We cordially invite you to two guest lectures at Anthropology: Understanding World-Making Practices module by Prof. Aleksandar Bošković, PhD.
Wednesday, 10 December 2025 at 3:00 PM:
History of Anthropology as an Anthropological Problem
Debates about anthropological research, as well as about individual anthropologists, are profoundly shaped by attempts to understand the discipline’s history and the different trajectories that led to its institutionalization across diverse cultures and social contexts. These attempts unfold amid complex sociopolitical crises that prompt renewed questioning of dominant ideological narratives. Because such interpretations emerge in a specific contemporary moment, they also place actors from the past in the present, often with unexpected consequences. Like any other sphere of human life, anthropology is shaped by particular stories; some of these will be explored in the lecture. Special emphasis will be placed on grounding anthropologists in their own time and place in order to contextualize their work. Such an approach helps illuminate contemporary critiques and underscores the importance of rigorous research in any field. Any attempt to produce a definitive history of anthropology is bound to fail – and ultimately reveals more about its author(s) than about the discipline itself.
Thursday, 11 December 2025 at 3:00 PM:
Women in the History of Anthropology: Forgotten or Marginalized?
Recent research in the history and theory of anthropology has brought to light new information about the role of women in shaping the discipline. Even in cases where female scholars were crucial for the establishment of anthropology (such as Winifred Hoernlé in South Africa), they were – until very recently – curiously absent from many narratives of the field’s heroic past. Anthropological research is deeply influenced by efforts to understand the discipline’s history and the trajectories that led to its institutionalization across different cultures and social settings. These efforts also unfold during sociopolitical crises, which encourage questioning of dominant ideological narratives. Like any other part of human life, anthropology is shaped by contemporary political discourses – some of which will be examined in the lecture. The lecture will focus on the intellectual trajectories of scholars such as Zora Neale Hurston, Ruth Landes, and Germaine Tillion, and the ways in which they carved out their place in the discipline. Other examples (such as the renaming of Kroeber Hall at UC Berkeley) will also illustrate the – more or less subtle – attempts to erase women from anthropology’s history.
Both lectures will be held in English in the Gosposka Hall ZRC SAZU, Gosposka ulica 16, Ljubljana.
Prof. Aleksandar Bošković is a Principal Research Associate at the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade, Visiting Professor of Social Anthropology at UFRN in Natal (Brazil), and a ULAM Visiting Research Fellow at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. His research interests include the history and theory of anthropology, psychoanalysis, myth and religion, semiotics, ethnicity, nationalism, and gender studies. He has taught at numerous universities across Europe, Africa, and South America. He is co-editor of the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures and author or editor of several monographs and edited volumes on anthropology, myth, and religion.
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Photo: Professor’s personal archive