Dear all:

Simone Abram and I are developing a proposal for a new edited book with the working title of MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE: CONTEMPORARY PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP.

The book seeks to recognise and explore the increasing (possibilities for) connections between media anthropology and public anthropology (the summary is below). We have already identified a set of key contributors who have been invited to participate in this project, however we are also keen to expand this initial base and consider including chapters that discuss other initiatives in this area. Therefore we would like to invite people who feel that their work bridges media anthropology and public anthropology in ways that respond to the brief below, and are interested in contributing to intially contact us with a few lines outlining what you would propose to contribute.

Summary
MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE explores the emergent themes in a contemporary public anthropology through a focus on media. In the context of the growing literature around public, applied, and engaged anthropologies, we focus on the often neglected question of how in the context changing public media and arts practices, a new public anthropology is emerging. Anthropology is done in a world where social and digital media are playing an increasingly significant role, where anthropological and arts practices are often intertwined in museum and public intervention contexts, and where anthropologists are encouraged to engage with mass media. A growing number of anthropologists are both expected to and inspired to ensure that their work engages with public issues and questions and has some kind of ‘impact’ or influence beyond academia. This volume examines how and why contemporary anthropologists are engaging with public issues across these different material and mediated contexts.
The book would be divided into two parts focusing on
1. How anthropologists are engaging with publics through audiovisual practice, and engagements with journalists and mass media as well as considering the more popular edge of anthropology publishing.
2. How web platforms are forming part of a new digital public anthropology/anthropology conducted in public

Sarah Pink (s.pink@lboro.ac.uk)
Simone Abram (S.Abram@leedsmet.ac.uk)

Professor Sarah Pink
Department of Social Sciences
Loughborough University
LE11 3TU
UK