School of Social and Political Science

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Resurrecting that which was oblivious to me: anthropology, the negative, and the now

Professor John Devaney, Head of the School of Social and Political Science, introduces and provides closing remarks for this lecture. These can be found at the bottom of this page.

It is difficult to argue for the coherence of an academic career that has to date encompassed thinking alongside the fragmented character of urban life in Malaysia, the violent genius of a long-forgotten Scandinavian silent film on the ‘witch craze,’ the perversity of nonfiction film generally, and forms of life in the United States ethically organised around naturalised notions of neoliberal capitalist enterprise. Yet an indisciplined coherence is precisely what I affirm in this inaugural lecture. As our social world exists in pieces, it follows that any intellectual ambition to provide an immanent critique of that world must itself bear the fragmentary, contradictory marks of its object.

Immanent critique is a philosophically negative practice. It seeks out what is typically held to be insignificant or rendered invisible; the silences, contradictions, and incoherencies that are effaced in regimes of affirmation that compel us to smooth over such rifts and consign them to oblivion. It is not at all a world-denying scepticism. Nor is there a transcendent principle or categorical imperative grounding this critique. Like the forms of life it refers to, this critical approach is itself marked by contradiction, opacity, and the constant spectre of failure. And yet, and in spite of all, the (almost) delusional moral perfectionism one fleetingly detects in the social itself drives this critique as it struggles to express hope.

This lecture is therefore a reflection on a scholarly disposition and a speculative, at times excessive, method of thinking about others. The examples are drawn from remembered fragments, prior anthropological work, and from an ongoing ethnographic project that has revived links to a past that I had (incompletely) banished to oblivion. Arising from memories of growing up in a community of frustrated, failed entrepreneurs ensnared in unfree lives they simultaneously defended and despised, this current project considers entrepreneurial subjects in rural Southwestern Colorado (USA) and the contradictions, dilemmas, double-binds, and forms of violence that inevitably emerge from such forms of living. As many Americans take up entrepreneurial life seeking freedom, rather than simply ‘doing business’ or acquiring wealth, the current project aims to sympathetically grasp the lives of persons who find themselves faced with the impossibility of achieving the freedom that popular entrepreneurialism promises. Consistent with the approach I have always taken, staging the engagement as a negative dialectic framing a mode of thinking alongside, this lecture reflects on how they (and we) face the impossibility of a damaged world and live on anyway.

Keywords/themes:

• Critical Theory
• Philosophical Anthropology
• Anthropology of North America
• Enterprise as a form of living
• Anthropological Method
• Freedom/Unfreedom
• Neoliberalism
• Art and Cinema
• Memory/Remembrance
• Anthropology ‘at home’
• Negative Dialectics

Introduction and closing remarks

Professor John Devaney's introduction

Good evening, everyone. My name is John Devaney, and I'm the head of the School of Social and Political Science. I've got the absolute pleasure of firstly welcoming you all here this evening and secondly to introduce Professor Richard Baxstrom as he delivers his inaugural lecture. The whole point of an inaugural lecture is that it's not only a lecture to academics within the university, but it's also a public lecture. It's an opportunity for somebody who's been recently - or maybe not so recently - appointed to the university to share with colleagues and a wider public an insight into their area of expertise, and to talk about their body of work through either providing an overview of the work that they've engaged in and where they've arrived at, or to focus in on one particular aspect of the work that they do. It's a sneak peek inside the black box of what happens in our offices and on our laptops and computers. It's also an opportunity for the university community to come together, because we sometimes in the busy rush of trying to get ready for a new academic year we can see our colleagues, but really just in passing. It's nice to have a moment to actually stop in the midst of everything that is so busy and actually do what universities are meant to do, which is to come together to share ideas, to talk about important things, and to have an opportunity to discuss those things. I have no doubt that tonight we will be doing that as Richard delivers this lecture on Resurrecting that which was oblivious to me - anthropology, the negative, and the now. 

