We are pleased to announce that the UC Collaboratory for Ethnographic Design was awarded a Workshop Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation Conference Program. This grant will allow CoLED to host invited scholars from around the globe for our fall 2016 Conference, Ethnography and Design: Mutual Provocations.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc. is a private operating foundation dedicated to the advancement of anthropology throughout the world. Located in New York City, it is one of the major funding sources for international anthropological research.

Our proposal, “Productive Encounters: Prototypes and Keywords for Critical Ethnographic Design” received funding in the amount of $20,000, in addition to $20,000 already funded through our UC Office of the President Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives award. The proposal asserts that the CoLED fall 2016 workshop will consider “the current state of ethnographic practice within and beyond anthropology, share and develop innovations in this methodology, and propose new forms of ethnography emphasizing collaboration and the design process. […] To this end, we are organizing the workshop around a set of keywords that we have generated to highlight the productive tensions in the phrase “ethnographic design.” At the workshop, invited scholars and members of the CoLED members will participate in a series of roundtable discussions, each presenting a short statement, followed by a conversation regarding the tensions, disagreements, and provocations raised by the juxtaposition of the keywords in relation to the broader theme of ethnographic design.” In addition, CoLED members will present workshops, performances, and other programming related to ethnographic design.

Congratulations to the Conference Committee, who authored the application, and is now hard at work planning the programming for the fall event. For the purposes of the grant, the Wenner-Gren subcommittee includes Elana Zilberg (organizer), and Joseph Hankins, Melissa Caldwell, and Cassandra Hartblay (co-organizers). Stay tuned for further news about Ethnography and Design: Mutual Provocations!