This talk is about a manner of critical explication that some practitioners have called Anthrohistory. It also is about the geohistorical conditions that are making it both possible and also necessary to become transdisciplinary in the way that Anthrohistory stipulates and embodies. More than just combining ethnographic, archival and in some instances archeological methods and techniques, Anthrohistory carries with it some basic philosophical shifts in assumptions about the worlds that it engages, how best to inquire into and make sense of them, and especially why so and to what ends for these endeavors. Building on and extending integrative calls over several decades, this presentation explores Anthrohistory’s combined ontological, epistemological and ethico-political stance and shows how it rests on a lively and dynamic approach to otherness in time and in space. After defining this capacity to “play well with otherness” and specifying some of its theoretical entailments, he will bring these insights to bear on aspects of the current worldwide crisis in capitalist relations, especially its financial dimensions. Identified as a geohistorical condition or state of affairs, he hopes to clarify the relationship between this multiplex predicament -- often glossed as one of "accumulation" -- the coagulation of Anthrohistory’s philosophical stance and the impulse toward going beyond disciplinary-specific habits at the edge of the 21st century.

For further information, please contact Jenny Fan, imtfi@uci.edu or 949-824-2284.