The Wenner-Gren Foundation and Anthropology: A Listening Session for Independent Scholars

The Wenner-Gren Foundation is one of the few private funders that supports anthropology worldwide. With the elimination of programs and cuts to federal funding, we will soon be virtually the only source of research funding for many anthropologists in the U.S. But the U.S. is not the only country where our discipline is under assault: the neoliberalization of universities is a global phenomenon, which makes institutions particularly vulnerable to pressure from right wing governments and other repressive states. How can anthropology survive? What kinds of anthropology should survive?

How can we leverage our funding and networks to ensure the discipline has a future? How should we balance the newly urgent needs of anthropologists in the U.S. with demands to redress longstanding disparities in the discipline worldwide? How can Wenner-Gren best support anthropology and anthropologists throughout the world in these times?

This is the second of three sessions directed at different members of the worldwide community of anthropologists. We will begin with a brief update on Foundation initiatives, then open the floor. If you are independent scholar in anthropology or a related field, please join us — and bring your questions and concerns!