Rachel Watkins

Descendant Community Engagement, Moral Panic and the Science of Ethnographic Stances

Friday, March 1st,  4:00 – 6:00 pm
963 Schermerhorn extension

Abstract

In this presentation, I argue that sustainable descendant community engagement (DCE) requires deconstructing elements of moral panic embedded within engagement discourse. Furthermore, I argue that this is vital to addressing the foundational elements of scientific knowledge production that reinforce racially ordered notions of humanity. The first part of my talk will focus on my argument that DCE is naturalized as being in opposition to – or a complication of – research that normalizes responses akin to moral panic by researchers. I draw on Black feminist theorists to connect this moral panic to the naturalization of Black bodies and Black social worlds as “out of order.“

The second part of my talk will address our (bioanthropologists’) reticence to approach DCE as ethnographic practice, and its distinction from our regular use of ethnographic tools. Specifically, there are matters of ethnographic thickness and thinness that must be considered to shift our disproportionate attention on empirically oriented “who” questions in identifying descendant communities. In doing so, we create more space for “how” questions regarding the formation of descendant communities, our interactions with them as researchers, and our interactions with them as social actors. Ultimately, I propose that bioanthropologists consider taking an “ethnographic stance” on DCE as part of taking the “culturalness” of scientific practice seriously.

Click here to register for the online streaming of this talk.