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Visionary Practices In Comparative Perspective: An Anthropology of the Imaginal

Description

studija_imaginarnega
Photo: Maja Petrović-Šteger.

The research proposes to study visionary conceptions of the world that are not yet fully socially embedded or networked, but carry in them a potential for social change. It will focus on visionary people and imaginal practices in four fieldsites – Serbia, Albania, Papua New Guinea and India, who, in a climate of hopelessness, intend radical social transformation premissed on some notion of the common good. The research will foster collaborative inquiry, ethnographically-based but theoretically precise, into how individuals and groups understand their mediation of sociohistorical change.

The project, comprising four researchers (including PI), will last 36 months. The team will address comparatively, ethnographically and theoretically:

  1. a range of visions and visionaries (creators, makers, scientists, artists, thinkers) oriented to societal transformation, and
  2. the meaning and effects such imaginal practices have in wider social contexts of Serbia, Albania, Papua New Guinea and India.

Our central suggestions are:

  1. that ethnography of the visionary can observe the ways in which individual and collective imaginative practices acquire social purchase,
  2. and that theoretical attention to the imaginal can explain history and time as potently as anthropologies insisting on economic, political or religious analyses. In turning to emergent seeds of vitality – the visionary ideas and the imaginal – this project breaks with the assumption that politico-economic language represents the ultimate terms in which anthropologies of certain postconflict, postcommunist or postcolonial societies ought to articulate these contexts’ sense of their time.

While adopting a critical, not starstruck, position in relation to ‘visionary’ ideas, research goal is to open up a discussion on the value of training anthropological attention on not just observable facts but also on what is latent in historically-situated consciousness.

antropologija_imaginalnega1

antropologija_imaginalnega3
Internationa scientific conference An Anthropology of the Imaginal: attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions / Antropologija imaginalnega : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah. 26-28. 9. 2024, ZRC SAZU.

antropologija_imaginalnega2
Workshop with Issam Kourbaj, 26.9.2024, ZRC SAZU.

antropologija_imaginalnega4
Workshop with Issam Kourbaj, 26.9.2024, ZRC SAZU.


Results

  1. Research Articles

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša. 2022. Restoring pasts and enriching futures in Albania. Anthropological quarterly. Fall 2022, vol. 95, no. 4, str. 731-760. ISSN 0003-5491. Project MUSE, DOI: 10.1353/anq.2022.0043. COBISS.SI-ID 131971587

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša, STANČIČ, Liza, KANJIR, Urška. 2022. Vjosa riverine environments: approaching dynamic continuity. Anthropological notebooks. [Spletna izd.]. 2022, vol. 28, issue 3, str. 39-73, fotogr., zvd. ISSN 2232-3716. Anthopological notebooks, dLib, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7463519. COBISS.SI-ID 150085891

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2023. ‘A Holy Experiment’: Medical Mission Sisters or How Women Religious within the Catholic Church Became Doctors'. The Journal of religious history. 2023, vol. 47, issue 3, str. 405-438. ISSN 0022-4227. Wiley, DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12938. [COBISS.SI-ID 144382211], [WoS, Scopus]

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2023. Towards the symbol of a missing fullness: place of travel and education in Rabindranath Tagore's world vision. V: QUAYUM, Mohammad A. (ur.). Rabindranath Tagore’s journey as an educator : critical perspectives on his poetics and praxis. London [i. e.] Abingdon; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023. Str. 214-231. ISBN 978-0-367-69500-2, ISBN 978-0-367-74428-1. COBISS.SI-ID 131580163

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2023. Walking out of step with Marija Sreš: a missionary writer among tribal women in India. Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte. 2023, jg. 36, h. 1, str. 75-95. ISSN 0932-9951. V&R eLibrary, DOI: 10.13109/kize.2023.36.1.75. COBISS.SI-ID 179347459

JELNIKAR, Ana. Zabarskaitè, Jolita. 2023. “Greater India” and the Indian expansionist imagination, c. 1885–1965; The rise and decline of the Idea of a lost Hindu empire. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. 441pp. Pb.: € 79,95. ISBN: 3110997150. Anthropological notebooks. [Spletna izd.]. 2024, vol. 30, issue 1, str. s10-s13. ISSN 2232-3716. dLib, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11110624. COBISS.SI-ID 196871171

