E@TM is a student-led research training seminar, organised by research students at the department of social anthropology, SOAS, and which began as a HEFCE funded project. In its second year 1998-1999, E@TM has not benefited from any outside funding, which has meant a limitation of E@TM activities to the local level of SOAS anthropology department. Nonetheless, it has proved an invaluable complement to SOAS anthropology research training, as its allocation of a place in the departmental timetable indicates.
E@TM has sought to foster the development of a research community, countering the sense of isolation that often results from the process of anthropological thesis production. Drawing upon the diversity of skills and experiences within the group, participants have been encouraged to organise sessions, as well as longer, institutionally based workshops, such as the Video Workshop (9th Nov 1998), Writing Workshop (22nd Feb 1999) or the Consultancy Workshop (3rd March, 26th March 1999). While the workshopsí participants were drawn almost exclusively from SOAS itself, E@TM sought to include interested researchers from departments other than the anthropology department, such as Development Studies and Music. Invitations were also extended, through informal contacts, to research students at neighbouring institutions, such as UCL and the Institute of Education; throughout the year, attempts were made to transcend institutional as well as disciplinary boundaries.
The seminar sought to complement existing research training at SOAS, exploring emerging theoretical and methodological fields, for instance training in the use of video and multimedia.
It has also tried to make up for the limited opportunities for the acquisition of professional skills in the department, providing participants with the opportunity to facilitate weekly sessions, organise workshops and get involved in various aspects of publishing and editing through the E@TM newsletter launched in 1999.
Finally, E@TM is committed to providing a space for the articulation of a collective student voice, opinions and/or discontents about the process of PhD production, at the departmental level, and through its final workshop (outlined in the above report), at the national level.
For more on E@TM, the reader is referred to E@TM web site and a forthcoming second paper on E@TM written by seminar participants.
References cited
Goffman, E. 1971 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life London:Penguin
Turner, V. 1974 Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press