In/-visibility figures as an ever-present yet largely un-theorised dimension of current anthropology in particular and social science more generally. By default our analytical gaze is drawn to spectacular events or people whose lives are located in the shadows, thus positioning our research at either end of the spectre of in-/visibility. However, the way in which such events, communities or subjectivities become either hyper-visible or invisible through social practice remains unaddressed analytically and methodologically as well. It is therefore the aspiration of this seminar to clarify and analyze the very ways in which social, economic and political in -/visibilities are produced, hereunder attending to the complicity of the anthropologist in staging this social production.

We therefore invite PhD students to reflect on their research topics in relation to what we understand as the social production of visibility and invisibility: We ask students and key note speakers to reflect upon the ways in which visibility and invisibility is generated, which role the exercise of violence plays in this production, and how it is played out in different kinds of social fields and formations of power.

We encourage participants to address events, subjects or groups that are, or are becoming, socially in-/visible. We are specifically interested in the production of social and political blindness towards the ways in which inequality and violence is exercised and suffering is lived. For instance, what does it take to become a visible subject, citizen or consumer in the eyes of states, the market or local and global power structures? Which subjects and groups are forced to lead invisible lives or to make their existences seen through spectacular violent performances or staged enactment of scripted suffering? What is clouded by the mental health discourse of traumatisation as it is implemented in conflict and post-conflict zones? What is accepted as legitimately invisible in for example the culture of stealthy aircrafts carrying ‘non-existent’ prisoners for interrogation using torture in the middle of a televised ‘war on terror’? And what illegal activities and lives are constructed and maintained in the shadow of public attention?

Secondly, and as importantly, what are the consequences for fieldworkers when exploring and representing in/visibility? What is the role of politically engaged social sciences (anthropology, development studies and political science) in changing and moulding the parameters of visibility and invisibility?

As means of inspiration we hereunder suggest possible paths for an ethnographic analysis of production and becoming of in/visibility in politics and social life.

Moral landscapes of in/visibilities:
We propose participants to look into the ways in which processes of rendering human subjects, groups or events in/visible forms part of a local moral economy. The employment of social norms and national law as well as the varying forms of challenging these, could be paths to follow, but also expressions - may they be intimate or spectacularly public - of that which is normally inexpressible is of interest in this workshop. 

Histories of in/visibility:
Social memory and social forgetting are processes of in/visibilisation. By focusing on regional, national or thematic genealogies of in/visibilisation we wish to shed light on the processes through which aspects of social life are made visible or become veiled in everyday language and social practice across empirical sites as well as in academic writing 

Ethnographic practice and representation:
The notion of in/visibility makes pertinent a critical examination of the practice of ethnography and academic representation. We invite papers that consider how we as ethnographers deal with either highly debated, visible issues or take into considering the implications of directing research at issues and settings that are, at times purposefully, neglected and silenced. Through such critical examination we welcome papers that address the production of knowledge and truth claims within our respective disciplines about events, subjects and groups revisiting academic analytical tools such as structure/agency, gender, and the public/ private divide.

Practical information
The Ph.D. workshop aims at a maximum of 20 participants with papers. Application for the course is to be sent to either Helene Risør or Lotte Buch no later than February 15th 2009, including an abstract of a maximum of 500 words. Participants will be selected on the basis of the extent and ways in which their abstract relates to the overall theme of this PhD-workshop. On acceptance participants are asked to submit a paper, no longer than 8.000 words, on May 1st 2009. During the workshop each participant will have 20 minutes to present his/her paper, which will be followed by comments from resource persons and general discussion.

For further enquires please do not hesitate to contact:

Helene Risør: helene.risor@anthro.ku.dk

or

Lotte Buch: lotte.buch@anthro.ku.dk

Participation of PhD students from other Research Schools
PhD students in anthropology and related disciplines, who are not enrolled at the Danish Research School in Anthropology and Ethnography, are welcome to participate in the Research School’s courses, if places are available. Teaching is free, but a fee of Dkr. 250 per course day is charged to cover extra administrative and residual expenses. 

Guidelines for the application for and organisation of course activities
PhD students who are enrolled at the Research School are encouraged to suggest thematic course activities. Guidelines for submitting proposals and organising course activities can be found here(in Danish)