AAA 2013 Roundtable, Narrating the Nuclear: Anthropologists and Others Engage with the Atomic Era

November 24
Hilton Hotel, Downtown Chicago, Grand Ballroom

Part I “Nuclear Weaponry”: 8:00am-9:45am, As part of AAA Executive Program Committee (executive session)
Part II: “Nuclear Energy”: 10:15am-12:00pm, As part of Society for East Asian Anthropology (invited session)

Organizers: Mark Auslander(Central Washington University) and Tomomi Yamaguchi (Montana State University)

Presenters:
Part I Nuclear Weaponry (Chair：Mark Auslander, Central Washington University, Anthropology)

Part II Nuclear Energy　(Chair: Ellen Schattschneider, Brandeis University, Anthropology)

This roundtable panel brings together anthropologists, scientists, and activists engaged in the challenges of narrating nuclear energy, nuclear and radioactive weaponry, nuclear weapons production, and nuclear site cleanup. We give particular attention to collaborative efforts between anthropologists and others to document or develop new modes of story-telling about the nuclear age, partnerships that often must negotiate deep distrust for academic and scientific institutions within communities impacted by nuclear-associated environmental damage. We discuss novel museum and exhibition strategies, emergent forms of experimental ethnography, and new modes of ritual performance inspired by the epistemic challenges of the nuclear.

For the details and the entire abstract on this Roundtable, please see the “Narrating the Nuclear” page in this blog, along with a new Wiki Forum, “Narrating the Nuclear.”