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Meaning in the margins: understanding grassroots histories in Afghanistan
Tropes like the burqa-clad woman and extremist Taliban fighter have become stereotypes and stand-ins for our understanding of Islam in Afghanistan and of extremes within Islamic interpretations writ large. Images of soldiers in desert-like mountain areas proliferate in media depictions, casting Afghanistan in the colonial-Orientalist trope of the empty space. What chances do ethnographic and discursive engagements offer to acknowledge and unlearn these limiting discourses? Bringing several research lines together, insights from religious civil society activists, Taliban ministers and Sufi teachers, as well as debates with nomads or environmental scientists researching war legacies offer analytical ways forward. The talk reflects on these emerging opportunities when taking the margins as a vantage point to re-define our frames of reference.
Date:
7 November 2025, 15:00
Venue:
St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details:
Nissan Lecture Theatre
Speaker:
Annika Schmeding (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW))
Organising department:
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
Organisers:
Alice Millington (University of Oxford),
Zuzanna Olszewska (Associate Professor in the Social Anthropology of the Middle East),
Madeleine Reeves (University of Oxford)
Part of:
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography Departmental Seminar Series
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Kate Atherton
