Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδ. των ξένων.

Hayden, R.M., Katić, M. (2021). Religiously Nationalizing the Landscape in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: Bădescu, G., Baillie, B., Mazzucchelli, F. (eds) Transforming Heritage in the Former Yugoslavia. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76401-2_9

Kenna, M. E. (2015) «Rituals of Forgiveness and Structures of Remembrance: Memorial Services and Bone Depositories on the Island of Anafi, Greece», History of Religions, Vol. 54, No. 3 (February 2015), pp. 225-259 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/678993 .

Κυριακάκης Γ. (2012) “Υγεία, Πίστη και Μεθοδολογία: μια εθνογραφική μαρτυρία από την Δυτική Αφρική”, στον τόμο Ανθρωπολογικές και κοινωνιολογικές προσεγγίσεις της υγείας.

Σπυριδάκης M.-Οικονόμου, X. (επιμ.) Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Σιδέρη. Σελ. 361-379.

Κουργιώτης, Π. (2016) Η πρώτη νιότη του ισλαμισμού. Ανακαλύπτοντας τη μουσουλμανική αδελφότητα και τον κόσμο της (1928-1948). Θεσσαλονίκη: Ζήτρος

Μακρής, Γ. (2024) Η οδός των πνευμάτων: Σουφισμός, πνευματοληψία και μαγεία στο Σουδάν. Αθήνα: Πατάκης
Nye, M. (2019) “Decolonizing the Study of Religion”, Open Library of Humanities 5(1), 43. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.421

Obadia, L. (2008) Ανθρωπολογία των θρησκειών. Αθήνα: Πολύτροπον.

Panagiotopoulos, A (2017) A secular religion within an atheist state: The case of Afro-Cuban religiosity and the Cuban state. In: Mapril J, Blanes R, Wilson E, Giumbelli E (eds) Secularisms in a Postsecular Age? Religiosities and Subjectivities in Comparative Perspective. London; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.39–65.

Panagiotopoulos, A., & Roussou, E. (2022) «We have always been transreligious: An introduction to transreligiosity». Social Compass, 69(4), 614-630. https://doi.org/10.1177/00377686221103713

Pénicaud Manoël (video για τον τεκέ στα Φάρσαλα) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9viJwlDkoP0&t=2s).

De Rapper, G. (2012) «Τhe Vakëf: Sharing Religious Space in Albania», in Dionigi Albera, Maria Couroucli (eds) Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, pp. 29-50.

Riboli, D. (2008) Tunsuriban, Ανθρωπολογική μελέτη του σαμανισμού των Chepang του νοτίου και Κεντρικού Νεπάλ. Aθήνα:εκδ. Παπαζήση

Roussou, E (2021) Orthodox Christianity, New Age Spirituality and Vernacular Religion: The Evil Eye in Greece. London: Bloomsbury.

Σερεμετάκη, Ν. (2017) Η τελευταία λέξη στης Ευρώπης τα άκρα. Δι-αίσθηση, Θάνατος, Γυναίκες. Εκδοτικός Οίκος Α Α Λιβάνη.

Santos, B. de Sousa (2014) “Ecologies of Knowledge,” pp. 185-211 in Bonaventura de Sousa Santos, Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide. New York: Rutledge.

Τερζοπούλου, Μ.(2023) «Όσο κρατάει ένας στεναγμός. Ανασύροντας από το έρεβος την κακή μάνα» (149-174) στο Θέατρο-Τραύμα-Θεραπεία, Ι. Βιβιλάκης (επιμ.) Αθήνα: εκδ. Αρμός.

Tsibiridou, F. (2015) «Beyond the politics of religion: Rationalizing Popular Islam among the Slavonic-Speaking Muslims in Greece”, in Balkan Heritages. Negotiating History and Culture, edited by Maria Couroucli and Tchavdar Marinov. Surrey: Asghate 2015: 209-228. https://www.academia.edu/36171007/Beyond_the_politics_of_religion_Rationalizing_popular_Islam_among_the_Slavonic_speaking_Muslims_in_Greece_pdf

Turner, E. and V. Turner (2011) Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (Revised Edition). New York: Columbia University Press.

Turner, V. (2017) Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Routledge, 2017.

