United States



In March 2020, weeks after the coronavirus outbreak in Hubei and the lock down in Wuhan, the local government rushed to announce a “gratitude education” campaign, to teach local denizens to “thank the General Secretary, and thank the Chinese Communist Party.” The subsequent negative pushback online forced the original announcement and social media posts to be swiftly deleted. In this paper I examine how the term gratitude (“Gan-en”) has become intrinsically linked to gifts, philanthropy, and propaganda in recent China, especially in the wake of disaster. Yet as Leinaweaver (2013) notes, “ingratitude” is often more revealing of the fault lines in relations and hierarchies in different societies, and the episode of pushback in Wuhan is revealing of how power dynamics are constantly negotiated between community and state, all the while being filtered by state controlled digital media. By looking at examples of how denizens around China responded in the wake of tragedy vis-a-vis the central government push to be “thankful”, I uncover tensions between how people and state imagine disaster and reciprocity, with implications on what philanthropy might mean in China today.

AAA Annual Meeting 2021

Politics of (in)gratitude in times of Covid

philanthropy

china

class

Truth and Responsibility
“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

Many consider anthropology to be a holistic social science dedicated to cross-cultural understanding as a way to reduce bigotry and more fully comprehend “what it means to be human.” Others push against this readily circulated origin story, arguing that “human” remains a highly contested, political category—evident as the presumed set of rights and protections associated with the “human” continue to be stripped away violently in the communities in which some of us live and work. Which violent histories and epistemologies must anthropologists take responsibility for in telling truth(s) about the discipline’s development? How do the dual histories of settler colonialism and slavery continue to influence anthropological thought and practices? In these political times, how can anthropologists throughout the globe work to secure a capacious, progressive vision of the human? How might movements for anti-racism, decoloniality, queer liberation, and healing such as #BlackLivesMatter, #ProtectMaunaKea, and #MeToo push a future anthropology out of the ashes of the anthropological past? Finally, what are the limits and possibilities of the anthropological imagination?

Across subfields, we find truths in patterns of human behavior, language, evolution, and cultural worlds. Industry-positioned anthropologists do this by extending the boundaries of the discipline not as an administrative solution to job shortages but as a source of intervention and knowledge production. Increasingly, anthropologists who make use of the scientific method question how status and identity help to decide which facts come to represent truth. How might quantitative researchers use our methods to identify patterned truths, and what responsibility do we hold in challenging conventional wisdom about these patterns? What responsibility do we have to both our colleagues and larger publics, to push toward increased transparency and ethical grounding in our data collection, analysis, and presentation?

Pedagogy is a key medium for the communication of anthropological truths. Which (and whose) truths are foregrounded in our curricula? What are the possibilities for a liberatory pedagogy in a precarious, “post-truth” era? Conferences, museums, organizing spaces, and classrooms are sites where pedagogy and various forms of communication can help us interrogate the performativity of truth. How might anthropologists conceive of truth performances? Might visual, aural, and choreographic performances during AAA sessions offer anthropologists alternative genres for truth-telling and truth-making that provoke discussions about responsibility?

In accordance with the urgency of the year’s theme, the questions posed in this call for papers do not have easy answers. The hope is that those who submit proposals will take up these questions and engage in collective thinking and imagining about the truths we hold, the truths we challenge, and the responsibilities we bear in co-creating a free and more equitable world. All panel proposals should have a statement about how the panel has incorporated the goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and/or analysis of power.

Executive Session proposals have already been selected and speak directly to the theme “Truth and Responsibility.” To practice the critical reflexivity this call for papers invites, we asked that Executive Session submissions explicitly address the diversity of session participants, such as organizational/institutional affiliation, career stage, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, class, religion, national identity, and gender. Proposals for Executive Sessions that demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion and/or a clear analysis of power (i.e. anti-imperialist, anti-white supremacist, decolonial, anti-ableist, feminist, anti-transphobic, anti-xenophobic, etc) were given priority. We are excited to be in conversation with residents of the Baltimore region and look forward to the discussions, performances, and actions generated by the dynamic group of anthropologists attending the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting.

