2026. május 8. (péntek) 15:15–16:35 | Helyszín: Színházterem | DANTE
Knowledge Production with a Real-World Impact in a Higher Education Setting
Both universities and academia are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the practical relevance of the humanities and social sciences. This raises key questions: how can professors equip students with the necessary skills, knowledge and mindset to apply their anthropological expertise outside of academia and engage with contemporary issues? How can applied anthropology transform students from passive consumers of theory into active producers of impactful real-world knowledge in multimodal forms?
This session will examine small-scale, student-led applied anthropology projects developed in collaboration with the Anthropolis Anhtropological Association. We, the facilitators, alongside international students at the University of Miskolc, will discuss how such initiatives can foster methodological competence, ethical reflexivity, and collaborative skills – attributes frequently overlooked in conventional teaching methods. We will draw on three projects to illustrate our points. We will argue that when students take ownership of the design, data collection, implementation, and dissemination of projects, they deepen their engagement with disciplinary concepts while cultivating transferable professional capacities. Small-scale projects are particularly effective as their limited scope ensures feasibility within two semesters, reduces institutional constraints and enables iterative learning, including through failure. This approach repositions the instructor as a facilitator rather than an authority figure, thereby supporting egalitarian classroom dynamics that align with anthropology’s critiques of hierarchical knowledge production. The session will also address the challenges of integrating such project-based modules from the perspectives of students, community partners, and facilitators.
Participants: Sohana Naznin Anu, Dávid Bán (Anthropolis), Argiro Ermidi, Antónia Koncz, Veronika Lajos, Bayangaa Oyunchimeg, Irina Sedunova and Bi Yuanyuan.
Organizers: Veronika Lajos, Department of Cultural and Visual Anthropology, University of Miskolc, Hungary, and Dávid Bán, Anthropolis Anthropological Association.
https://kvat.uni-miskolc.hu | https://www.facebook.com/anthropolis.hu/