Van Gennep, A. (2019) The Rites of Passage. Second Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Yiakoumaki, V. (2009) “Υπάρχουν Εβραίοι στα Χανιά; Περί απουσίας, παρουσίας, και επίκτητης εμπειρίας της ετερότητας” [=“Are There Jews in Chania? On Absence, Presence, and the Acquired Experience of ‘Difference’”]. In F. Tsibiridou (ed) Μειονοτικές και μεταναστευτικές εμπειρίες: Βιώνοντας την “κουλτούρα του κράτους” [=Minority and Immigration Experiences: Εxperiencing the ‘Culture of the State’]. Athens: Kritiki, pp. 255-28

Webinar: FEMALE GENEALOGIES-FEMALE CREATIVITIES

This seminar is part of a project that has received funding from University Of Macedonia Research Fund under the Basic Research 2023 funding programme

Zoom:  https://zoom.us/j/8364531775?pwd=OVg3YVZlbmVCYWs3S0JYcEFGYlV1QT09
Meeting ID: 836 453 1775     Passcode: KB2JKa

Patriarchal structures have caused gender segregation and socio-political and economic inequalities for women for centuries. They also contributed to the formation of female intimacies, networks and solidarities which tried to overcome the impediment of being a woman in “a man’s world”. The webinar will explore how shifting our attention to female genealogies as narratives, histories and/or  practices of sharing, caring and support could help address the challenges that women in cultural industries, especially cinema, face. What kind of ingenuities do women conceive, develop in order to overcome social, economic or cultural obstacles? In what way, do they use their creativity to fight against structural and social handicaps? How do the successes or even failures of other women contribute to the production of female genealogies?

  • 16.00-16.25. Networks of Care: Reflections on “Towards a Global Women’s Film Heritage” Project
    Ana Grgić, Associate Professor, Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania)
  • 16.25-16.50. Family Memories and Cultural heritage in Georgia: the Gogoberidze Family
    Eleni Sideri, Assistant Prof., Dept of Balkan Slavic and Oriental Studies- University of Macedonia
  • 16.50- 17.15. Film Practices in 1970s-1980s Greece: Insights and Connections Across the Balkans Feminist Publications and Independent
    Danai Anagnostou, Aalto University
  • 17.15-17.40. “Gender Bias in Film: How Female Lead Actors Affect Movie Ratings and Awards”
    Anastasia Litina, Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics- University of Macedonia
  • 17.40-18.00. Discussion
  • Networks of Care: Reflections on “Towards a Global Women’s Film Heritage” Project
    Ana Grgić, Associate Professor, Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania)

This talk reflects on the aims, challenges and outcomes of the project “Global omen’s Film Heritage, on which I collaborated with my colleagues Stefanie van de Peer and Lizelle Bischoff. Our desire was to counter the dominant patriarchal attitude of “benign neglect” (Tucker 1983) to presences and absences in the archive, which diminishes and neglects women’s activities and labour in film history. This project brought together scholars, archivists and filmmakers, to address the gaps in our shared histories and knowledge, with a particular focus on women’s cultural memory and film heritage from the Global South. This reflection takes into account two years of networking, workshops and conferences, where women from across the globe met and shared passions, frustrations, knowledge and experiences on their encounters with or in film archives and restoration projects. At the intersection of feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial studies, and through a self-reflexive and critical approach to our own work and activities, we sought to address questions surrounding the gaps in historical knowledge on women’s activities (especially non-White feminist film history), the unremembered, and the selectivity of cultural memory. I argue that our work and research as a women’s collective constitutes one example of the need and effort to decolonize film history in an active feminist way through “an ethics of care” (Thompson 2015).

  • Family Memories and Cultural heritage in Georgia: the Gogoberidze Family
    Eleni Sideri, Assistant Prof., Dept of Balkan Slavic and Oriental Studies- University of Macedonia

Three generations of women creators of Georgian cinema belonging to the same family, the Gogoberidze family, will form the basis for this research, which aims to explore the notion of female genealogy through a multimodal ethnography. What type of memories does this female genealogy shape and how is it shaped by them? Focusing on a specific example of (auto)biography-memory, I will try to explore the ways affective memory and emotions as well as creativity generate family and cultural heritage and shape a female genealogy.