“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

technical paper



We outline a research project on virtual ethnography and digital living archives of global Chinese philanthropy, building upon the work of an independent documentarist working specifically on this topic for 12 years. We draw upon virtual ethnography as a research method, particularly use of digital communication technology for ethnographic research, and digital “living archives”, which are ongoing collections that transcend the relatively fixed standards of description, control, and taxonomy of traditional archives, through inclusion of material sampled from the open, porous, and informal universe of user generated content, including social media and materials from other participatory platforms. This digital living archive contains materials that trace over 30 years of Chinese philanthropic history across 7 countries, covering all the leading and most well-known Chinese philanthropists and philanthropy foundations, and documents not only their self-promoted events, but also much of their relations and interaction with the Chinese government and civil society. Our preliminary work on a small sample of this digital archive enabled us to show the significant value of conducting virtual ethnography of global Chinese philanthropy using these materials, which enable scholars to transcribe statements verbatim and examine them with significant nuance through access to audio-visual materials. The extraordinary value of such methods and materials can in turn enable important scholarly contributions to the fields of visual anthropology, global studies, and other critical social sciences and digital humanities. 

Virtual ethnography and digital archives of global Chinese philanthropy

Recent years have seen a surge of anthropological research on mental health in the Global North and South. Anthropological approaches have grappled with syndemics, critically engaged with Global Mental Health, considered the intersections of disability, race, class, and other identities in mental health care, and have questioned the effects of possibly traumatic fieldwork experiences on the mental health of anthropologists themselves. Anthropologists have also charted the impact of governmental and quasi-governmental organizations’ distribution of mental health care services, the growth of psychiatric user/survivor movements, and activism(s) at the intersection of mental health services, education, and criminal justice systems. Given increased interest in this field, our double panel asks: What does the future of the anthropology of mental health look like? What theoretical perspectives and methods will ground our research practice in the years to come? What role does the anthropology of mental health play in critically interrogating, sustaining, enhancing, and - in certain instances - undermining formal and informal projects of mental health and wellness? Recent and up-and-coming work conducted by junior and senior scholars engaged with research on mental health will include theoretical approaches grounded in decolonial perspectives, Mad Studies, religious studies, community engaged research, posthumanism, and critical medical anthropology. It will also include an analysis of mental health policy reform and their effects in various countries, as well as a discussion on experimental ethnographic methods in the anthropology of mental health, such as drawing, time-diaries, and song-writing.

New and Emerging Perspectives in the Anthropology of Mental Health II

Attempts at unsettling normative (re)presentations of disability have only recently begun to incorporate Mad-positive perspectives. My fieldwork across various peer support networks in Boston investigates peer support as a medium through which the chronically mentally ill and/or psychiatrically disabled (re)constitute a sense of self, in light of the persistent challenges•internal and beyond•to the legitimacy of their own subjectivity. From navigating various markets of care, peers come to know and negotiate experiential knowledge in a way that both questions and compliments hegemonic psychiatric explanatory models. Leveraging my illness narrative as a passport into these diverse microcosms of convalescence exemplifies a kind of “interlocution-based fieldwork” (Borneman 2011) whereby processes of self-disclosure as a mentally ill person studying “other” kinds of dis-eased people is politicized and potentially disabling. Considering identity-development as intrinsically reflexive, I use this paper to identify how tensions around my positionality as simultaneous research instrument/research subject influence the validity of my intersubjective research contributions. Fusing auto-and-net-nography, I reflect upon pervasive methodological challenges around exploitation, as well as ways in which they might be more ethically reckoned with. 
Keywords: auto-ethnography; disability; madness; peer support; qualitative research ethics; recovery

Anthropologist, Heal Thyself: Conducting Qualitative Research as Both Research Instrument and Research Subject

