The Anthropologist as Spy? Prof. Katherine Verdery on fieldwork in Romania and her secret police file

The Department of Ethnology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, is pleased to invite you to the lecture “The Anthropologist as Spy? Notes on a Secret Police File” by prof. Katherine Verdery (Graduate Center, City University of New York).

The lecture is a part of „Balkans and Anthropological Imagination“ series organized by the Department of Ethnology. The series is supported by KREAS (Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions for the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World).

Abstract:
There is nothing like seeing your Secret Police file to make you wonder who you really are. In 2008, Katherine Verdery encountered hers and discovered someone she found completely alien: a crafty, duplicitous person who, the police were convinced, was a spy. It made her wonder to what extent anthropology is a kind of spying, and in what ways. This talk describes her file and explores that question.

Event detail

Event start
29. 5. 2019 16:00 - 18:00
Venue
Celetná 20, Praha 1 (room 138)
Organizing Institution
Department of Ethnology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Event type
Lecture