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01/07/26
 
About
Visit our Panel Beyond Activism at the conference Anthropology. Activism. Power. Celebrating 10 Years of boasblogs at the ICI Berlin on October 16, 2027. In this boasblog, we will examine the widespread science and activism-dichotomy and aim to challenge the distinction between activist and non-activist science that is repeatedly made within anthropology as well as other […]
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Markus Virgil Hoehne
15/10/26
Military Conflict in Northern Somalia, Anthropological (Online) Activism and a Libel Case
In 2023, while actively engaging in social media debates on the escalation of military conflict in northern Somalia, where I had conducted many years of ethnographic research, I was called “paedophile” by a well-known Somali-born British citizen and anti-FGM activist called Nimco Ali. How could this happen, what were the consequences and what could be […]
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HannahAlisha M.B. Heinemann
09/10/26
Universities as (un)political Spaces
The only true force against the principle of Auschwitz would be autonomy, if I may use the Kantian expression; the power of reflection, of self-determination, of non-participation (Adorno, 2012, p. 128, transl. by authors (tba)). Where we stand As we write this text, fascisation and actual fascism are once again on the rise worldwide (Walia, […]
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Kiri Olivia Santer
08/10/26
Academic Freedom and Anthropology
A Compass for Engaged Science in Authoritarian Times
In the call for this series, boasblogs asks for reflections upon a well-rehearsed binary: that of activist science versus non-activist science. In recent times, it is a binary that has increasingly developed a life outside of the academy. We see it circulating at different levels of politics and institutions, with different intensities; there have been […]
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Hanna Pfeifer
07/10/26
Academia’s Responsibility in a Democratic Society Facing Existential Problems
As a scholar of peace and conflict studies in Germany, I belong to a research field that has traditionally had a normative orientation toward peace and ties to the peace movement. But my field has also repeatedly reflected on whether scholars conduct research for peace or about peace (Bonacker 2011). In this sense, the relation […]
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Olaf Zenker
06/10/26
On Research, Activist Research and “Activist Research”
Is Your Research Activist? Is your research activist? At first sight, this seems like a straightforward question. Some researchers explicitly understand their work as activist, collaborate with social movements, intervene in public debates, or seek to change policies and institutions. Others insist that their task is primarily analytical: to understand and explain the world rather […]
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