Ethnography is about writing — about conveying a sense of life, presence and attention and using detailed descriptions to establish analytical points that engage our imagination and extend our perceptions of worlds — both strange and familiar. This conference inquires into the craft of ethnographic writing and how ethnographic writing overlaps and differs from writing literature. We explore this in dialogue with a group of experienced ethnographers and writers, who have been asked to open the doors to their workshops to explore personal experiences, analytical ambitions, genre aspirations, past and present writing practices and challenges – all with an eye to ethnography as a fine-tuned tool for educating sensibility and imagination and causing thought in writer and reader alike.

09.30-10:00     Arrival

10.00-10.10     Welcome by Cathrine Hasse and Jakob Krause-Jensen

10.10-11.00     Bridging the Gap: From the Telling Detail to the Global Comparison
Michael Herzfeld, Professor, Harvard University, USA

11.10-12.00     The Cosmopolitics of Songbirds and Coral
Nils Bubandt, Professor, Aarhus University, DK

12.00-12.50     Lunch

12.50-13.40     Writing with Ghosts
Maria Louw, Associate Professor and AIAS fellow, Aarhus University

13.50-14.40     Reading the Past with the Present in Mind
Merete Pryds Helle, Renowned Danish author and writer   

14.40-15.00     Wrapping it up!

Attendance is free but please use this link to sign up before May 1st: events.au.dk/craftingethnography