This research study focuses on the strategies, experiences, consequences, and stereotypes that non-monosexual individuals (also known as Bi+) must adopt and/or endure while disclosing (also called "coming out") their sexuality in new intimate partner encounters/relationships and its impact on bi+ mental wellbeing. Although bi+ individuals make up more than half of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, their identity is often rendered invisible, invalid, and/or untrustworthy among both homosexual and heterosexual communities (also called monosexuals). Bi+ as a group are also thought to experience the poorest mental health outcomes in terms of depression, anxiety, overall sense of wellbeing, and internalized bi-negativity in comparison to both monosexual populations. This research will explore how strategies of disclosure or non-disclosure affect the sense of overall wellbeing and self-reported mental wellbeing of bi+ individuals by examining their experiences within the larger LGBTQIA2S+ and heterosexual communities, their chosen disclosure strategies, and intimate/romantic partner encounters

Bisexual+ Disclosures: Strategies for "Coming Out" in Intimate Partner Relationships and its Implications for Mental Wellbeing

Syndemics literature addresses illness burdens formed from unique social conditions in particular groups, creating disease clusters and vulnerable bodies.  However, many social determinants of health tend to intersect and result in exacerbated morbidity, specifically in the instance of the caregiver and partner relationship. In this paper I address the mental health challenges of caregiving for a partner with a progressive illness. I argue that the syndemic relationship of our combined illness burdens, structural challenges in securing disability resources, and assumptions of traditional social support networks pulled us further into vulnerability and health degradation. I use a critical-interpretive perspective to discuss the structural violence in medicalization and its resulting internalization of self, creating a discordance in trust between service providers and assistance seekers.  Based on ethnographic notes as well as follow up interviews, disability records and health statistics, I analyze the process from applying to maintaining disability services, and advocating for my partners autonomy while struggling to address my own health needs. Even in the most compassionate of American health care advocacy situations, support can be unreliable and contingent on strict economic guidelines. Family caregivers are met with continual scrutiny over intent and ability, and struggle with increased isolation, poverty, and stigma.  My paper contributes to the anthropological discussion of caregiving and mental health by illustrating how barriers to creating and maintaining a therapeutic space for both partners in a long-term disability family setting create exponential detriments for all involved. Keywords: syndemics, disability, social services, mad studies, queer studies, ethnography

Our Long Ride on the Short Bus: Syndemics, Support, and the Social Security Disability System

Peru is currently undergoing an important institutional transition regarding mental health. Since 2016, the government has started transitioning state-sponsored treatment for several mental illnesses from an asylum/institutionalization model to a community mental health model. To effectively address mental health afflictions and other psychosocial conditions in the wake of de-institutionalization, the goal is to build at least one hundred community mental health centers around the country. Thus far, twenty-nine have been built. This reform also aims to place mental health in the public agenda and address the stigma surrounding mental illness. In this paper, I present the case of the community mental health center in Carabayllo, the “flagship” facility of the ongoing reform, located in a poor semi-urban district at the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Drawing from three months of fieldwork and interviews with psychiatrists, community mental health workers and residents of Carabayllo, I argue that this transitional moment provides insight into the dynamics that arise in the community when total institutions start to fade away. I explore residents’ reflections on this transition, considering in particular the anxieties they express over the proximity of mental illness and the symbolic and spatial dimensions they reveal of the relationship between clinic and community. With the asylum reconfiguring and the community-based model spreading in the city through its different agents, I signal the diverse challenges the residents of Carabayllo articulate against the closeness of mental illness and the extension of the clinic.

