'Open Book Discussion'
Hedwig Waters (Palacky ́University Olomouc) &
Thomas White (Kings College London)
Please join Dr Hedwig Waters and Dr Thomas White on January 28th, 2025, for an ‘Open Book’ discussion of their recently published monographs: Moral Economic Transitions in the Mongolian Borderlands (Waters 2023) and China’s Camel Country (White 2024). For early career academics, the publication of their first book represents a significant and hard-earned milestone. In contrast to an individual book launch, Open Book seeks to bring these two works and authors into dialogue with one another, creating a space for them to think through the process of transforming their doctoral research into book-length publications, and reflect on the ethnographic and theoretical development of their ideas. As the name suggests, the event will not only encourage mutual theoretical engagement with their arguments, but also provide a relaxed and reflexive space to consider the construction of academic knowledge and the material artefact of a scholar’s first book itself. We welcome everyone in the department of Social Anthropology and adjacent disciplines, particularly postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers, to attend and contribute to this conversation.
Dr Waters received her PhD from UCL in 2019 and is now a Horizon Europe ERA (MSCA Actions) Postdoctoral Fellow at Palacky University, Czech Republic, while Dr White completed his doctorate in 2016 at the University of Cambridge and is now a Lecturer at the Lau China Institute, Kings College London, UK. The conversation will be chaired by Dr Elizabeth Fox, Research Associate at MIASU, University of Cambridge.