  • Film Practices in 1970s-1980s Greece: Insights and Connections Across the Balkans Feminist Publications and Independent
    Danai Anagnostou, Aalto University

This contribution addresses persistent issues related to the documentation and accessibility of alternative film production histories and draws inspiration from the enduring legacies of historical film collectives. In my doctoral research, I delve into the historical facets of film collectives and group formations in cinema by examining archival materials, auto-theoretical texts, and publications related to film practice and production culture. I seek materials authored by filmmakers and film workers themselves. Employing Production Studies as a theoretical framework, I explore existing scholarly analyses of film production.  However, there is a notable absence of texts on film production histories and critical perspectives authored by practitioners actively involved in filmmaking. This realization led me to auto theory—the blending of theory, philosophy, and autobiography (Fournier, 2021)—which shifted my focus toward locating texts and communication artifacts created by filmmakers themselves. Early in my research, I encountered several Greek independent feminist publications, such as Skoupa (Broom, 1979–1982), Musidora (1984–1985), and Poli Gynaikon (Women’s City, 1982–1985). The authors of these publications address a wide range of topics and occasionally contain critiques, manifestos, and calls for action relating to film praxes. While these publications often seem influenced by Western perspectives, my research aims to explore how feminist discourse and initiatives shaped independent filmmaking in Greece and other Balkan regions. Specifically, I seek to identify discourse and dissemination practices of short and hybrid film formats within feminist circles during that era. The literature review centers on examining independent publications that address film production and culture from the perspective of feminist groups primarily from Greece, engaged in archival research and reviewing relevant materials. Furthermore, the study explores whether these groups have taken a step further in organizing independent and short film exhibitions and screenings. Writing and taking control of one's narrative, whether individually or collectively, is seen as a means of healing and bringing everyday working life into theoretical discourse. Positioned at the intersection of Production Studies, histories of film collectives, and auto theory, my research endeavors to bridge documentation gaps, foster cross-generational dialogues about diverse approaches to filmmaking, and ultimately preserve the histories of independent film production.

  • “Gender Bias in Film: How Female Lead Actors Affect Movie Ratings and Awards”
    Anastasia Litina, Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics- University of Macedonia

The study looks at how movies with female lead actors are rated and how many awards they win. It finds that when a movie has one or two female leads, it tends to get lower ratings from viewers but wins more awards. However, when all three leading roles are filled by women, this pattern fades, and the movie’s ratings and awards don’t change much.

The study suggests that men tend to give lower ratings to movies with female leads, which could hint at some bias. Interestingly, when female involvement is less obvious, like when a woman is a producer, the movie tends to get higher ratings. This points to the possibility that when female roles are less visible, people rate the movie more favorably, hinting at underlying gender bias. 

In conclusion, understanding gender diversity and its impact on film ratings and awards provides valuable insights into the broader dynamics of the movie industry. As representation continues to evolve, recognizing how gender perceptions influence both audience reception and critical acclaim is crucial for fostering a more inclusive and equitable film sector. This understanding is not only relevant for addressing bias but also for promoting diversity, which can lead to richer and more varied storytelling that resonates with diverse audiences.

Danai Anagnostou is a researcher in production studies. She studies film collectives and their influence on contemporary conducts and strategies for producing films, and works on her doctoral thesis at Aalto University, funded by Kone Foundation. She has co-founded Kenno Filmi, a cooperative production company, invested in producing artist-led films and audiovisual works

Ana Grgić (PhD, University of St Andrews) is Associate Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania), specialising in Balkan and East European cinemas, women’s film heritage, visual culture and film history. She is author of Early Cinema, Modernity and Visual Culture: The Imaginary of the Balkans (Amsterdam University Press, 2022), and co-editor of Stretching the Archive – Global Women’s Film Heritage (Archive Books, 2024) and Contemporary Balkan Cinema: Transnational Exchanges and Global Circuits (Edinburgh University Press, 2020).

 Anastasia Litina is an Associate Professor at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece and an Extramural Research Fellow at the University of Luxembourg. She received her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Macedonia, visited Brown University for a semester and worked at the University of Luxembourg as a post-doctoral researcher prior to her employment in Greece. Her research interests include a theoretical and empirical examination of the long-run determinants of growth, on the implications of various dimensions of culture (e.g., corruption, religiosity, environmental attitudes) for socio-economic outcomes, the social implications of population aging, as well as on the long-lasting effect of historical events on current socio-economic outcomes.

