[Anthropgrad] Seminar non-attendance

[Alan.Rumsey at anu.edu.au]

Further to Patrick Guinness's posting of a few days ago (which I received in France, where I have come for a conference), I was very disappointed to hear from both him and Margaret Jolly of the low turnout for Matt Tomlinson's seminar last week. I was disappointed not only on Matt's behalf, but because once again far too few of you postgrads have availed yourself of one of the best opportunities to broaden and deepen your knowledge of anthropology, and of how to put an argument together. If you think it is not worth going to seminars that are not focused on your particular field area, you couldn't be more mistaken. By far the biggest problem that most or all of you face in your attempts to write a thesis (like the rest of us) is the problem of devising a theoretically informed argument that you can bring your fieldwork data to bear on as evidence. And there is no better way of developing that skill than by exposing yourself to the work of others who are more experienced at it than you are, and/or who have had great success at it. Matt Tomlinson is one of those people. While no older than many of you, he has fourteen articles / book chapers in print or forthcoming - many in the leading journals - and a book manuscript under review by one the top academic presses. As is true of everyone I have invited to give seminars this year, you would have had much to learn from him about the craft of anthropology.  I’m sorry that so many of you missed the chance. For your own sake I urge you not to do so again this week, or for the rest of your time at ANU.
 
Alan
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