Call for papers

Undisciplined Anthropologies II: Beyond Borders

American University of Rome, Italy
Department of Cultures and Societies, University of Palermo, Italy

International Conference
25th, 26th September 2026

The conference will take place in Rome
American University of Rome
The Aurelia Auditorium
Via Pietro Roselli, 4
Roma 00153


Deadline for abstracts: September 1st, 2026

The first edition of Undisciplined Anthropologies emerged from the need to critically interrogate established forms of knowledge production. In a cultural context marked by ecological crises, political conflicts, technological transformations and growing inequalities, we asked whether anthropology and the social sciences might be reimagined as practices capable of challenging the limits imposed by traditional organizations of knowledge. With this second edition, we wish to continue and deepen that reflection. Above all, we are interested in exploring what might emerge from the openings created by undisciplinarity. What forms of knowledge become possible when disciplinary boundaries and hierarchies are subjected to critical scrutiny? How can anthropology, the social sciences, the arts and political practices contribute to the production of plural futures, the emergence of new sensibilities and experimentation with alternative ways of knowing and living? For us, undisciplinarity does not simply mean the occasional transgression of disciplinary rules. Rather, it denotes an epistemological posture that refuses to accept disciplines as the natural and immutable horizons of knowledge. To be undisciplined means to question the processes through which forms of knowledge are classified, hierarchized and legitimized; it means inhabiting the thresholds between different fields, fostering methodological cross-pollinations and creating spaces of inquiry that exceed the established separations between theory and practice, academia and activism, knowledge production and world-making. From this perspective, undisciplinarity is a practice of openness, a movement capable of enabling new forms of collaboration, new political imaginaries and new ways of producing knowledge. Under the title Beyond Borders, this second gathering seeks to explore the generative potential of undisciplinarity. We invite anthropologists, scholars from different disciplines, artists, activists and writers to submit contributions that explore the many ways in which it is possible to build and imagine otherwise and beyond borders. Possible themes include (but are not limited to):

• Anthropology as a practice of undisciplinarity: theoretical, methodological and ethical-political perspectives
• Building and imagining otherwise: possible worlds, plural futures and practices of world-making
• Radical, militant, engaged and collaborative anthropologies
• Situated, marginal and non-hegemonic forms of knowledge
• Communities, alliances and collective practices of world-building
• Ecologies of undisciplinarity: environmental crises, multispecies coexistence and ecological imagination
• Emerging technologies, artificial intelligence and transformations of knowledge
• Languages of undisciplinarity: experimental writing, alternative narratives and practices of translation
• Visual, sonic, performative and multimodal ethnographies
• Body, affects, sensibilities and embodied practices of knowing
• Encounters and crossings between anthropology, the arts, philosophy and creative practices
• Everyday life, resistance and creativity in ordinary practices
• Ethnographies of uncertainty, contingency and transformation
• Shifting boundaries between research, activism and public engagement
• Emerging subjectivities, difference and new forms of coexistence

Modalities of participation and deadline:
Submissions are welcomed in English or Italian language. Papers may likewise be presented in either English or Italian with a maximum duration of 20 minutes per presentation.

The conference will be in-person only, hosted in Rome at the American University of Rome (The Aurelia Auditorium, Via Pietro Roselli, 4).

Conference registration is free, however no funding is available. Travel, accommodation and food costs are to be covered by participants.

Abstracts: Maximum 300 words
Keywords: 3
Short biography: Maximum 100 words
Deadline: September 1, 2026
Respond to: Stefano Montes (stefano.montes@unipa.it), Massimo Canevacci (maxx.canevacci@gmail.com) and Scott Sprenger (s.sprenger@aur.edu).

Scientific board:
Jacob Bessen, University of Toronto, Canada
Massimo Canevacci, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy
Vincent Crapanzano, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA
Hanna Geara, artist
Giancarlo Germanà Bozza, Accademia di Belle Arti, Palermo, Italy
Salvatore Giusto, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Claudio Gnoffo, Guglielmo Marconi University, Rome, Italy
Michael Jackson, Harvard Divinity School, USA
Micah Jayne, Virginia Commonwealth University
Stefano Montes, University of Palermo, Italy
Arrigo Musti, artist
Kristiina Rebane, University of Tallinn, Estonia
Giorgia Rubera, CNR, ISMed, Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo; Napoli
Scott Sprenger, American University of Rome, Italy
Paul Stoller, Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen/Nuremberg and University of Pennsylvania
Michael Taussig, Columbia University, USA

Organizing committee:
Massimo Canevacci, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy
Stefano Montes, University of Palermo, Italy
Scott Sprenger; American University of Rome