JELNIKAR, Ana, TOMAŠ, Lora. 2024. In search of the Pepper King. Fountain Ink. 26. feb. 2024, [1-15] str., fotogr. Fountain Ink Magazine. COBISS.SI-ID 197772035

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2024. Predgovor. Worldmaking through and with images. V: PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja (ur.). Antropologija imaginalnega = An Anthropology of the Imaginal : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah = attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions : 26-28. september, 2024 v Ljubljani, Prešernova dvorana, Novi trg 4, Ljubljana: [program simpozija in knjižica izvlečkov]. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, 2024. Str. [2-3]. ISBN 978-961-05-0900-4 COBISS.SI-ID 212378627

TELBAN, Borut (avtor, fotograf). 2022. Refleksije na začetek raziskovanja pesemske poetike in jezika v majhni skupnosti na Papui Novi Gvineji. V: LUNAČEK, Sarah (ur.), PALAIĆ, Tina (ur.), VESELIČ, Maja (ur.). Prepletenost svetov : zgodovine in refleksije zunajevropskih raziskav v Sloveniji. Ljubljana: Založba Univerze, 2022. Str. 87-106, zvd., fotogr. Zbirka Zupaničeva knjižnica, 51. ISBN 978-961-7128-36-9. ISSN 1855-671X. DOI: 10.4312/9789617128352. COBISS.SI-ID 115594755

TELBAN, Borut. 2022. Bateson in njegov naven. V: POBEŽIN, Gregor (ur.), BATESON, Gregory. Um in narava : nujna enotnost. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2022. Str. 305-319. ISBN 978-961-05-0693-5. COBISS.SI-ID 137711363

TELBAN, Borut. Gillian Gillison. 2024. She speaks her anger: myths and conversations of Gimi women. A psychological ethnography in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea. Homme : Revue francaise d`anthropologie. 2024, 249, str. 152-154. ISSN 0439-4216. DOI: 10.4000/lhomme.48917. COBISS.SI-ID 192440835

  1. Public lectures organised within the project

HONKASALO, Marja-Liisa. 2023. Vulnerability matters: javno predavanje in delavnica v okviru temeljnega raziskovalnega projekta "Vizionarske prakse v primerjalni perspektivi: antropološka študija imaginalnega", Dvorana štirih letnih časov, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, 19. apr. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 152826371

KAPILA, Kriti. 2023. Nullius: owning and dispossessing in contemporary India : javno predavanje in delavnica v okviru temeljnega raziskovalnega projekta "Vizionarske prakse v primerjalni perspektivi: antropološka študija imaginalnega", Dvorana štirih letnih časov, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, 4. maj 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 152827139

HIRSCH, Eric. 2023. Visions and effects in Melanesia: description, cosmology and transformative act : javno predavanje in delavnica v okviru temeljnega raziskovalnega projekta "Vizionarske prakse v primerjalni perspektivi: antropološka študija imaginalnega", Dvorana štirih letnih časov, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, 21. sep. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 170815235

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2024. Mednarodna znanstvena konferenca An Anthropology of the Imaginal: attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions / Antropologija imaginalnega : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah. 26-28. september, 2024 v Ljubljani, ZRC SAZU. Predavatelji: Katherine Swancutt; Stefania Pandolfo, Ana Jelnikar, Adam Reed, Larisa Jašarević, Nataša Gregorič Bon, Carlo Severi, Borut Telban, Maja Petrović-Šteger. Tekom konference smo izvedli tudi delavnico za širšo javnost, ki jo je vodil sirsko-britanski likovni umetnik Issam Kourbaj. [COBISS.SI-ID 208291587]

  1. Research papers presented at conferences and workshops

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša. 2023. Engaging pasts, unlocking futures. Predavanje na mednarodni konferenci Europe's Past, Present and Future: Utopias and Dystopias, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 27-29, 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 161295875

