THE HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURE
will be given by
Professor Alex de Waal, Tufts University
Anthropology and the Humanitarian Encounter: Famine, Societal Trauma and the Academy
Famines have returned, most prominently in Sudan and Gaza. Mass starvation challenges political leaders, the public and the academy. Drawing on these and other cases, this lecture places social anthropologists in the centre of the story of how we have come to understand humanitarian emergency, famine and mass starvation. Three fields of study frame how we represent and respond to famine, each having distinct methods and frameworks, but each owing much to anthropology. One is positivist metrics for measuring food security, malnutrition and mortality, exemplified by the United Nations-accredited Integrated food security Phase Classification initiative, which is today’s authoritative mechanism for determining ‘famine.’ Second is legal, political and economic analysis of policies, especially criminal acts, that cause mass starvation. Third is the ethnography of famine as experienced, also drawing upon history, memory studies and literature. Social anthropology is uniquely positioned to synthesize these approaches, leading to insights into famine as societal trauma, with implications for the academy, for policy, and listening to the voices of the hungry.
Booking
Places for the Huxley Lecture must be booked in advance.
To book an in person ticket for the Huxley Lecture please go to https://www.tickettailor.com/events/royalanthropologicalinstituteofgreatbritain/1364588
The link for online participation via Zoom will be available closer to the event.
