The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
RAI Research Seminar - Afar ethnography & its future: Glynn Flood's ethnographic estate
The Royal Anthropological Institute
Wednesday 5th June 2019
17:30 - 19:30 at the Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT.
Prof Wendy James (Chair), Dr Maknun Ashami, Michèle Flood, Jean Lydall, and Till Trojer
To the mark the publication, online and in print, of: In Pursuit of Afar Nomads. Glynn Flood's Work Journal and Letters From the Field, 1973 – 1975 [edited by Maknun Ashami, Jean Lydall and Michèle Flood]. Max Planck Institute: Halle.
Forty-four years after his death at the hands of the military government of Ethiopia, Glynn Flood's ethnographic estate, based on fieldwork among Afar pastoralists, is now available in a publication (also online) of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale.
Michèle Flood provided her husband's ethnographic material, while Jean Lydall and Maknun Ashami compiled the book of Flood's journals and letters, with a CD of indexed scans of the original journals, letters, and field notes. We will discuss the significance of Flood's material for teaching and research that deal with fieldwork method, pastoralism, expropriation of land, development, Afar ethnography and history. An exhibition of Flood's photographs will accompany the seminar.
Wendy James recently retired as Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford; her primary research was carried out in Africa, mainly in the Sudan and Ethiopia where she also engaged with issues in humanitarian assistance.
Maknun Ashami gained a PhD in social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge with a dissertation on 'The political economy of the Afar Region of Ethiopia'; he teaches at Birkbeck College, London.
Michèle Flood, the widow of Glynn Flood, became an instructor of aviation English teachers, Toulouse.
Jean Lydall (Dipl Soc Anth) studied anthropology at the LSE; she did and continues to do research and make films in Hamar, Southern Ethiopia.
Till Trojer (MA) is a PhD student at SOAS; he has done fieldwork among the Afar salt traders.
The Seminar is free to attend, but places are limited. Tickets should be booked via Eventbrite:
