Month: January 2024

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

“Borders and boundaries revisited: 
Anthropological perspectives and public engagement”

“Borders and boundaries revisited: 
Anthropological perspectives and public engagement”

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.

22 January 2024

“ Crossing borders as a musician: artistic work and border regimes“

Aspasia (Sissie) Theodosiou
Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, Dep. of Music Studies, University of Ioannina

22/01/2024:

Aspasia (Sissie) Theodosiou: “Crossing borders as a musician: artistic work and border regimes”
Drawing from my recent ethnographic research in Israel, but also from ethnographic material starting from the late 1990s and up to the present day, concerning cultural-musical performances and crosslocations on the Greek-Albanian border, this presentation discusses a distinctly different modality of interconnectivity and cross-border mobility than that usually found in the relevant literature or public discourse on borders (e.g. migration/refugee ‘crisis’, trade, tourism): this modality concerns the phenomenon of musical labour as performed by Albanian/Northern Epirot traditional musicians on the Greek-Albanian border in Epirus and by Greek musicians and singers in Israel (with the latter particularly intensifying since the economic crisis).

 Through the perspective of artistic work – and  more especially its modality as cross-border mobility- as it is reflected through the discourses and practices of musicians and the audience’s perceptions, the presentation will highlight the “burden of ethnic/symbolic representation” that musicians are called upon to bear in a context of entertainment cultures, which in their historicity have acquired the weight of an “authentic” affective legacy. At the same time, the presentation will engage critically with the literature on artistic/creative work. The border regimes under consideration and their imprints on the labour regimes of the participating musical subjects, highlight structures, practices and understandings of the phenomenon of musical labour that have not been adequately studied until recently.

Aspasia (Sissie) Theodosiou is a social anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Department of Music Studies of the University of Ioannina. She obtained her MA and PhD from the Dept of Social Anthropology (University of Manchester). She was a member of MC of the international research network “Remaking eastern borders in Europe” and participated in the “Crosslocations” project of the University of Helsinki, as well as ιν numerous other international research projects, while she has also served as an evaluator in European projects. She is also a co-founder of the initiative dëcoloиıze hellάş

Her research experience includes long term fieldwork with Roma/Gypsy musicians in Epirus (Greek-Albanian border) and more recently with Mizrahi people and the policies and practices related to “Greek” music in Israel. Her research interests revolve around the anthropology of music, issues of nationalism and  sovereignty, borders and ethnic groups, cultural racism and the legacies of ethnic purity and white supremacy, as well as critical Romani studies; furthermore, she studies the politics of culture and affect around popular music, and issues related to artistic labour. Her current ethnographic projects focus on female music labour and  artistic labour in migratory contexts. Finally, she is currently co-writing an ethnography on Glykeria’s artistic career in Israel since the 1990s.

Only those participants who wish to receive certificates of attendance register in the following form: https://forms.gle/9Vu2pxoR61LFdBb5A

The registration form will receive answers one week before the seminar.

 The seminars are held on Mondays from 16:00-18:00

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Seminar Platform: ZOOM

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