Drs. Renato Resaldo & Mary Louise Pratt
On Tuesday I had the great fortune to see a truly wonderful anthropologist lecture. Dr. Renato Resaldo, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Stanford. He is a gifted public speaker and gave an enlightening talk on how to write ethnography, the primary form of anthropological writing.
Wednesday his wife, Dr. Mary Louise Pratt, a professor emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese, gave a lecture on language and contemporary geopolitics. Although Dr. Pratt is not trained as an anthropologist, much of her work in languages has been applicable to anthropology and highly regarded. It was an engaging lecture, and one of my friends was particularly interested because Dr. Pratt has done with with the Zapatistas, with whom my friend is considering doing her MA thesis.
Following the lecture on Wednesday all the senior students were invited to dinner at the chair of the anthropology's home (he's on sabbatical this year), where we had the opportunity to shmooze with professors and the guest lectures. I was incredibly intimidated at the idea of speaking to Dr. Resaldo, because I've heard about his groundbreaking work in anthropology since first year, but I had a question that I was just dying to ask him. When I finally did work up the courage (none too little encouraged by my classmates) it was absolutely fantastic. I approached him, and ended up sitting on the floor next to him, discussing for about 15 phenomenal minutes, the advantages of ethnographic writing and the ability to reach the nonacademic. He urged me to pursue not just academic writing, but to look into local media and to never underestimate the power of public speaking. He was insightful in everything that he said, and by the end of the conversation I was positively tingling. I had to work harder than usual to remain engaged, simply because I was fighting the nearly overwhelming excited thoughts of "I'm actually talking to Renato Resaldo!!!". Without a doubt, it is something that I'll never forget.
Wednesday his wife, Dr. Mary Louise Pratt, a professor emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese, gave a lecture on language and contemporary geopolitics. Although Dr. Pratt is not trained as an anthropologist, much of her work in languages has been applicable to anthropology and highly regarded. It was an engaging lecture, and one of my friends was particularly interested because Dr. Pratt has done with with the Zapatistas, with whom my friend is considering doing her MA thesis.
Following the lecture on Wednesday all the senior students were invited to dinner at the chair of the anthropology's home (he's on sabbatical this year), where we had the opportunity to shmooze with professors and the guest lectures. I was incredibly intimidated at the idea of speaking to Dr. Resaldo, because I've heard about his groundbreaking work in anthropology since first year, but I had a question that I was just dying to ask him. When I finally did work up the courage (none too little encouraged by my classmates) it was absolutely fantastic. I approached him, and ended up sitting on the floor next to him, discussing for about 15 phenomenal minutes, the advantages of ethnographic writing and the ability to reach the nonacademic. He urged me to pursue not just academic writing, but to look into local media and to never underestimate the power of public speaking. He was insightful in everything that he said, and by the end of the conversation I was positively tingling. I had to work harder than usual to remain engaged, simply because I was fighting the nearly overwhelming excited thoughts of "I'm actually talking to Renato Resaldo!!!". Without a doubt, it is something that I'll never forget.
posted by Haley @ 7:51 p.m.
