History, Narrative, and Politics
Since the 1970’s, anthropologists have increasingly recognized the importance of integrating history and historical ethnography into anthropological narratives. Anthropology’s engagement with history, however, remains partial and incomplete--a work in progress. The History, Narrative and Politics specialization at Emory is designed to contribute to ongoing efforts taking place throughout the discipline to draw productively on the creative tensions between anthropology and history. HNP schools students in the key debates that have emerged in the rapprochement of these fields of study. The program also challenges students to formulate innovative solutions to the difficult theoretical and methodological problems that the discipline has been confronted with as it has struggled to assimilate processes of change into its key conceptual categories.
The core members of the History, Narrative and Politics area of specialization are Carla Freeman, Bruce Knauft, Peter Little, David Nugent and Michael Peletz. These faculty work within and across a range of world areas, including Latin America and the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, East and West Africa, and the South Pacific.
Intellectual communities and academic units outside Anthropology that intersect with the History, Narrative, and Politics area of specialization include: the Departments of History, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Women’s Studies, and Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures; the Institute of African Studies, and the Institute of the Liberal Arts; the Programs of East Asian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and South Asian Studies; the Center for Russian and East European Studies; and the Interdisciplinary Workshop in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies.