Conference
Leiden Anthropology Conference 2
- Date
- Friday 10 October 2025
- Time
- Address
-
FSW building
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden
After a very successful edition in 2020, we're excited to announce the Leiden Anthropology Conference 2 taking place on Friday, October 10, 2025!
We would like to invite you to join this one-day programme focused on the anthropological community’s expertise and vision: our critical engagements with making futures and with futures past; our inquiries into anthropological agency, its prospects and reflections; the unconventional connections and potential for anthropologies for the future in Leiden.
We will come together as a community of Leiden anthropologists to share what we are and what we know. Whether you are (or were) working, studying, collaborating at CADS, or are connected to CADS in any way - you're welcome!
Programme
| Walk-in | 9.30 - 10.00 |
| Plenary session: kick-off | 10.00 – 11.15 |
| Parallel panels | 11.30– 13.00 |
| Lunch break | 13.00 – 14.00 |
| Parallel panels |
14.00 – 15.30 |
| Plenary session: close | 15.45 – 17.00 |
| Drinks | 17.00 - 18.00 |
Plenary Sessions
The conference begins and concludes with a plenary session in which various speakers share their own perspectives and connections with anthropology.
The conference kicks off with short pitches by alumni and a member of our advisory board followed by a Q&A.
Shishani Vranckx
Jon Verriet
Jon Verriet’s main experience is in analytical work - from academic research to policy advice – focussing on inequality, academic freedom, and the social value of science. Having defended his dissertation in cultural history in 2022, he started working as a Science Advisor for the Netherlands Commission for UNESCO, translating international guidelines and principles into practical advice and programs for policymakers, researchers, and civil society.
Jon is also a member of the advisory board of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.
More information on the other speakers will follow shortly.
The conference concludes with a roundtable where our current students from various cohorts share their vision for the future of anthropology.
More information on the speakers will follow shortly.
Parallel panels
The first five panels are each divided into two sessions—a morning session from 11:30-13:00 and an afternoon session from 14:00-15:30. The sixth panel (collaborators in the field) has one morning session.
When you register, simply choose your preferred panel and you'll automatically be signed up for both sessions within that panel (plus access to both plenary sessions).
Register for your preferred panel session!
Each panel has a maximum number of places, so be sure to register in time.
RegisterWhat are the panel sessions about?
Anthropology is no longer solely shaped by its historical centers in the Global North. Across regions, scholars are rethinking the discipline’s foundations, methods, and public responsibilities in ways that challenge dominant paradigms and open up space for new futures. This two-part roundtable brings together anthropologists working in and on different world regions to ask: What does anthropology look like elsewhere, and what can we learn from it and from each other?
Session 1: Other Anthropologies and the Need for Dialogue
Concepts such as indigeneity, race, or diversity take on different meanings and levels of visibility across regions, from Latin America to Southeast Asia to Africa. What kinds of anthropological concepts, methods, and institutional practices have emerged in these contexts that remain marginal in dominant (often Northern) canons? This session explores how scholars across the Global South are building alternative anthropological traditions, emphasizing, for example, community engagement in Indonesia or open science in Brazil, and what it would mean to bring these into genuine dialogue. Can we speak of anthropology as a shared project, or are we witnessing a fragmentation into multiple, regionally grounded forms of knowledge production, some of which may not even identify as "anthropology"?
Speakers (morning session)
-
Chong Zhang
Session 2: Decolonizing Anthropology at Different Speeds
The decolonization of anthropology and neigbouring disciplines is not a monolithic project, nor does it unfold uniformly. In some regions, it has become a central academic and political priority; in others, it remains more muted. This session examines the reasons for these variations and considers what decolonizing the discipline actually entails today. Are we talking about breaking citation silos, changing authorship structures, or fundamentally rethinking who anthropology is for and with? Should we imagine more radical departures, abandoning the discipline altogether, given its colonial entanglements? This session invites speakers to reflect on the uneven landscape of decolonization and the paths still ahead.
Speakers (afternoon session)
Together, both sessions make the case for a more plural, reflexive, and open anthropology, one that takes seriously the regional genealogies and political demands shaping the discipline in a multipolar world.
Coordinators
This panel explores the politics of knowledge (re)production, how it relates to cultural practices and agency shaping, and its implications for coping and living with (environmental) change. Colleagues working with diverse knowledge systems from Africa and Southeast Asia will share a short pitch, followed by a roundtable discussion stimulating interregional dialogues, focusing on lessons learnt and questions for future research directions.
Coordinators
Roundtable and interactive workshop answering the following questions: How do anthropologists collaborate with other disciplines? How do academics collaborate with non-academics? How do multimodality, sensory ethnography, and participatory research design enable that?
Morning session: Roundtable
The roundtable tests different disciplinary approaches and expectations (i.e. anthropology, architecture, history). Invited speakers are invited to respond to guiding questions on their respective takes on ‘everyday infrastructures’ and on how (methodological) design shapes research practices, their preferred tools for sensory research, multimodality, and inclusive research design.
Roundtable participants
Afternoon session: Workshop
This workshop considers what anthropology can do outside of what it does to survive under capitalism. What would anthropology be without universities? Without grants and funding bodies? Without journal articles and international conferences? If we could remake our discipline outside of these structures, what would we choose to build?
While no preparation is necessary, you may bring materials (written, visual, tangible) relating to a topic you would like to assemble into something new. For instance: a copy of (GDPR friendly) fieldnotes, sketches or pictures that you can adapt to or present in new contexts.
Workshop coordinators
Coordinators
This panel explores how making, assessing and rejecting heritage creates contexts for assessment of the past, in the light of anticipation of the future. How do heritage-oriented discourses have an impact on the constitution of social groups, and the major challenges society is confronted with? If the "heritage” label transforms past social practices in the present, who profits, and who should?
The Diversifying Heritage panel has two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each session presents eight dynamic short pitches delivered in an interactive "stand-up" format. The presenters are Leiden scholars who work on, with or against 'heritage'. Following clusters of pitches, there will be ample opportunity for interaction among audience and presenters.
Speakers (morning session)
Speakers (afternoon session)
Coordinators
This panel is aimed at presenting some of the results of the Louwes Fund for Research on Water and Food. Six former recipients of Louwes PhD fellowships will present their former research and present activities. The focus will be on food security and human-wildlife conflicts in various countries. In addition, research activities related to water management in the Philippines, will also be presented.
Speakers (morning session)
Speakers (afternoon session)
Coordinator
This panel discusses the centrality of collaboration in knowledge production, specifically within the PhD trajectory, by discussing the work of those who often remain behind the scenes. What is the role of collaborators – such as NGO workers, artists, translators and other professionals – other than being our direct interlocutors?
Much attention has been paid to the importance of collaboration in anthropological research with terms such as ‘para-ethnography’ and ‘epistemic partners’ (Boyer and Marcus 2021) being proposed to recognise participants as research partners, invoking a ‘collaborative turn’ (Gershon 2009). In this panel, we seek to understand the role of collaborators other than our direct interlocutors, such as the work of NGO workers, artists, translators and other media professionals. In doing so, we aim to shed light on the centrality of collaboration in knowledge production, specifically within the PhD trajectory, by discussing the work of those who often remain behind the scenes.
Speakers
Coordinator
Please get in touch with the conference organisers, Cristina Grasseni and Sarah Bozuwa for any further information or if you wish to contribute.