Special issue launch & discussion: (Un)relating and (Un)learning with More-Than-Humans during Ethnographic Practice
The special issue on more-than-human ethnographic methodologies and knowledge production will be launched on 26 August, featuring presentations by guest editor Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen and a discussion with commenting remarks from Sarah Green and Carl Mika.
We warmly invite researchers, students and interested audiences to an online launch and discussion event on the publication of the Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society special issue “(Un)relating and (Un)learning with More-Than-Humans during Ethnographic Practice”. The issue is guest edited by MultiBEING researcher Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen (University of Helsinki), together with Minna Opas (University of Turku).
This special issue explores the interactions, negotiations, and engagements established with more-than-human actors as an integral part of the co-production of knowledge. The contributions ask how more-than-human actors may guide, shape, or hinder the production of knowledge, how they enter ethnographic research processes and research practices, and how researchers can engage with them ethically. Addressing diverse beings including plants, animals, microbes, and material entities, the authors develop relational more-than-human methodological perspectives that challenge understandings of humans as separate from other forms of life and existences.
During the event, the guest editors will introduce the special issue, followed by short presentations from the following contributing authors: Taynã Tagliati, Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Beth A. Conklin, Eric Michael Kelley, Silvio Sanches Barreto Bará and Siran Liang.
The discussion will be enriched by comments from MultiBEING collaborators, Professor Sarah Green (University of Helsinki) and Professor Carl Mika (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), who will serve as discussants.
This event offers an opportunity to reflect on the evolving directions of anthropological scholarship and to engage with readers, authors and reviewers interested in more-than-human approaches, Indigenous knowledge, relational methodologies and ethnographic practice.
Event details
Date: Wednesday 26 August 2026
Time: 17.00-18.30 (EEST, UTC+3)
Venue: Online in Zoom
Zoom link: https://utu.zoom.us/j/68214680462
Programme:
Introduction: Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen (University of Helsinki) & Minna Opas (University of Turku)
Short presentations by the authors participating:
Taynã Tagliati (University of São Paulo): Co-responding with a Parrot in Amazonia: Cosmopolitical Engagements and Ethnography
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen (University of Helsinki): Speaking and Singing Firmly: Beings (Un)related and (In)activated by Language in Amazonian Academic Research
Beth A. Conklin (University of Vanderbilt): Microbes and Fieldwork: Reflections Toward a (Micro)Biosocial Anthropology
Eric Michael Kelley (Boston University): Soul Loss in the Forest of Symbols: Transformational Bodies, Avá-Guaraní Acoustemology and Magical Mediating Methodological Instruments
Silvio Sanches Barreto Bará (Federal University of Amazonas): The Stool: A Place for Listening to Ancestral Knowledge
Siran Liang (Technische Universität Braunschweig): How to Milk a Yak: Embodied Learning with Yaks in Practice
Discussants: Sarah Green (University of Helsinki) and Carl Mika (University of Canterbury)
All the articles of the special issue are available online: https://journal.fi/suomenantropologi/issue/view/13435