Now, Richard's been at the university for a number of years, and I was looking through a CV. He arrived back in 2007, and he shared with me that his journey here was maybe fortuitous in that he was on the hiring circuit and was attending, as many colleagues do, a conference where he knew there were going to be important and influential people who might be important in his career at a future point in time. He was also outraged at the American Anthropological Association, at the sort of exorbitant fees that they were charging for people to go along to the conference, and he and another person - and this will be of no surprise to anybody who knows Richard - they were outraged at this and decided to take direct action, which involved somehow dipping into their own pocket to buy crates a beer and giving free beer to people who were queuing up to come into the actual conference. In a way this drew him to the attention of other people, including some of our colleagues here at Edinburgh. Not that the free beer was a bribe that got him a job at Edinburgh, but just made him stand out from the crowd as somebody who was prepared to take direct action and be prepared to speak truth to power, or at least buy a beer for somebody else in that process. We've been very fortunate in that process, and as Richard noted on the notes for here that, if you look at his career from his undergraduate degree to his master's and then to his PhD, he's progressively moved further east in the States until he got to the Atlantic and realised there was nowhere else to go to in the States, so he may as well move to Europe. And that's certainly been our gain. As I say, Richard was appointed in 2007 to the university. He subsequently became a senior lecturer. And then in 2018, he was appointed as a professor of the university in a way that's not usual in the sense that we advertise in the school position of Deputy Head of school and Director of Learning and Teaching, keen for colleagues within the school to apply, but also saying we wanted to attract the very best talent in the world. And who should get the job? Somebody who's actually here. We're very pleased with that. I had the great pleasure of actually being on the interview panel, so I can speak with some authority to say that Richard had stiff competition for the actual post. The fact that Richard was the one that we chose to appoint speaks volumes not only for the robustness of the selection process, but also the way that you were able to bring your expertise to the panel, especially your expertise around learning and teaching, and to be able to convince us of the job that you would end up doing. You ended up being director of learning and teaching in the school and Deputy Head of school for five solid years. It was an interesting five years. Not only was there a pandemic during those five years, but you also had to work with three different Heads of School during that period of time, and it's difficult enough for anybody to work with one Head of School. I see some of my colleagues who work with me closely nodding their head at this stage. Certainly, Richard, what was very apparent to me was that what you brought to those positions was a calmness on authority, and very much being centred on what would work for individual students and individual members of staff, whist also at the same time thinking about how we did things collectively in a way that was beneficial to everyone, even if at times there were difficult things to do. During that time, Richard, also, as if he wasn't busy enough, also had to step up to be acting head of school when Linda McKie was ill for a period of time. I think nobody can ever say that Richard didn't fulfil that bit of sort of our job requirement, which is about citizenship and service during all of that. But there's certainly much more to Richard CV than just being a good servant. And that's why I'm so looking forward to this inaugural lecture this evening to get more of an insight into both your intellectual project and the things which actually enthuse you, but they also benefit from your wisdom and learning, Richard, because certainly I benefited from that during the many times that we have worked together. 

In terms of some of the formalities for this evening, we're not expecting any fire alarms. If you've got a mobile, please make sure it's on silent. Richard's expecting to speak for around 50-60 minutes. We're not going to take questions and answers because that seems a bit forced to do that on such an evening, but there will be an opportunity when we retire to the reception area of the CMB building. And for those who are not familiar with the building, it's just down the corridor and round to the right. There'll be refreshments there, and that'll be an opportunity both to congratulate Richard on his career to date, but also to engage in a discussion about his talk. We'll be joined there by some of Richard's family, who are looking after his two daughters who are here. And he's also joined this evening by Julia, his wife. That'll be an opportunity as well to meet some of the people who are the supporting cast, because there's nothing that any of us do in academia that isn't about having a cast of people around us who support us, both colleagues and friends, as well as family members. Richard, I’m looking forward to your talk, so I'll hand the floor over to you.

Professor John Devaney’s closing remarks

Richard, thanks very much for what has been a really thought provoking and interesting presentation. I'll be interested later on to meet your daughters, not only because it's very clear that you love them, but they also sound ash they're a reviewer to that you're living with all the time, who keep you honest and also aren't diminished in any way or put off by your status, expertise and intellect. Well, what came across from your presentation this evening was very clearly how you think deeply about issues. And I was struck by you posing the question is, what is the catalyst that leads us as academics to go into academia and shapes our intellectual project, and in doing so, what are the questions that drive and inform our work? In doing that, I was really struck by this idea about entrepreneurship and trying to think about what is it to be an entrepreneur as well as also being entrepreneurial. And the bit I wasn't expecting to think about a crossover between some of the things that I do in my work and your own work: this idea about trauma, about sometime,s when somebody's encountered an adversity, how they sort of present that and represent that and process that in a way which gives their next stage in life some meaning this idea of genesis. The idea that of this adversity can come strength and purpose. And that's got me thinking about some of the ideas that you're wrestling with and some of the things that I'm wrestling with in terms of how we think about our place in the world as individuals, the place of other people, and the connections that we have, and this idea that people forging a new identity for themselves and thinking about how that is sometimes the identity isn't just the meaning that they attach to their lives, but the things that they do, that give it some sort of meaning. 

There's plenty for me and for other people to follow up with you this evening. Thank you very much for what's been a very stimulating, as I say, thought-provoking presentation. It's always good to give an insight into your own journey. In terms of how ideas have unfolded alongside your academic journey, and also to hear about your acknowledgment of colleagues here in the room and elsewhere, who have been alongside you on this journey, some who have helped to shape your own thinking. Undoubtedly, others whose thinking has been shaped by your being alongside of them. And actually, that's one of the enriching things about the academic life. Thank you very much for all that you've shared this evening, both from a personal level and also a professional level. We're going to retire now to the foyer of the Chrystal Macmillan building. There'll be some refreshments there, and there'll be an opportunity both to congratulate Richard on his career. He's a young fellow, so he's still got plenty of time ahead of him to do other wonderful things. But let’s actually take this as a moment to share with him what he's brought into each of our lives, as well as what we have brought into his and to have an opportunity just to relax and enjoy this moment. So can we show our appreciation again. Very well done. Thanks. 

Recorded on 04 September 2024