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What Does the Future Hold?

What Does the Future Hold?

Written by: New Writing North
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 What does the future hold?

It’s a big question. The word ‘future’ itself can have many different connotations.
Six anthropologists at Durham University sit down for six different conversations about what answers – and what further questions – we might find. Through the fascinating lens of their current research, these thinkers will look at what kind of futures we might imagine for ourselves, and what powers we have to make them happen.

Produced for Durham Book Festival in partnership with Durham University.Copyright New Writing North Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Episode 6: Resisting Reconciliation with Nayanika Mookherjee

    Episode 6: Resisting Reconciliation with Nayanika Mookherjee
    Oct 12 2023
    In the final episode of this series, we hear from Professor of Political Anthropology Nayanika Mookherjee. Nayanika joins us from home to talk about her work around post-conflict reconciliation. Expectations of forgiveness often make it incumbent upon survivors to reconcile and seek closure as an exhibition of ‘moving on’ for a ‘happy’ future – but what if this fails to address injustice? Drawing on her recently published book On Irreconciliation, Nayanika examines the need to not forgive as a political stance, and how irreconciliation can create an indeterminate future – or ‘frozenness’.

    Read the episode transcript here.

    Produced for Durham Book Festival with support from Durham University. Presented and directed by Lucie McNeil. Find out more about the project here.
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    29 mins
  • Episode 5: Running in the Dark with Michael Crawley

    Episode 5: Running in the Dark with Michael Crawley
    Oct 12 2023
    In this episode, social anthropologist Michael Crawley thinks about the impact of technological advancement and ‘cyborgification’ in the world of athletics. There are limits on what we consider humanly possible, but those limits are increasingly being challenged and changed. Focusing on the research for his new book about endurance, Michael asks: at what point do athletic achievements become less about the athletes and more about the technologies that facilitate their success? And what implications does this have on what it means to be human?

    Read the episode transcript here.

    Produced for Durham Book Festival with support from Durham University. Presented and directed by Lucie McNeil. Find out more about the project here.
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    33 mins
  • Episode 4: Planning for the Next Pandemic with Hannah Brown

    Episode 4: Planning for the Next Pandemic with Hannah Brown
    Oct 12 2023
    In the post covid-19 era, it is clearer than ever that we need to think about how to manage a future that includes epidemic and pandemic diseases. Professor Hannah Brown is determined to ensure that any future responses consider the full breadth of research and insight into previous epidemics, and that anthropologists have a seat at the table when it comes to making those decisions. Hannah talks about the importance of detail – of looking at the whole picture, identifying ‘blind spots’ and using past learning to plan as best we can for the future.

    Read the episode transcript here.

    Produced for Durham Book Festival with support from Durham University. Presented and directed by Lucie McNeil. Find out more about the project here.
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    22 mins
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