Isla Mujeres Ethnographic Field School

18/03/2026

18/03/2026

✅ Join us for our exciting roundtables today, March 18 at . Dr. Pierce and colleagues will be presenting this afternoon at the two The Society for Applied Anthropology roundtables detailed below, as well as at a Training Exhibit for the Isla Mujeres Ethnographic Field School.

☑️ Everyday Entanglements: Practicing Anthropology in an AI World

(W-73) Wednesday 3/18 1:30-3:15 Potters

AI is already embedded in the everyday tools that shape both our fieldwork and the lives of those we study. From transcription software and translation tools to diagnostic algorithms and surveillance systems, AI now acts as collaborator, gatekeeper, and sometimes adversary in applied anthropology. This roundtable examines the ethical and methodological challenges and opportunities that arise when nonhuman actors mediate rapport, consent, and representation. As the “field” itself becomes increasingly algorithmic, how do we sustain integrity, authorship, and accountability within these systems? We invite your voices to consider how we sustain integrity, authorship, and accountability within these systems? We invite your voices to consider how AI is transforming your own anthropological practice.

☑️ Transforming Questions and Methods: Research on Immigration and State Violence amidst Shifting Political Terrains

W-121 Wednesday, March 18, 5:45-7:30 Alvarado A

This roundtable considers possibilities and challenges of ethnographic research in the current political moment of authoritarian governance, genocide, and white nationalist policing of borders. How does anthropological research take on new responsibilities and forms of accountability, and how does this moment shape new questions and methods, especially research carried out with communities under duress? The speakers on this roundtable will discuss how they are attempting to shape new research projects on immigration, refuge, asylum, resettlement, and state violence that take seriously the work of care – as a subject or a methodology – with communities made vulnerable by necropolitical states.

16/03/2026

Dr. Pierce and colleagues will be presenting at two roundtables at the 86th annual conference in Albuquerque this week, March 17-21, as well as a Training Program exhibit for the field school.

☑️ Everyday Entanglements: Practicing Anthropology in an AI World

(W-73) Wednesday 3/18 1:30-3:15 Potters

AI is already embedded in the everyday tools that shape both our fieldwork and the lives of those we study. From transcription software and translation tools to diagnostic algorithms and surveillance systems, AI now acts as collaborator, gatekeeper, and sometimes adversary in applied anthropology. This roundtable examines the ethical and methodological challenges and opportunities that arise when nonhuman actors mediate rapport, consent, and representation. As the “field” itself becomes increasingly algorithmic, how do we sustain integrity, authorship, and accountability within these systems? We invite your voices to consider how we sustain integrity, authorship, and accountability within these systems? We invite your voices to consider how AI is transforming your own anthropological practice.

☑️ Transforming Questions and Methods: Research on Immigration and State Violence amidst Shifting Political Terrains

W-121 Wednesday, March 18, 5:45-7:30 Alvarado A

This roundtable considers possibilities and challenges of ethnographic research in the current political moment of authoritarian governance, genocide, and white nationalist policing of borders. How does anthropological research take on new responsibilities and forms of accountability, and how does this moment shape new questions and methods, especially research carried out with communities under duress? The speakers on this roundtable will discuss how they are attempting to shape new research projects on immigration, refuge, asylum, resettlement, and state violence that take seriously the work of care – as a subject or a methodology – with communities made vulnerable by necropolitical states.