This seminar will focus on the author’s recently coined term “subversive archaism.” Proceeding from ethnographic research in two countries, he will seek to show how one tactic of resistance to official interference in community life and values consists in adopting the state’s own rhetoric about “heritage” and “tradition” and deploying it against the state’s representatives. The speaker will discuss the way such dynamics play out in the penumbra of European colonialism, and will address some of the refinements and criticisms that this approach has generated.

Michael Herzfeld is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, former and founding Director (2014-18), Thai Studies Program, Asia Center, Harvard University; and Senior Advisor on Critical Heritage Studies to the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, and Visiting Professor at Leiden University. He is also Chiang Jang Scholar and Visiting Professor at Shanghai International University, and holds an honorary appointment at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata." He is author of thirteen books (most recently Subversive Archaism: Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage, 2022) and Lo Stato nazione e i suoi mali, forthcoming in 2024), and is the producer of two films about Rome and is currently working on two films about Bangkok. He is a past editor of American Ethnologist (1995-98) and Journal of Modern Greek Studies (2023-24).

No registration necessary, all are welcome.