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša. 2024. ’I want Albania to be like Europe’: grassroots movements and new ways of contemporary communing in contemporary Albania. Predavanje na simpozijumu Visions of Europe in the East of Europe: From Late Socialism to EU Enlargement, Institut für donauschwäbische Geschichte und Landeskunde, SR 063, neue Aula, Tübingen, 8. nov. 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 215083267

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša. 2024, Designing space-times and calibrating change in contemporary Albania. V: PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja (ur.). Antropologija imaginalnega = An Anthropology of the Imaginal : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah = attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions : 26-28. september, 2024 v Ljubljani, Prešernova dvorana, Novi trg 4, Ljubljana : [program simpozija in knjižica izvlečkov]. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, 2024. Str. [9]. ISBN 978-961-05-0900-4. COBISS.SI-ID 211285507

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2022. "Can a woman act?": autographical fiction of missionary Marija Sreš in Tribal India. H-WRBI Conference 2022 "Women Religious Lives and Life Stories", UCD University College Dublin, June 2 & 3, 2022. COBISS.SI-ID 131575811

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2023. “My Passage to India”: Travelogue as a Gendered Site of Missionary Ideas and Expectations. H-WRBI konferenca 2023 "History of Women Religious of Britain and Ireland", University of Roehampton, London, 8.-9. jun. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 172510467

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2024. Finding a voice in poetry: medical mission sisters’ quest for humanity through language : predavanje na Forgotten Voices in Literature and Religion Conference, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, Oxford, 5. jul. 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 213647107

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2024. What’s in an image?: The golden boat in the worlds of Rabindranath Tagore and Srečko Kosovel. V: PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja (ur.). Antropologija imaginalnega = An Anthropology of the Imaginal : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah = attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions : 26-28. september, 2024 v Ljubljani, Prešernova dvorana, Novi trg 4, Ljubljana : [program simpozija in knjižica izvlečkov]. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, 2024. Str. [13]. ISBN 978-961-05-0900-4. COBISS.SI-ID 211286019

JELNIKAR, Ana. Slovenske misijonarke v Indiji: k novim smerem v proučevanju katoliških misijonskih sester. V: Slovenski misijoni 1918-1941 : znanstveni posvet : Ljubljana, 15. oktober 2024. Ljubljana: UL Teološka fakulteta, 2024. Str. 9. COBISS.SI-ID 213646595

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2022. Pollution and its metaphors: climate change in Serbia. Experiencing climate and environmental changes in and beyond Europe: symposium. May 5th-7th, 2022, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana. COBISS.SI-ID 107438851

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2022. Waste, value and death in a riparian environment. "Disturbance on the Danube: State, Infrastructure and the Environment" international workshop. September 29-30, 2022, New Europe College, Bucharest. COBISS.SI-ID 129867267

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2023. An anthropology of the imaginal in contemporary Serbia : predavanje na mednarodni konferenci "Europe's Past, Present and Future : Utopias and Dystopias", University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 27-29, 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 158675715

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2024. Enlarging the space of social possibility - envisioning societal revision in Serbia. V: VASILJEVIĆ, Jelena (ur.). International Conference on Change : June 12-15 2024, Belgrade, Serbia : Institute for philosophy and social theory, University of Belgrade : venue: University of Belgrade Rectorate's building : book of abstracts. Belgrade: Institute for philosophy and social theory, University of Belgrade, 2024. Str. 44-45. ISBN 978-86-82324-62-1. International Conference Change. COBISS.SI-ID 200171011

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2024. On ideational activism and imaginary practices in contemporary Serbia. V: EASA Barcelona 2024 : 18th EASA Biennial Conference : EASA2024: Doing and undoing with anthropology : 23-26 July, 2024. Barcelona: EASA, 2024. [1] str. European Association of Social Anthropologists. COBISS.SI-ID 203872515

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2024. “You must give birth to your images”: an anthropology of the imaginal in Serbia. V: PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja (ur.). Antropologija imaginalnega = An Anthropology of the Imaginal : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah = attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions : 26-28. september, 2024 v Ljubljani, Prešernova dvorana, Novi trg 4, Ljubljana : [program simpozija in knjižica izvlečkov]. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, 2024. Str. [19]. ISBN 978-961-05-0900-4. COBISS.SI-ID 211286531

