The Human Show: Innovation through Social Science - The Arcana of Inquiry: Navigating Ethnography through Tarot as a Playful, Disruptive, and Subversive Practice

The Arcana of Inquiry: Navigating Ethnography through Tarot as a Playful, Disruptive, and Subversive Practice

09/17/24 • 38 min

The Human Show: Innovation through Social Science

The Ethnographic Tarot Project intertwines the magic and mystery of tarot with the depth of anthropological inquiry. This initiative seeks to develop a distinctive tarot deck infused with ethnographic and anthropological themes, serving not only as a medium for reflection and divination but also as an innovative teaching tool aimed at enlightening students about the intricacies of ethnographic research. The aim is to collaboratively design a tarot deck that transcends traditional usage, becoming an educational resource that prompts students to explore and understand ethnographic research methodologies and anthropological insights. Each card will be thoughtfully re-imagined to incorporate significant anthropological themes, inviting contemplation on diversity, interconnectedness, frictions, and the politics and ethics of ethnographic practice. The Ethnographic Tarot Project is led by Priyanka Borpujari, Dr Fiona Murphy, and Dr Ana Ivasiuc.

We are pleased to welcome the team behind The Ethnographic Tarot Project: The Arcana of Inquiry who will discuss the project's intentions, its origins, and its future direction. They will explore how tarot complements the ethnographic practice and its potential to serve as a versatile educational resource for research, supervision, and writing. More broadly, they examine how this empowering practice can shift perspectives, unlock creative potential, and deepen reflection for practitioners. Finally, they will share their thoughts on what is needed to foster more radical imagination within the neoliberal academic space. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.

We have set one of the project’s tarot cards as a visual for this podcast episode. The Ethnographic Tower card within the tarot deck serves as a powerful metaphor for the tumultuous yet transformative process inherent in anthropological work. This card encapsulates the themes of upheaval, deconstruction, and the necessity for renewal, making it an exceptional teaching tool for understanding the dynamics of ethnographic inquiry.

Links: https://www.scribd.com/document/760415134/Ethnographic-Tarot-Project (contribution deadline extended to September 20th 2024)

Links: https://www.scribd.com/document/760415134/Ethnographic-Tarot-Project (contribution deadline extended to September 20th 2024)

Previous Episode

undefined - Dace Dzenovska: Social Anthropologist & Speaker at The Why the World needs Anthropologists, The Power of Isolation, 27-29th October 2023, Croatia

Dace Dzenovska: Social Anthropologist & Speaker at The Why the World needs Anthropologists, The Power of Isolation, 27-29th October 2023, Croatia

Dace Dzenovskais Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration at the University of Oxford and the Principal Investigator of the EMPTINESS project. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees in Social Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an interdisciplinary master’s degree in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University.

We are happy to have Dace with us speaking to her background and her experience and thoughts on isolation. She shares about her current research on emptiness and links it to isolation. Through fieldwork stories, she further details the condition of emptiness of which isolation is an element and explores what happens when this condition is seen as a site of opportunities. Lastly, she talks about what excites her the most about coming to the conference as well as her advice to those considering to attend. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.

Next Episode

Francesco Bravin: on radical imagination, learning interventions and the cultivation of the non-judgemental mind

Francesco Bravin is a cultural anthropologist and the president and founding member of the Cultural Association Antropolis in Milan. He has a Bachelor's degree in Intercultural Communication at the University of Turin, a Master's degree in Anthropology at the University of Milan Bicocca and a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Genoa. He researched mainly in the field of anthropology of tourism and anthropology of food, focusing on the Cinque Terre, in Italy.

We are pleased to welcome Francesco, who will share his experience as educator on the subject of radical imagination. Francesco positions radical imagination at the core of the ethnographic method, as it requires the nurturing of similar qualities of curiosity and non judgement. He shares two educational projects where he applies radical imagination and openly discusses their challenges and opportunities. Listen to the episode to hear more about it.

Links:

www.associazioneantropolis.org