Eleni Sideri completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at SOAS/University of London. She did extensive field research in the Caucasus, the former Yugoslavia and Greece. She taught social anthropology in various departments and has published in several languages. Her academic interests include: ethnographies of the Black Sea and the Caucasus, transnational migration and diasporas, politics of culture in cinema. In 2023, she published the monograph of Coproducing Europe. An Ethnography of Film Markets, Identity and Creativity (Berghahn Publishers)

Call for applications for GlobalMed PhD workshop from November 18 to 22, 2024

The Culture-Borders-Gender/Lab, of the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies of the University of Macedonia, as a member of the GlobalMed network, participates in the organization of the first doctoral workshop of the GlobalMed network “Did you say global? Objects, Methods and Limits of the Global Approach in Mediterranean Studies” to be held at the MMSH (Aix-en-Provence) and the Mucem (Marseille) from November 18 to 22, 2024.
This workshop, organized in collaboration with Mucem, is aimed at doctoral candidates and young postdoctoral researchers from the GlobalMed partner research teams.  Candidates from all disciplines should demonstrate an interest in the global approach as part of their doctoral or post-doctoral research topic.

The goals of the workshop are to provide participants with:

  • An in-depth look at the concept of “global”: history of the concept and issues of scale, epistemological issues, major publications/works, implementation of interdisciplinarity,
  • A reflection on the objects of study of the global approach and the methods and concepts mobilized in their respective fields of research and in other disciplines,
  • A reflection on the limits and critiques of the global approach.

Details of the call for proposals can be found in the attached document.

The deadline for applications is June 28, 2024, and applications should be sent to the e-mail address: maria-jose.jarrin-yanez@univ-amu.fr

SIMPOZIONUL INTERNAȚIONAL

aniversar

ROMÂNA CA LIMBĂ STRĂINĂ
cu tema
Limbă şi cultură: entități în continuă rearmonizare
Thessaloniki, 31 mai – 1 iunie 2024
(format off-line – online)

Dedicat împlinirii
a 25 de ani de la înființarea Institutului Limbii Române, București (ILR)
& a 50 de ani de la înființarea Catedrei de Limba Română pentru Studenți Străini,
Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași

Desfășurat în cadrul
Zilelor Limbii Române la Universitatea „Makedonía”, Thessaloniki
prin susținerea
Consulatului General al României la Salonic

Dragi Studenţi, Dragi Colegi,

Avem deosebita bucurie și onoare de a vă invita la Simpozionul Internațional aniversar Româna ca limbă străină,cu desfășurare între 31 mai – 01 iunie 2024, la Universitatea „Makedonía” din Thessaloniki, Grecia.

Tema din acest an, Limbă şi cultură: entități în continuă rearmonizare, oferăcrearea unui spațiu de cunoaștere și comunicare directă pentru studenții internaționali care învață limba română: în cadrul Lectoratelor de limbă, cultură și civilizație românească din diverse universități ale lumii, înființate de Institutul Limbii Române, București (ILR), în programele de An Pregătitor, în programele de licenţă, masterat, doctorat aleuniversităţilor din România sau din exterior. Acești studenți provin din spații culturale foarte diverse, dinEuropa, Asia, Africa. De asemenea, tema propuneun schimb util de experiență între specialiști, precum şi posibilitatea examinăriiprocesului de predare-însușire-evaluare a românei ca limbă străină, în raport cu nivelul european actual.

Odată cu liberalizarea frontierelor și a circulației, a posibilității de a intra în contact cu diferite culturi și mentalități, oamenii au devenit din ce în ce mai doritori să învețe cât mai multe limbi străine. Acestea își demonstrează din ce în ce mai mult rolul deconectori culturali,mijloace prolifice de comunicare interculturală și de căi de accesla patrimoniul cultural și lingvistic global.

Realitatea momentului se deschide spre cunoașterea reciprocă a atât de multor culturi, în dorința comună de a realiza un dialogtranscontinental, armonios și coerent. Plecând de aici,utilizarea limbii române apare ca unul dintre cele mai dezirabile și utile instrumente de mediere culturală și socială, ca factor eficient pentru soluționarea noilor cerințe ale mediului socio-uman. Dialogul interculturalcâștigă noi perspective, iar acest fapt solicită și stimulează perfecționarea modalităților de însușire a mecanismelor necesare comunicării lingvistice.

