Project at AIAS

Our current world is increasingly characterised by uncertain futures, but how do we evaluate and revise our assumptions about the past as markers of identity? While the humanities’ interest in time is gaining pace, the realisation that the exploration of modes of temporalisation opens a privileged perspective on who we are and on the nature of the world has only scarcely lead to proper theorisation of how pasts emerge. In this fellowship, I will contribute to our understanding of how people make demands on the past as their future expectations change. A study of a religious movement in Solomon Islands will ensure that this theoretical advancement is grounded in ethnographic detail that has analytical clarity. I will complete a book manuscript, write an account of the theory that will be submitted to a journal, and organise a conference.