Lent Term Card 2023
Michaelmas Term Card 2022
Lent Term Card 2021
Thursday 4th February, 6 pm – Magic and the Mind with Dr Tanya Luhrmann (Stanford University)
This talk presents an approach to magic through theory of mind. It takes up the challenge presented by Tambiah’s model of magic as performative and asks what understanding of mind that model requires. Prof Luhrmann will present a general argument and some empirical data.
Tanya Luhrmann is the Watkins University Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department. She is a medical and psychological anthropologist, and also an anthropologist of religion. More recently she describes her work as an anthropology of mind. She sets out to understand the way people represent thought itself, and the way those culturally varied representations shape the most intimate experience of life itself. She asks how the world is made real for people, and how that realness shapes a person’s sense of capacity and purpose. She has done ethnography on the streets of Chicago with homeless and psychotic women and worked with people who hear voices in Chennai, Accra and the South Bay. She has also done fieldwork with evangelical Christians who seek to hear God speak back, with Zoroastrians who set out to create a more mystical faith, and with people who practice magic.
Guest and abstract TBC
Monday 15th February, 1 pm – CUSAS Chats
Guest, title and abstract TBC.
Thursday 18th February, 5 pm – Cities on the Move: On Urban Spaces of Presence and Transience of Irregular Migrants with Dr Irit Katz (University of Cambridge)
Abstract TBC.
Friday 19th February, 6 pm – Social
Social TBC.
Friday 19th February, 6 pm – Film Friday: ‘The Healer and Psychiatrist’ (2019) dir. Dr Mike Poltorak
Wednesday 24th February, 1 pm – CUSAS Chats: AGM, CUSAS and Everything Else In-Between
Abstract TBC.
Wednesday 24th February, 6 pm – Annual General Meeting
Abstract TBC.
Thursday 25th February, 5 pm – Blunt Biopolitics: Governance Through Violence, Ignorance, and Making/Letting Die in Myanmar with Dr Elliot Prasse-Freeman (National University of Singapore)
Abstract TBC.
Wednesday 3rd March, 5 pm – Event in Collaboration with a Theology Society
Guest, title and abstract TBC.
Thursday 4th March, 6 pm – Webinar with Dr Susan Greenwood (Goldsmiths, University of London; University of Sussex)
Title and abstract TBC.
Monday 8th March, 5 pm – International Women’s Day Panel
Guests, title and abstract TBC.
Wednesday 10th March, 10 am – Coffee Morning: Making Digital Ethnography
Abstract TBC.
Thursday 11th March, 5 pm – The Reality of Fire: Converting Politics in Burma with Dr Michael Edwards (University of Cambridge)
Abstract TBC.
Friday 12th March, 6 pm – The Melodious Hoofbeat: Ungulate Rhythms in the Post-Socialist Conservatory with KG Hutchins (University of Wisconsin)
Abstract TBC.
Wednesday 17th March, 5 pm – Webinar with Dr Natalie Morningstar (University of Cambridge)
Title and abstract TBC.
Thursday 18th March, 6 pm – End of Term Quiz
Cambridge-LSE Debate
From 2012 to 2015, the Anthropology Student Societies of Cambridge and LSE have participated in an annual debate. Each society takes a turn hosting the debate and proposing the motion, which is debated by three students (undergraduates and post-graduates) from each side.
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2015 Debate
The 2015 debate was held on 26 February in Cambridge, on the motion ‘One cannot hold a belief unless one comprehends it oneself’.
Cambridge Team: Nicoletta Knoble, Oskar Shortz, Priyanka Srinivasa
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2014 Debate
The 2014 debate was held at the LSE.
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2013 Debate
The 2013 debate was held 4 March in Cambridge, on the motion ‘In times of crisis, anthropology should intervene’.
Cambridge Team: Dorothea Berglar, David Ginsborg and Ed Pulford
LSE Team: Oscar Wrenn, Carlo Chari, and Oliver Keisner.
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2012 Debate
The inaugural debate was held at the LSE on March 2, 2012, on the motion ‘Social Anthropology has more to gain from a naturalist approach to the person.’
Cambridge Team: Robin Irvina, Lruar Neumann, Isaac Stanley
LSE Team: James Matharu, Memmi Rasmussen, Asa Thomas
