Experimental Ethnography Penn

Still deciding on courses for the Fall? Check out the CEE's classes on "Ethnographic Filmmaking" with Professor Alissa Jordan and "The American Music Documentary" with Professor Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.

🎊Congratulations to CEE scholar and Communications PhD Kinjal Dave for publishing: “Constructing and Performing Domesticity: Materiality of Gujarati Women’s Technical Labor in the United States Post-1965” in the feminist techno-science journal Catalyst. Well done Kinjal! Read the article here: /index.php/catalyst/article/view/44963

💌CEE #71 - https://mailchi.mp/upenn/71 Spring is here! We have wonderful events this month including two course exhibits. One from Dr.Grossi’s course “Interventions in Circulations” on May 5, and second, from Dr.Jordan’s Ethnographic Filmmaking on May 13. Read our latest newsletter for reflections from our Director, Deb Thomas, and the community organization We.REIGN. Visit the Public Trust’s Curating Engagement Book Launch (May 14), and the Atelier Gallery for a panel discussion on indigenous cultural and museum stewardship (May 9).💌

🖼️On Tuesday, May 5, students from Professor Angelantonio Grossi’s ANTH 3673/6673 are exhibiting their final artworks! Engaging with histories and enacting interventions across the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, the pieces draw on archival materials, image repositories, and ethnographic reservoirs. The works on display experiment with a range of expressive forms and mixed-media approaches, including sculpture, video art, photography, painting, and video game art. Event Details: Location: Recital Hall, Irvine Auditorium Time, date: 4-7PM, May 5 Address: 3401 Spruce Street

TOMORROW @ ANNENBERG PLAZA, 1PM 🧸Join the "Torn Apart" installation: A collaborative ethnographic installation calling on the public to donate a stuffed animal to help visually represent children separated from their family due to U.S. Immigration enforcement.

🎞️Our first of two film screenings from Community Youth Filmmaking (EDUC/ANTH 5467) taught by Professor Alissa Jordan, premieres this Saturday at the Joseph E. Coleman Library (68 W Chetlan Ave) from 12-2PM. Join students, Philly partners, and community co-creators for an afternoon of free film!🎞️ 🎬One Day You’re Five (with Queen Lane Montessori School) 🎬Towards (with Natural Creativity) 🎬One Frame at a Time (with Sayre Highschool + LensBright) 🎬Gather(in) Memory: Archiving Hyperlocal History in Germantown (with Joseph E. Coleman Library & Germantown Info Hub) 🎬This City is Worth Fighting For (with 215 PA) On May 13th, the second screening will take place at 5534-46 Pulaski Ave, Natural Creativity.

Yesterday, we co-organized the conversation “What Does it Mean to Live Exorbitantly?” at the Public Trust facilitated by Dr.Jasmine Johnson. Discussing Deborah A. Thomas’s new book, Exorbitance: A Speculative Ethnography of Inheritance, and screening one of Deb’s complementary films on Kumina, we explored how we may define political sovereignty beyond the state, “grounded in the embodied forms of autonomy and relation created in daily life.” 📖Read more about Deb’s book here: https://dukeupress.edu/exorbitance Presented in partnership with the Center for Experimental Ethnography @experimentalethnography , the Public Trust, and the Black Performance Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

This Thursday (4/23): Join us at Public Trust for “What Does it Mean to Live Exorbitantly?,” a public conversation from 5-6:30pm featuring scholars Deborah A. Thomas and Jasmine E. Johnson. Centering on Thomas’s new book, Exorbitance: A Speculative Ethnography of Inheritance, the discussion will explore the relationships between embodiment and sovereignty and raise questions about modes of world-building that are exorbitant to classic political frames. Presented in partnership with the Center for Experimental Ethnography and the Black Performance Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Image Credit: Leniqueca A. Welcome, "Unbounded," Cover Collage for Exorbitance, 2025

I’ve had such a fun semester teaching “Grassroots Archiving & Curating Engagement” through @experimentalethnography at University of Pennsylvania. In two weeks we are hosting a local art history Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon with @art_freelibraryofphiladelphia that we hope you’ll join for! No experience necessary! And also recapping what we’ve been up to just sharing some photos from field trips and guest visits with @art_freelibraryofphiladelphia @acadnatsci @asianartsphilly @publictrust_org @julierainbow9 @_lowelauren @writersroomdrexel @marinamcdougallvella @davekyu @kislakcenter where we’ve learned about working with a wide variety communities in co-curation, archiving and oral histories. I’m grateful for the chance to teach something based on my own practices and for all the folks who shared their experiences with us. I hope you’ll join us to dig into Wikipedia editing on the 29th!

📢For our upcoming April Third Thursday, Azsanneé Truss and CAMRA will give a recap of their annual SSMF festival! This years theme is “ Portals” and we will hear about how the 2026 submissions explored and engaged with this theme. Please join us for an exciting conversation over lunch and refreshments! @ Penn Museum 438. A brief reflection from our Director Deb Thomas, reflecting on Portals: "Last week [of March], CAMRA hosted their annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival with the theme of portals, an experiment with crossing boundaries, shifting perceptions, and navigating between worlds. For the organizers, portals were 'intersections where multiple realities, experiences, and dimensions converge,' and the projects that were highlighted over the two days of the festival blended material and metaphysical approaches to world/art-making across historical, spiritual, and technological terrains."

🎬TOMORROW, MARCH 25 | 4PM | RAINEY AUDITORIUM AT THE PENN MUSEUM Join us for a screening of the documentary film The Empty Grave, followed by comments and conversation by Erinest Kaaya, Felix Kaaya, and Ndelekwa Kaaya (whose ancestor's remains are held at the American Museum of Natural History) and German artist and activist Konradin Kunze. Songea, Tanzania. The young lawyer John Mbano in on a mission. His great-grandfather Songea Mbano, a leader of the Ngoni people, was executed by the German colonial army. His head was taken to Germany for racist research. The family is haunted by this pain to this day. John and his wife Cesilia embark on a life-changing journey. Their research and resilience culminate in a courageous decision—to travel to Berlin in search of their ancestor's remains. There, they join forces with activists challenging Germany's culture of denial. What follows is a rollercoaster of triumphs and setbacks. Not even the historic visit of Germany's Federal President to John's hometown heralds the return of their beloved ancestor. Yet, the Mbano family refuses to relent. In Northern Tanzania, the Kaaya family is hopeful: Their ancestor’s remains have been found in a museum in New York. However, the struggle for return is unending as they find themselves battling institutional bureaucracy. The Empty Grave offers a personal angle amidst the global discourse on repatriation. Beyond the debates lies the poignant tale of violated lives and the struggle for a future disentangled from a painful past.

Events This Week: Third Thursday, Film Screenings, Book Releases, and an Exhibit Opening!