A fellowship for anthropologists from developing countries?

July 11, 2017 7:18 AM

I remember hearing one time of a fellowship for anthropologists from Africa, Asia, and Central/South America to study the culture and people of the US and Europe - a sort of anti-colonial anthropology. But alas, I cannot find any evidence for such a thing. Did this fellowship ever exist? What was it called?

I also vaguely recall it being funded by George Soros, but searches that included that term also came up empty, so I may be misremembering.

posted by palindromic to Education (5 answers total)

I have nothing of use to say here but I do really hope you get a proper reply, would love to hear more about this.
posted by stevedawg at 4:13 PM on July 11, 2017

Response by poster: Maybe I was thinking of Umberto Eco's Anthropology of the West:

In 1988, at the University of Bologna, Eco created an unusual program called Anthropology of the West from the perspective of non-Westerners (African and Chinese scholars), as defined by their own criteria. Eco developed this transcultural international network based on the idea of Alain Le Pichon in West Africa. The Bologna program resulted in a first conference in Guangzhou, China, in 1991 entitled "Frontiers of Knowledge." The first event was soon followed by an Itinerant Euro-Chinese seminar on "Misunderstandings in the Quest for the Universal" along the silk trade route from Canton to Beijing. The latter culminated in a book entitled "The Unicorn and the Dragon" which discussed the question of the creation of knowledge in China and in Europe.

In 2000 a seminar in Timbuktu (Mali), was followed by another gathering in Bologna to reflect on the conditions of reciprocal knowledge between East and West. This in turn gave rise to a series of conferences in Brussels, Paris, and Goa, culminating in Beijing in 2007. The topics of the Beijing conference were "Order and Disorder," "New Concepts of War and Peace," "Human Rights" and "Social Justice and Harmony." Eco presented the opening lecture.

There doesn't appear to have been a funding mechanism for students. Yet I still have an image of a passage in a book describing such a thing. Memory is a funny place.
posted by palindromic at 6:15 AM on July 12, 2017

You could always check with the American Anthropological Association. Someone there might know.
posted by gudrun at 6:30 AM on July 12, 2017

Have you checked out the website of the Open Society Foundations? It was established by George Soros.
The OSF I believe gives (among others) also scholarships for studying at the Central European University CEU (founded by Soros), which has a department of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
I could not find anything at the OSF grants site matching your exact description but there is an office you can contact in your region or use the contact form

Another foundation that offers grants for students from countries where anthropology is underrepresented is the Wenner Gren foundation, again at a glance I don't see anything like you describe but it is still worht to check their programs to support students and scholars in countries where there are limited institutional and financial resources for anthropology.

An institution you can also check out the Anthropolgy Department of the Geneva based Graduate Institute and their scholarships programme open to many if not most nationalities.

If you like send me a PM.
posted by 15L06 at 2:46 AM on July 14, 2017

PS Here the text about Anthropology of the West (otherwise identical to Wikipedia) actually includes the names of the scholars participating (there are links too but not functional) but if you researched those people you might find more leads.

Another possible starting point could be the Indian European Research Project, which is a network of anthropologists (and other scholars) from outside Europe and also from Europe. They don't offer fellowships but can possibly point you in the right direction.

A third approach could be to check out the members of NETIAS (listed on the website), these are Institutes fo Advanced studies who each offer various fellowships also to non-European scholars, and all of the Netias members host EURIAS fellows. But the fellowships at the members of NETIAS are not limited to EURIAS programme so you will need to check out each one for what they offer in addition.

I really feel akward about writing more in such a public place but can you can pm me.
posted by 15L06 at 4:04 AM on July 14, 2017