TY - JOUR
T1 - Fieldwork at Sunset
T2 - Visual representations of anthropology online
AU - Goodwin-Hawkins, Bryonny
AU - Gould, Hannah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - Most institutional anthropology departments have a website, to tout credentials, attract students, and offer information. These websites also take up the visual task of disciplinary representation, but their images have skipped the scrutiny that is necessary and overdue. This article analyzes online images of sociocultural anthropology across one hundred high-ranking universities worldwide. We show how, online, a discipline defined by diversity becomes readily reducible to “exotic” geographies and objectified “others.” While the urban serves as an unattractive foil, frequent images of children recall charity campaigns. Such visual tropes—which comprise a significant, public interface for anthropology—are not just awkwardly dated but also do disservice to ambitions for public anthropology. Change, we suggest, must begin at (the) home(page).
AB - Most institutional anthropology departments have a website, to tout credentials, attract students, and offer information. These websites also take up the visual task of disciplinary representation, but their images have skipped the scrutiny that is necessary and overdue. This article analyzes online images of sociocultural anthropology across one hundred high-ranking universities worldwide. We show how, online, a discipline defined by diversity becomes readily reducible to “exotic” geographies and objectified “others.” While the urban serves as an unattractive foil, frequent images of children recall charity campaigns. Such visual tropes—which comprise a significant, public interface for anthropology—are not just awkwardly dated but also do disservice to ambitions for public anthropology. Change, we suggest, must begin at (the) home(page).
KW - Photography
KW - Public anthropology
KW - Visual anthropology
KW - websites
KW - Websites
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082131822&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3167/fcl.2020.860108
DO - 10.3167/fcl.2020.860108
M3 - Article
SN - 0920-1297
VL - 2020
SP - 97
EP - 111
JO - Focaal
JF - Focaal
IS - 86
ER -