Organizatorii

Ιnvitation

On behalf of Culture, Borders, Gender/Lab and the course Ethnographies of Turkey and the Middle East, Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, you are invited to the screening of the film    ” The Wanted 18” ( 2014, 75′, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3946020/ ) on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, at 18.00, auditorium 9, University of Macedonia.

 The film is a Palestinian-Canadian documentary created by Amer Shomali, visual artist and director, and Paul Cowan, screenwriter and combines oral testimonies, archival material and animation to relate the story of the first independent cow breeding farm in Palestine. The film was the Palestinian nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.

The screening is held in collaboration with the Palestinian Film Festival of Athens. A ZOOM discussion with Ms. Carol Sansour, poet, cultural producer and director of the Palestinian Film Festival of Athens will follow.

The event is coordinated by the students of the course Ethnographies of Turkey and the Middle East.

We sincerely thank the students of the course “Ethnographies of Turkey and the Middle East” – BSAS, Konstantinos Andriotakis and Konstantinos – Evangelos Hekimoglou, who designed the poster of the event.

You are all kindly invited!

Dan Georgakas: A Personal History of Greek America

INVITATION

As part of the “CULTURAL STUDIES: TEXTS-CREATORS-ACTIONS” Cycle, we are discussing, on Monday 5/20/2024, at 6:00 p.m., in the welcoming area of Pikap Kato (Olympou 57, downtown Thessaloniki), about the Greeks of America on the occasion of the book by Dan Georgakas “My Detroit” (Translated by Anastasia Stefanidou), Athens: “The publications of colleagues” 2016.

Speakers:

Kostis Karpozilos, PhD in History, University of Crete

Anastasia Stefanidou, Ph.D. in English Literature, AUTH (translator of the book)

Antonis Balasopoulos, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Cyprus

Entry is free to the public.

Event Language: Greek

Presentation of editions in Thessaloniki, Steki Metanaston, 20 Valaoritou, Thursday 23/5/2024, 7-9pm.

As members of the @Decolonize Hellas collective and the Culture Borders Gender Laboratory we will be happy to see you at the presentation of our publications (with the support of the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation-Greece Branch) on 23/5/24, where Anthropology, among other related disciplines, debates/interacts academically and cinematically on coloniality/decolonization in the Migrant House. The event will take place on the eve of the opening of the 2nd Conference of the SKAE Association of Social Anthropologists of Greece – SKAE in Thessaloniki, in the co-organization of which the Laboratory & Studio of the BSAS-PaMaK Departments Department of Balkan, Slavic & Oriental Studies of the University of Macedonia and IA-APTH participate , Department of History-Archaeology AUTH.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1466267190649131

http://tiny.cc/1603yz

9th seminar of the 4th Cycle of ETHNOGRAFEIN Online Educational Seminars (2023-2024)

ETHNOGRAFEIN
Critical dialogues, epistemological challenges, 
field experiences, creative texts

Performance oikade (Aleksandros Plomaritis)
[provided by Dr. Christina Grammatikopoulou]

The online seminars series ETHNOGRAFEIN, since its inception in the spring of 2021, aims to contribute to a critical and interdisciplinary discussion about the theory and practice of ethnography, the epistemology of research, the significance of embodied experience, and also the modes of dissemination of the anthropological knowledge produced to both academic and non-academic audiences. The anthropological endeavour, both as a mode of research practice and a form of political writing, is based on the fundamental epistemological premises of critical evaluation, empathy, reflection, and self-referentiality and highlights the significance of a multifaceted analysis for the understanding of the local to the global. 
Organisation and coordination: Fotini Tsibiridou – Ioannis Manos – Eleni Sideri

The 4th period of the ETHNOGRAFEIN online seminars, starting in October 2023 with the title “Borders and boundaries revisited: Anthropological perspectives and public engagement“, sets the study of geopolitical borders as its point of departure to examine the diverse phenomena and processes that abound in the contemporary state border regions and have multilevel consequences for the border populations. 