Proximity and Suspicion: The Transition to Community Mental Health in Lima, Peru

New and Emerging Perspectives in the Anthropology of Mental Health I

Questions of how to harness digital technologies for promoting mental health are a hotbed of governmental, health policy and social debate. Campaigns for optimizing digital healthcare largely focus on promoting patient responsibilization, encouraging the development of more informed patients who draw on digital resources as part of self-care projects. Arguably, however, while “self-care” often involves the promotion of patient self-responsibility, it simultaneously foregrounds other modes of ethical engagement, such as care for, or from, (known/unknown) others and concerns over states’ and corporations’ responsibilities for ensuring mental wellbeing. Indeed, the broader literature on responsibility suggests that rather than an overriding emphasis on personal responsibility, advanced liberal societies create a much more fertile and contested ground upon which multiple, competing responsibilities flourish, even as part of projects of self-care. Digital technologies add additional layers to how responsibility is enacted, reshaping experiences of time and space by enabling new forms of continuous, or seemingly continuous, person-person and person-technology relations, and consequently refracting users’ sense of where agency lies (i.e. in themselves, in their relations with (human) others, or in technologies themselves). Online activities furthermore often involve multiple temporal horizons, in terms of enactments of care as well as the perceived trajectories of mental health. Drawing on a case study of a newly emerging online ethics engaged in by young New Zealanders, this paper examines how interpersonal dynamics, human-technology relations, and questions of agency are recasting understandings and enactments of care, temporality and responsibility in young people’s efforts to secure mental wellbeing.

Beyond DIY Health: Care, Temporality, and Responsibility in Young New Zealanders' Engagements with Digital Mental Health

In this talk, I consider the labor of emotions (Hoschchild 1983) accomplished by children and myself during the one-year ethnography I conducted in a mental health facility and at patients’ houses in Morocco. As a non-white woman who experienced similar troubles as some of my female interviewees, I describe their use of the chart of activities, a therapeutic tool developed to control depressive symptoms, while analyzing my own emotions in this particular disposal.      I suggest that that my research contributes to “decolonize children and adolescent mental health studies”, questioning the influence of “EuroAmerican models of child development”  (Béhague & Lézé 2015). To do so, I have developed a double approach: firstly, I documented the everyday life of non-WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic) young psychiatric patients (Henrich and Heine 2010); secondly, I chose an ethnographic perspective inspired by psychoanalysis (Lorimer 2010). This posture, in which emotions are central, has encouraged me, amongst other things, to be attentive to all forms of non-verbal expression, including my own, and to disclose the ordinary activities co-produced by the children and myself. Detailing our everyday labor to face depression, this analysis, done alongside a post-colonial angle, offers another understanding of the experience of certain speechless children diagnosed with a psychiatric trouble.   To conclude, I favor a posture that acknowledges the fieldwork’s emotions as an epistemological asset, inviting anthropologists to be emotionally engaged to operate alternative narrative and reflexive turns and to foster a renewal in mental health studies.

Decolonizing children and adolescent mental health : what the labor of emotions can do for anthropology and anthropologists.

Recent global mental health debates have focused on the challenges of acknowledging the diversity of local experiences of distress. Emic-etic, hybrid, glocalized, flexible and integrative approaches have been proposed to find the optimal balance between universalizing and localized categories. One of the most compelling challenges concerns how to elicit local interpretations of mental suffering without imposing a normative, Western-biased communicative protocol. Questionnaires, scales, semi-structured interviews and survey guidelines have been implemented and, in some occasions, integrated in the mainstream Western biomedical and psychiatric systems of classification (e.g. the Cultural Formulation Interview, CFI, in the DSM-5, 2013). Most if not all these tools rely essentially on verbalization. Marginal attention has been dedicated to non-verbal communication. Nevertheless, growing evidence shows that verbalization is not necessarily the most adequate way of communicating distress in many societies, where other strategies (e.g. strategic silence, ritualization, figuration) may be more culturally appropriated. How to integrate non-verbal communication in ethnographic practice and cross-cultural psychiatry? My ethnographic focus is a form of demonic possession (grisi siknis) diffused prevalently among Miskito women of Caribbean Nicaragua and Honduras. During fieldwork, I communicated with those affected by grisi siknis  through their drawings of demons. The figurative process proved to be also effective for coping and, in several occasions, for healing. I develop theoretical considerations and a preliminary research agenda to explore further the interplay between non-verbal communication, glocal nosologies, experimental ethnography and the cultural diversity of distressing experience.

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Politics of (in)gratitude in times of Covid

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