Zagreb Report

The Coordination meeting was held in Zagreb, Croatia where our society was invited to join MASN (Moving Anthropology Students Network) to discuss the topics for the next conference. The next conference is going to be held this coming November, somewhere along the coast of Croatia (hint hint Dubrovnik).

This meeting has brought the Malta Anthropology Society (MAS) to an international level and new opportunities were created for the future.

We must say that this whole experience was very refreshing and exciting since we exchanged various amounts of information and friendship too! Throughout our stay there we met various other students (from both anthropology and sociology) and were made aware of how anthropology is studied and perceived in their respective countries. Among the participants were students from Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland and of course us Maltese (or rather the ‘Malta People’, how they used to refer to us).

One of the things that came out from the meetings was how preoccupied we all are regarding our future careers in anthropology. In fact one of the hot topics was ‘applied anthropology’ and how MASN itself could contribute in this field. One of the ideas was to split this network in two organisations, one dedicated to students and another to young academics. This shows the energy behind the students and how important this opportunity was for us Maltese. It was also fascinating how welcome they made us feel and how happy they were that we joined. We appreciated the fact that our ideas were given weight and recognised throughout.

As first years, MASN has helped to support our interests and intentions of anthropology. Being surrounded by students that are on the verge of finishing their studies, it has encouraged us that getting involved with issues concerning anthropology such as finding a job in the “real world”. More importantly, that being aware and being active in such issues at an early stage in our academic careers is essential. MASN provides an environment that made this possible by being part of a network that includes an exchange of students of all levels, young academics and professionals.

So basically….as a result of our presence at the meeting, MAS, or rather in my opinion, me (jeffrey), Rachel and Liz have joined MASN. I am the National Coordinator for MASN in Malta so basically I am the one who corresponds officially with the others abroad when need be.

Note all this talk of being members and not members…there isn’t any official document you have to fill to become a member; rather you just have to know the people. MASN is a network and you become a member (i.e. become part of it) when you get to know some of the other people.

A good step of getting to know other anthropology students (or young academics) is by signing up in MASN’s website (www.movinganthropology.org) and by signing up to their yahoo group which is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/movinganthropology .

As a result of being part of MASN, you will be informed of events abroad organised by other anthropology organisations similar to ours. For instance, next November the annual MASN conference is being held in Croatia (somewhere in the coast, possibly Dubrovnik) and everyone is invited. Most probably there will a call for papers later on and we can present something if we want. However we can still attend even if we don’t present anything, though most probably we would have to pay a participation fee.

In addition, there is going to be an International Summer Camp which is going to be held in Zeblinski, Poland this year. If you are interested, contact me.

MASN is not only about going to events abroad though. If we want we can organise a conference, summer camp, workshop, fieldwork or whatever, here in Malta. Considering our reputation abroad, attracting people should not be a huge problem especially if we get funding. The whole point of organising such events is to meet new people and learn from them, and also to get experience (…saying you organised an international conference would look good on anyone’s CV!).

Below is some information quoted from the report of the meetings about institutes abroad:

Slovenia (Urška, Dijana):
most recent anthropological research is about asylum seekers and in the field of medical anthropology about the bird flu. Concerning the difference between anthropology and ethnology at their university, there is no sharp distinction between these two fields.

Germany
Clemens: in Germany there are around 26 different institutes with different regional focuses. They have problems with the Bologna process, because small departments can't form a degree themselves and have to combine with other disciplines. There is a distinction between anthropology and Ethnology in Germany and sometimes this leads to convergency, but usually both try to defend their separate identities and methods.
Steffi: the fieldwork usually concerns topics like migration, with the focus on political institutions, public communication between immigrants and German society etc.
Benni: there exists different regional specialisation among the departments, like Central Asia or the Mediterranean.

Malta (Jeffrey, Rachel, Elizabeth):
The institute is around 13 years old and has very wide interests, but the focus is on Mediterranean and current issues like illegal immigration and refugees. It's mostly socio-cultural anthropology with just a bit of human biology.

Austria
Goga: at first they had Institute for Ethnology and later it became Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology. They focus mostly on contemporary issues like migration, gender issues, medical anthropology, youth, business etc. There are four modules: cross cultural organisation, museology, medical anthropology, international relations and NGO-s.
Gregor: there are also regional focuses e.g. SE Asia. It is a very big institute with a teaching staff of more than 60 people.
Niko: we don't have a four-field approach – we have no archaeology, linguistics or human biology, although it is important as it's connected. Before, just non-European issues were the focus, and the «Institut für Volkskunde» did the European ones, but now it changed because it all became connected through the processes of globalisation. The drop-out rate is 80%..

Poland (Krzysztof, Aleksandra):
There is a Faculty of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology in Krakow, but it's more folkloristic. They study at the small department within the Institute of Sociology and altogether there are around ten bigger departments of Anthropology in Poland. Also, there are quite a lot of cultural studies connected with filologies of political studies.

Croatia (Iza):
The study at the Faculty of Philosophy was established by Institute of Anthropology (it's a research institution, includes no teaching) and the Faculty together and it incorporates both socio-cultural and biological anthropology.

That is about it.

Thanks for reading.