By definition, studying borders and boundaries involves exploring the relationship between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’, or the “Self” and the “Other”. However, this is not a study of clear-cut dichotomies but an analysis of the interplay of multiple, multilevel, coexisting, but not necessarily interconnected processes. Boundaries are configured and take shape within a historically determined frame. They are subject to transformations in socio-political and economic contexts and are characterised by institutionally organised asymmetrical power relations. The complex making of borders and boundaries often emerges as a continuous interaction between mobility and enclosure, communication, coexistence, exchange, interaction, sameness and otherness, separation, exclusion, segmentation, connection and disconnection.

The anthropological study of geopolitical borders and their populations by anthropology was systematised in the mid-1990s. It was initially based on two paradigms: the study of the USA-Mexico and European borders. Nowadays, analysing social phenomena and cultural processes concerning borders and boundaries transcends disciplinary boundaries. Novel approaches such as the crοsslocations framework and the current discussion on decolonising methods and epistemologies have expanded the analytical and conceptual significance of the concepts of border and boundary. New methodological and interpretative tools have been created to study politics, trans-border mobility, materiality, transnationalism, topologies and genealogies of migration and refugeeness, border economics, and nation-state policies concerning spatial and cultural diversity, minority rights, and performative culture. 

Based on detailed explorations of ethnographic research and anthropological insights, the 4th cycle of the ETHNOGRAFEIN online seminars critically examines the theoretical, epistemological and methodological complexities surrounding the study of geopolitical borders and their imposed dichotomies. Moreover, it discusses anthropology’s potential to bring forth the subtleties of human voices often overshadowed by macro narratives and create an inclusive, comprehensive dialogue in the public sphere that demonstrates the multiplicity of lived experiences.

“Actions from below and exit from the Cypriot liminality” 

Pafsanias Karathanasis 
PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of the Aegean

Only those participants who wish to receive certificates of attendance register in the following form: https://forms.gle/GgfLbkfST5jBbkUN7

The registration form will receive answers one week before the seminar, that is from 15/4/2024 to 22/4/2024.

————————————————————————–

Seminar Platform: ZOOM

Link  https://zoom.us/j/8364531775?pwd=OVg3YVZlbmVCYWs3S0JYcEFGYlV1QT09
Meeting ID: 836 453 1775     Passcode: KB2JKa

7th seminar of the 4th Cycle of ETHNOGRAFEIN Online Educational Seminars (2023-2024)

ETHNOGRAFEIN
Critical dialogues, epistemological challenges, 
field experiences, creative texts

Performance oikade (Aleksandros Plomaritis)
[provided by Dr. Christina Grammatikopoulou]

The online seminars series ETHNOGRAFEIN, since its inception in the spring of 2021, aims to contribute to a critical and interdisciplinary discussion about the theory and practice of ethnography, the epistemology of research, the significance of embodied experience, and also the modes of dissemination of the anthropological knowledge produced to both academic and non-academic audiences. The anthropological endeavour, both as a mode of research practice and a form of political writing, is based on the fundamental epistemological premises of critical evaluation, empathy, reflection, and self-referentiality and highlights the significance of a multifaceted analysis for the understanding of the local to the global. 
Organisation and coordination: Fotini Tsibiridou – Ioannis Manos – Eleni Sideri

The 4th period of the ETHNOGRAFEIN online seminars, starting in October 2023 with the title “Borders and boundaries revisited: Anthropological perspectives and public engagement“, sets the study of geopolitical borders as its point of departure to examine the diverse phenomena and processes that abound in the contemporary state border regions and have multilevel consequences for the border populations. 

By definition, studying borders and boundaries involves exploring the relationship between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’, or the “Self” and the “Other”. However, this is not a study of clear-cut dichotomies but an analysis of the interplay of multiple, multilevel, coexisting, but not necessarily interconnected processes. Boundaries are configured and take shape within a historically determined frame. They are subject to transformations in socio-political and economic contexts and are characterised by institutionally organised asymmetrical power relations. The complex making of borders and boundaries often emerges as a continuous interaction between mobility and enclosure, communication, coexistence, exchange, interaction, sameness and otherness, separation, exclusion, segmentation, connection and disconnection.