TELBAN, Borut. 2022. The materiality of religious experience in the Karawari region of Papua New Guinea. 13th ESfO Conference, June 2-5, 2022, Ajaccio, Corsica. COBISS.SI-ID 116307715

TELBAN, Borut. 2022. Kunaypa historicity: conceptual specificity of temporal reciprocity in the Sepik, Papua New Guinea. International Workshop on Historical Awareness and Agency “Pasts in the Making", November 10-11, 2022, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Aarhus (DNK) COBISS.SI-ID: 130525699

TELBAN, Borut. Relational ontology in a Sepik (PNG) society. Annual Conference of the Australian Anthropological Society, tematski sklop "Transforming ‘Naturalism’: What might it take?", Macquarie University’s Wallumattagal Campus, Sydney (AUS), November 29, 2023, Macquarie University, Sydney. COBISS.SI-ID 175004163

TELBAN, Borut. Imaginal ecology in Papua New Guinea. V: PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja (ur.). Antropologija imaginalnega = An Anthropology of the Imaginal : raziskovanje tistega, kar išče izraz v miselnosti in družbenih razmerah = attending to what seeks expression in mindsets and social conditions : 26-28. september, 2024 v Ljubljani, Prešernova dvorana, Novi trg 4, Ljubljana : [program simpozija in knjižica izvlečkov]. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, 2024. Str. [27]. ISBN 978-961-05-0900-4. COBISS.SI-ID 211485955

  1. Lectures given by the project members

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša, MUSARAJ, Smoki. 2022. Remitting, restoring, and rebuilding contemporary Albania : predavanje na Inštitutu za kulturno antropologijo in študije umetnosti v okviru seminarja "Antropološka revolucija", Tirana (ALB), 7. jul. 2022. COBISS.SI-ID 123394819

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša. 2023. Remitting values, reassuring well-being: social entrepreneurship in Albania: predavanje doktorskim študentom na IQS School of Management, Universitat Ramon Llull (ESP), 19. jul. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 161296131

GREGORIČ BON, Nataša. 2024. "What are we to do?": opening potentialities and creating possibilities in contemporary Albania : predavanje študentom in predavateljem v okviru SCALA Anthro Brown Bag Seminar, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Campus di Ravenna (ITA), 24. maj 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 199140099

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2023. Women's Voices in Adivasi Literature : Marija Sreš's Short Stories about Sabarkantha Tribal Women. Predavanje na St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad, Indija, 25. jan. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 172510211

JELNIKAR, Ana. 2024. Medical mission sisters: from pioneering medical professionalism to being "a healing presence" around the world : gostujoče predavanje v okviru izmenjave PoPMeD-SuSDeV na Universitat Ramon Llull, IQS School of Management, Barcelona (Španija), 2. maj 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 197469187

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2023. Kognitivna antropologija : vabljena predavanja za študente magistrskega interdisciplinarnega študijskega programa Kognitivna znanost pri predmetu Uvod v raziskovanje 2 na Medicinski fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, 17. maj 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 152827651

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja. 2024. The welling up of unknown life into consciousness: an anthropology of the imaginal in Serbia : predavanje v okviru "Brunel Anthropology Seminar 2024-2025" na Univerzi Brunel, London (GBR), 22. okt. 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 218092547

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja, BANDAK, Andreas, SHRYOCK, Andrew, HOWE, Cymene, KOCKELMAN, Paul, KNIGHT, Daniel M. 2024. Michel Serres for anthropologists: what's the big deal? : vabljeno predavanje na mednarodni okrogli mizi v okviru letnega srečanja American Anthropological Association "Praxis", Tampa, Florida, USA, 23. nov. 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 218091779

TELBAN, Borut. 2023. Specificity of religious im/materiality in a Sepik (Papua New Guinea) society : e-vabljeno predavanje po videopovezavi MS Teams v okviru "Anthropology Research Seminar, Term 1, Autumn 2023", Brunel University London (GBR), 3. okt. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 172718083

TELBAN, Borut. 2024. Kunaypa historicity : conceptual specificity of temporal reciprocity in the Sepik, Papua New Guinea : vabljeno predavanje v okviru Jawun Research Centre Seminar Series Comunnication "Health, and Social and Cultural Wellbeing", Subseries "Cairns Linguistic Anthropology Seminar Series (CLASS)", CQUniversity Cairns Campus, Cairns (AUS), 22. jan. 2024. COBISS.SI-ID 181445379

