Robert H. Layton Lecture Series

Our annual Robert Layton Lecture celebrates what anthropology can bring to understanding human life past, present and future by integrating or
juxtaposing methods, questions and areas of enquiry across its sub-fields.

Named in honour of Prof. Robert Layton FBA, Prof Layton has exemplified the integration of multiple anthropological perspectives in his wide-ranging
research interests. He has played a vital role in shaping the Department to reflect that interdisciplinary ethos.

View our events calendar to see upcoming lectures.

11^th December 2024: ‘Multispecies Ethnography as a forum for dialogue in anthropology’

3-5pm, CLC407, Top floor of the Calman Building

In ‘Becoming Salmon’, Marianne Lien argues that multi-species or post-human ethnography requires a methodological toolkit that human ethnographers are not currently equipped with (2015:15). Acknowledging the sociality of non-humans is but a starting point for ethnography beyond words. Being with, alongside, and making our bodies available for communication are some of the approaches that can enact the decentering of the human. Pioneers in primatology took this approach, accompanying primates in their everyday life and making space to imagine possibilities for embodied communication. Yet such imaginative openness became unwelcome as methods of quantifying behaviour were developed. Could an approach to multi-species being and becoming be a site for dialogue across Anthropology?

Speakers:

Professor Marianne Lien, University of Oslo

Dr Kerry Dore, Millbrook School, New York

Discussant:

Dr Simona Capisani, Department of Philosophy, Durham

Previous Robert H. Layton Lectures:

2018: 'Is Quantity Just a Matter of Quality?'

Dr John Bunce (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) & Dr Matei Candea (Cambridge University) with Professor Catherine Alexander, Professor Helen Ball and Professor Rob Barton (Durham University)

2016: ‘What makes partly opaque beliefs and practices culturally successful?’

Dr Dan Sperber (CEU, Budapest)

2015: ‘Taking people seriously’

Professor Rita Astuti (London School of Economics)

2014: 'We think through our marwat (paintbrush)' – reflections on the Yolngu location of thought and knowledge.

Professor Howard Morphy and Dr Frances Morphy (Australian National University, and Fellows of the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University)

2013: 'The Aesthetics of Diversity'

Professor Roy Ellen (University of Kent)