Seminars
18 September 2012 Start
18 September 2012 End
14.00 - 18.00 Time
UK Daryll Forde Seminar Room, UCL Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW

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The Ethnography of Eastern Christianities

18 September 2012

This workshop will discuss current research goals and methodologies in the study of everyday Christian life. How does the researcher’s own religious background affect research? How much emphasis should be placed on theology and how can this be balanced with ethnography? These questions have been given new vitality by recent work in the broad area of the anthropology of Christianity, and particularly, for Eastern Christianities, by the volume Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective (Hann and Golz, eds). Perhaps the fullest, recent ethnographic account is Juliet du Boulay’s, Cosmos, Life and Liturgy in a Greek Orthodox Village (2009).

The workshop will be fortunate enough to host Juliet du Boulay, who will make a rare appearance (she has been constrained for decades by health issues) to give a presentation characterizing her approach. There will be comments by diverse specialists and a further session to hear about current research in Syria and Ethiopia. There will be ample time for open discussion throughout the afternoon.

The goal of the workshop will be to foster interchange amongst ethnographers of Eastern Christianities, ethnographers of other Christianities, and specialists from other fields such as Theology and History.

Confirmed speakers: Juliet du Boulay, Tom Boylston, Alexandra Antohin, Andreas Bandak.

The workshop is sponsored by British School at Athens and UCL Anthropology.