CENTER  FOR  EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHY

Empathic Thresholds | 2022-2023 Theme

CEE #36: INTRODUCING EMPATHIC THRESHOLDS

"If we understand surrender as “giving oneself up to the power of another, or “to give oneself over to something,” as the Merriam-Webster dictionary does, surrender becomes something that is less juridical and more relational, something that requires both study and empathy."

WElCOME, FALL FELLOWS!

SAYA WOOLFALK

Saya Woolfalk (Japan, 1979) is a New York based artist who uses science fiction and fantasy to re-imagine the world in multiple dimensions.  With the multi year projects No Place, The Empathics, and ChimaTEK, Woolfalk has created the world of the Empathics, a fictional race of women who are able to alter their genetic make-up and fuse with plants. With each body of work, Woolfalk continues to build the narrative of these women's lives, and questions the utopian possibilities of cultural hybridity. ​  KEEP READING...

DAMANI PARTRIDGE

Damani Partridge is a Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. Dr. Partridge has published broadly on questions of citizenship, affect, urban space, sexuality, decolonization, post-Cold War “freedom,” Holocaust memorialization, African-American military occupation, Blackness and embodiment, the production of noncitizens, the culture and politics of “fair trade,” and the Obama moment in Berlin. He currently directs the Filming Future Cities Project in Detroit and Berlin.  KEEP READING...

UPCOMING EVENT

Come join us for our first Third Thursday of Fall, where we introduce our incoming Fall Fellows, Dr. Damani Partridge and Saya Woolfalk. 

COURSES IN SESSION

WE EMERGE AT THE SUNSET OF YOUR IDEOLOGY

ANTH 3660
Instructor: Saya Woolfalk
Fridays 12PM - 3PM

This is an undergraduate level production class that takes students through the process of creating a public facing artwork made in response to the ideas explored in my newly commissioned multimedia work for the exhibition Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America at PAFA.  My practice takes seriously the idea that ideological and symbolic systems can be re-imagined and activated through collaboration, imaginative play and masquerade....

FILMING THE FUTURE OF PHILADELPHIA

ANTH 3661/6661
​Instructor: Dr. Damani Partridge
 Thursday 3:30-6:30
This workshop is a rare opportunity to learn to use film to engage Philadelphia and its future from personal, political, social, and historical perspectives. Over one semester, we will simultaneously think, learn, and imagine Philadelphia through music, dance, anthropology, art, theater, architecture, literature, history, night life, day life, school life, social life, and life after school. We will read, we will write, and we will learn how to make films with an anthropologist... 

RECENT EVENTS

"Jungle-nama"
​MARCH 2&3 | 7 PM
The Center for Experimental Ethnography invites audiences to the first English stage performance of Amitav Ghosh's adaptation of an episode from the legend of Bon Bibi, titled: "Jungle-nama: A Story of the Sundarban." The performance will take place at the Prince Theatre at Penn Live Arts. MORE

Illustration by Salman Toor
Third Thursday: Meet the Fellows 
Feb 17th 2022
 February's Third Thursday event where CEE spring Fellows Amitav Ghosh and Ali Sethi discussed their collaboration on a course they are teaching with Penn's own Brooke O'Harra.  Amitav, Ali, and Brooke are leading students in a rigorous process of research, development, and rehearsal, culminating in a public performance 
KEEP READING
Third Thursday:
Osman +
Alexandrowicz
​Jan 20th 2022
Thursday, January 20 2022 the Center for Experimental Ethnography's Third Thursday had a conversation with Wazhmah Osman, Assistant Professor at Temple University, and Ra'anan Alexandrowicz, Director, Screenwriter, and Editor.  KEEP READING

WATCH JUNGLE NAMA LIVE

GET INVOLVED

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