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This roundtable brings together engaged anthropologists working with im/migrant communities to explore the transformational potential of accompaniment as anthropological practice. Informed by decolonial and feminist critiques of anthropology, accompaniment troubles the boundaries of scholar-activist and academic-community member to address the broader social purpose of our anthropological work. We understand accompaniment as an ethical commitment to solidarity, to using our positions of relative privilege to help ameliorate suffering. The roundtable will serve as a collective conversation about the multivalent meanings of accompaniment with im/migrant communities and as a forum to imagine possibilities for caring, relational, and decolonial forms of ethnographic engagement.
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Anthropology and Accompaniment in the Time of COVID
In this presentation I will discuss various forms of “accompaniment” my Latinx immigrant friends, research participants, and fellow activists and advocates have engaged in during the pandemic. I will discuss accompaniment as an anthropological praxis of solidarity, focusing on how, together, we have attempted to advocate for immigrant-protective polices in the past 1.5 years, how we have navigated barriers to forms of social support and healthcare, and how our relationships have shifted in the process.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1827397
- PAR ID:
- 10345093
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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