Why the World Needs Anthropologists 2025 will take place in Bologna (Italy) from the 3rd to the 5th of October. The event is co-organised by the Department of History and Cultures (local host of the event at Bologna University), the Department of Educational Studies (Bologna University) and the Department of Human Sciences (Verona University), and coordinated by the Applied Anthropology Network (AAN) and the Italian Society for Applied Anthropology (SIAA) in collaboration with Anthropology students from the University of Bologna (DISCI).
The 13th edition of WWNA highlights the theme of "Creativity at Work", understood as a set of creative processes, skills and methods that anthropologists put into practice to open up new opportunities in different work and professional fields.
How can our (collaborative) ethnographic approach shape creative ideas and ways of imagining possible, even unexpected, work trajectories?
What methodologies and theoretical knowledge are mobilized in the anthropological practice that come into different professional worlds and organizations at work?
How can anthropological creativity challenge institutional and bureaucratic constraints, as well as cross the deep-rooted boundaries among different disciplinary perspectives and professional knowledge?
In an attempt to discuss these issues, the edition will be characterized by the exchange of experiences, research and perspectives aimed at (re)thinking applied anthropology as a creative and generative site to address professional challenges.
Get your tickets here:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 1
Sunday, October 5th
Friday, October 3rd
Morning
Key Notes
Afternoon
Key Notes
Day 1 will set out exciting key notes on bold and engaging topics based on the strands of this year’s theme.
Day 2 will see a day of WWNA staples, action and inspiration-focused Workshops and snappy, energetic Perspectives presentations.
Day 3 will consist of the customary, relaxed appraisal of the AAN.
Saturday, October 4rd
Morning
Perspectives
Afternoon
Workshops
Morning
Network Meeting
Afternoon
Local Activities
preliminary
Want to be part of WWNA2025 & host a Workshop or hold a Perspective talk?
Deadline: April 30th
University of Bologna - Complex of San Giovanni in Monte
Piazza San Giovanni in Monte 2, Bologna, Italy
Bologna hosts the oldest university of the western world, conventionally dated back to 1088, as it began as an informal initiative by students. It is known as “la Dotta” (“the Learned”) because of the university, “la Rossa” (“the Red”) because of the colour of its buildings and of its characteristic curtains - and because of its political affiliation, some say - and “la Grassa” (“the Fat”) because if its wealthy past and current culinary relevance. Architecturally it mainly reflects its medieval and early modern past, even if only twenty-four of the original about a hundred towers are still standing today.
The complex of San Giovanni in Monte has an interesting history itself: built as a convent (as the attached church and internal cloister can attest), it was then used as a prison until the 1980’s, when it became part of the University. Aula Prodi, once the refectory, holds Renaissance frescoes. A roman origin of this area has been hypothesised, as the building stands on an artificial hill just outside of the walls then and now well inside the city centre.
Roberta Bonetti (University of Bologna - Department of History and Cultures)
Federica Tarabusi (University of Bologna - Department of Educational Studies)
Stefania Pontrandolfo (University of Verona - Department of Human Sciences)
Dan Podjed (Founder)
Simon Provoost (AAN Co-Convenor)
Olivia Schneider (AAN Co-Convenor)
Anja Pogladič (AAN Social Media Manager)
Anthropology Students Organising Committee:
Anna Bagatella, Diego Emiliano Jaramillo Navarro, Rachele Fundone, Mariagiulia Gargiullo, Emma Barontini, Stefania Berehoi, Asia Bonciolini, Leonardo Colaiacovo, Beatrice Colucci, Alice Ferretti, Guido Frana, Rebecca Furesi, Elio Gugliara, Julia Herbst, Maria Nicolina Loi, Miriam Luzi, Giorgia Massolini, Noemi Morano, Clelia Lucia Moretti, Nika Nikousokhan Tayyar, Chiara Orsoni, Marco Pasquali, Valeria Senes, Danijela Stojadinovic, Agnese Tanucci, Anastasia Tramontano, Arianna Verdecchia, Marc Vilaseca Hervás
With the participation of Chiara Scardozzi (DISCI, Unibo) and Francesca Crivellaro (EDU, Unibo).
The Speakers
Samwel Moses Ntapanta
is an ethnographer of contemporary urbanism along the western Indian Ocean coast, particularly on coloniality, consumption and discarding, debris of late capitalism, repairing and recycling economies. He's a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Anthropology at the Aarhus University in Denmark.
Talk : "Repairing the planet from the periphery"
Hebe Vessuri
is a pioneer in the social study of science in Latin America. She studied social anthropology at the University of Oxford and is an Emeritus researcher at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research in Caracas, Venezuela. Her research focus is on science in the global peripheries, with an emphasis on Latin America. She also studies social participation/exclusion, expert knowledge, and the interface between scientific research, higher education, and different forms of knowledge.
Talk : "Periphery, Always a Curse or Could it be a Blessing?"
Rosana Guber
is a Senior Researcher at the Argentine Council of Science and Technology, CONICET, and has a Ph.D. in Anthropology (JHU, U.S.). She also holds a Master's in Social Anthropology (San Martín University) and an International Diploma in Latin American and Caribbean Anthropological Theories (Hurtado, Chile, and San Martín, Argentina). Her research interests include the military experience of the Malvinas/Falkland War (1982), ethnography as fieldwork and text, and the anthropology of Argentine and Latin American anthropology.
Talk : "Southern anthropology's displaced center, or how to help Northern anthropology to disregard the South"
Carla Guerrón Montero
is an applied cultural anthropologist trained in Latin America and the United States. Carla is also a Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Center for Material Culture Studies (CMCS) at the University of Delaware. Carla studies the anthropology of tourism, the anthropology of food, and the African Diaspora in Latin America. Carla serves as the treasurer of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA).
Talk : "Centering Ethnography from the Periphery"
Gayathri Sreedharan
is an Indian applied anthropologist trained in India and the US, and has experience working across India as an ethnographer and applied anthropologist. She's the founder of Anthropie, a boutique consultancy doing ethnographic and design research in India. She has spent over a decade studying the Indian north-east and will therefore talk about specific challenges in that context.
Talk : "Failures & Obligations when Centering the Periphery"
