Call For Papers for the 2018 American Anthropological Association conference in San Jose, California
The working title for this panel is “Resilience and Adaptation in Voice and Refugee Experience” The voice used to describe refugees often does not speak from experience. Media reports tend to objectify refugees as a political problem. In general, public life and narratives about refugees leaves experiences unspoken, perhaps because of cosmologies of nations, structural violence, trauma, or power differentials. Anthropological studies of voice, however, have exposed such problems in representation through a variety of methods and perspectives. This panel foregrounds experience to
ask: What can research on voice teach us about refugee resiliency and adaptation?
This CFP seeks papers which examine the importance and processes of voice in resilience and adaptation in refugee experiences through a broad perspective. This panel is open to all subfields of anthropology. Some possible inquiries might be: Is voice necessary for survival and resilience? What are the places where refugee voices can be heard and shared? Which publics are formed with the voices used to describe refugees? How is voice given to experiences through war crime and border crossing death investigations? How can feminist studies about voice contribute to our understandings of refugees? What can vocal pedagogy and vocal production teach us about these themes? This panel seeks to explore refugee experiences through topics such as, but not limited to: the connections
between individual voice and the sociocultural in resiliency and adaptation; voice as sound and embodied practice or as literary and linguistic practice among refugees; voice and underrepresented people; refugee experiences as adaptations in different historic or prehistoric times; and research methods for unspoken experiences.
Please submit an abstract of 250 words or less to Nina Müller-Schwarze at nina@southernfood.org before or on March 24, 2018. The panel will be submitted to the Music and Sound Interest Group for review and possible sponsorship.
