Cultural Anthropology Blog- Academic Meetings in the Virtual and the Covid-19 Pandemic

 

How Covid-19 affects Anthropologists 

The Covid-19 Pandemic has greatly affected the way anthropologists do their day to day life work. The pandemic has disrupted the research, teaching, and professional activities of ethnography. In 2020-2021 Online meetings started becoming the norm for a lot of anthropologists because they couldn't travel or go anywhere in person. Many Anthropology conferences have been held as virtual meetings that were created by the SCA (Society for Cultural Anthropology).Virtual platforms have been around for a very long time but during the pandemic they started becoming very popular. This new form of communication has been very hard for many people to adjust to. One of the problems with anthropologists using technology is that not everyone all around has easy access to technology. Many of the places that anthropologists study don't have high speed, reliable, and consistent internet. Another problem of virtual meeting spaces is that they often create feelings of disconnection. Having to study anthropology through a screen can be very difficult because you cant experience or see the same things you see through a screen. For example seeing a village online is way different from going to the village and eating, sleeping, and spending days with them. Although there are many challenges when dealing with the technology aspect of anthropology it can also be very useful. People can communicate with each other in an efficient way. People can simply schedule a meeting that works for the both of them. Without technology they would have to travel far to have meetings and it would take up a lot of valuable time that could be spent doing other more productive things. Virtual connection can also be beneficial because it can help enable better education access, reduce carbon footprint, and bring people together from all different places. 

Website I looked at: https://culanth.org/fieldsights/introduction-small-academic-meetings-in-the-virtual-and-the-covid-19-pandemic


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