  1. Impact beyond Academia

JELNIKAR, Ana (intervjuvanec). 2022. Jezus Kristus, Srečko Kosovel in boginja Kali : Ana Jelnikar, raziskovalka. Dnevnik, Dnevnikov objektiv. [Tiskana izd.]. 21. maj 2022, leto 72, št. 116, str. 14-16, fotogr. ISSN 1318-0320, ISSN 1854-6781. COBISS.SI-ID 131339523

JELNIKAR, Ana (intervjuvanec), KOZIN, Tina (voditelj oddaje). 2023. Ismat Chughtai in Saadat Hasan Manto – avtorja, ki nista klonila pred zahtevami svojega časa. Ljubljana: Radiotelevizija Slovenija javni zavod, 2023. Literarna matineja. COBISS.SI-ID 172328963

JELNIKAR, Ana (intervjuvanec), MOTOH, Helena (intervjuvanec), ŠTEFANČIČ, Nadina (oseba, ki intervjuva). 2023. 20. stoletje je za migracijske poti zelo pomembno. Vanj spadajo tudi misijonarke in misijonarji. Intervju z Ano Jelnikar in Heleno Motoh, avtoricama knjige Potovanje v Indijo : MMC RTV SLO 27. marec 2023. MMC RTV SLO. COBISS.SI-ID 149214979

JELNIKAR, Ana (intervjuvanec), UDOVČ, Andreja (oseba, ki intervjuva). 2023. Varljive postelje in prevajanje v izvirnik : pogovor z urednico zbirke Rak samotar Ano Jelnikar. Ljubljana: Sanje, 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 172732163

JELNIKAR, Ana (intervjuvanec). 2023. Od Tagoreja do misijonark : raziskovalne poti in povezave med Indijo in Slovenijo : predavanje na triindvajsetem Šmitkovem večeru, Oddelek za etnologijo in kulturno antropologijo Filozofske fakultete UL, Ljubljana, 28. mar. 2023. COBISS.SI-ID 147226883

PETROVIĆ-ŠTEGER, Maja (diskutant), RUS-MAKOVEC, Maja (diskutant), KUHAR, Metka (diskutant). 2022. Znamenja preteklosti: okrogla miza o travmi v okviru dogodka Teden možganov, 18. marec 2022, Atrij ZRC, Ljubljana. COBISS.SI-ID 101791747

TELBAN, Borut (intervjuvanec), ERDANI-KREFT, Mateja (intervjuvanec), HAFNER BRATKOVIČ, Iva (intervjuvanec), REPIČ, Jaka (intervjuvanec), MAJDIČ, Gregor (intervjuvanec), DACINGER, Renata (avtor, oseba, ki intervjuva). 2022. Kanibalizem. Ljubljana: Radiotelevizija Slovenija javni zavod, 2022. 1 spletni vir (1 videodatoteka (25 min, 3 sek)), barve, zvok. Ugriznimo v znanost. COBISS.SI-ID 125764611

TELBAN, Borut. 2022. Prepletanja vidnih in nevidnih svetov na Papui Novi Gvineji : spletno predavanje, org. National geographic Slovenia (SLO), 27. jan. 2022. COBISS.SI-ID 97165571

TELBAN, Borut (intervjuvanec), SLAČEK, Nina (avtor, oseba, ki intervjuva). 2024. Borut Telban med Slovenijo in Papuo Novo Gvinejo. Ljubljana: Radiotelevizija Slovenija javni zavod, 2024. 1 spletni vir (1 zvočna datoteka (30 min, 52 sek)). Razkošje v glavi. COBISS.SI-ID 218877187

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Vilenica Cave.

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Frescoes in Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje.


Research Project

Keywords
primerjalna antropologija
etnografija vizionarskih praks
antropologija imaginalnega
družbene spremembe
družbeno samorazumevanje
Srbija
Albanija
Papua Nova Gvineja
Indija

Research Fields
Kulturna antropologija, etnologija S220