The anthropological study of geopolitical borders and their populations by anthropology was systematised in the mid-1990s. It was initially based on two paradigms: the study of the USA-Mexico and European borders. Nowadays, analysing social phenomena and cultural processes concerning borders and boundaries transcends disciplinary boundaries. Novel approaches such as the crοsslocations framework and the current discussion on decolonising methods and epistemologies have expanded the analytical and conceptual significance of the concepts of border and boundary. New methodological and interpretative tools have been created to study politics, trans-border mobility, materiality, transnationalism, topologies and genealogies of migration and refugeeness, border economics, and nation-state policies concerning spatial and cultural diversity, minority rights, and performative culture. 

Based on detailed explorations of ethnographic research and anthropological insights, the 4th cycle of the ETHNOGRAFEIN online seminars critically examines the theoretical, epistemological and methodological complexities surrounding the study of geopolitical borders and their imposed dichotomies. Moreover, it discusses anthropology’s potential to bring forth the subtleties of human voices often overshadowed by macro narratives and create an inclusive, comprehensive dialogue in the public sphere that demonstrates the multiplicity of lived experiences.

“The Georgian-Russian Border: Perspectives from the Periphery”

Florian Muehlfried 

Professor of Social Anthropology at Ilia State University (Georgia)

Florian Muehlfried:  The Georgian-Russian Border: Perspectives from the Periphery
In my presentation, I will trace the transformation of the border between Georgia and Russia from soft to hard based on the example of the Georgian highland region Tusheti. After the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the border region was managed flexibly and “from below”. This was followed by an internationalisation of border guarding and attempts to its spiritual fortification. These three phases of border guarding can be related to three different models of the state, and of being a citizen. 

Florian Mühlfried is a Professor of Social Anthropology at Ilia State University. His publications include the monographs Mistrust: A Global Perspective (2019) and Being a State and States of Being in Highland Georgia (2014), the edited volume Mistrust: Ethnographic Approximwations (2018), as well as the co-edited volumes Sacred Places, Emerging Spaces: Religious Pluralism in the Post-Soviet Caucasus (2018) and Exploring the Edge of Empire: Soviet Era Anthropology in the Caucasus and Central Asia (2011).

Only those participants who wish to receive certificates of attendance register in the following form: https://forms.gle/gk4SijYeUL4rj2NS9

The registration form will receive answers one week before the seminar, that is from 1/4/24 to 8/4/24.

————————————————————————–

Seminar Platform: ZOOM

Link  https://zoom.us/j/8364531775?pwd=OVg3YVZlbmVCYWs3S0JYcEFGYlV1QT09
Meeting ID: 836 453 1775     Passcode: KB2JKa

European Anthropology Days in Greece | 2024

The Association of Social Anthropologists of Greece (SKAE / ASAG) celebrates European Anthropology Days from the 15th of February up to the 20th of March under the rhetorical question “Is Anthropology present?“. Anthropology, in its polyphonic, open and critical approach, can contribute decisively to highlighting social problems, mitigating their causes and amplifying the voices of those affected. Anthropology enables new paths of understanding and can inform new policies and alternatives, evidence-based practices and shared visions.

Our celebrations include four movie screenings, four workshops, two performances, one exhibition and an online event held in English (link to access provided below) as well as six dedicated blog posts on ΣΚΑΕ/ASAG’s website. We are collaborating with the Ethnographic Film Festival in Athens, Fiji, Anthropology-inspired Storytelling network in Volos, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Athens), the University of Thessaly (Volos), the University of Macedonia (Thessaloniki), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Aegean, four K-12 schools in Piraeus, Korydallos, Athens and the island of Amorgos, and a cinema club based on Amorgos. Our planned activities are outlined below.

Culture-Borders-Gender/Lab of Dept of Balkans, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of MacedoniaThursday, 14th of March, (18:00-20:00) “Multiple gazes towards Northern Greek province: Kalampaki’s “Kourbani” custom and the critical ethnographic encounter”, Foteini Tsibiridou, professor of Social Anthropology and director of Lab, Dimitris Kataiftsis, teaching associate in Social Anthropology, Nikos Manolas, PhD candidate in Anthropology, Anastasia Mitropoanou, MA student in Anthropology (Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies department – University of Macedonia) https://cbg-lab.uom.gr/en/


zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84454977279?pwd=pALbkousabbfjetVU410D3UMbA4bHb.1