Media and Anthropology Working Group
The Media Working Group is an initiative founded by Columbia University anthropology graduate students, providing a space for critical collaborative exchanges between the graduate student community and artists, scholars, and professionals working in a variety of media such as film, photography, text, sound, dance, and performance. Formed in 2013, it is devoted to both discovering new ways to envision aesthetics and form in the context of ethnographic research, and engaging with literature on a given medium and the material qualities of its particular form with equal rigor. As such, we tend to emphasize both theoretical conversations and “hands-on” workshops to provide direct engagement with a given medium. The Media Working Group is part of the Media and Idea Lab sponsored by the Columbia University Center for Research on Ethnicity and Race.
The Media and Anthropology Working Group hosts:
- Workshops: Hands-on, creation-oriented workshops with a small group of anthropology graduate students are meant to provide practice-based insights into a variety of media, such as film, photography, text, sound, dance, and performance.
- Encounters: Encounters consist of screenings, conferences, guest lectures, and informal brown bag series with Columbia University faculty producing work outside of academic research publications.
- Studio @: Studio @ is a series of experimental conversations and events curated by Professor of Anthropology Rosalind C. Morris, spanning the fields of anthropology, literature, performance, sound, music, and media arts. It is jointly sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. Studio @ recently welcomed William Kentridge, Michel Van Der Aa, the RAQS Media Collective, and Marwan Rechmaoui.