3 - 4 pm (CET)

Venue:

Einstein Center Chronoi

Otto-von-Simson-Straße 7, 14195 Berlin

Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz

In her current book project, Carola Lentz will reflect on her intellectual journey as an anthropologist. Over the past four decades, her thematic interests have changed, but her fieldwork has remained closely connected to northwestern Ghana and its inhabitants. Members of the educated elite from this region have been indispensable “middlemen” for Lentz’ research—as brokers and door openers, gatekeepers and critics, and often appreciative companions. The story of this research therefore cannot be told without examining the encounters with these middlemen. At the same time, these chiefs and politicians, teachers and civil servants, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals are important historical figures who have shaped local and national politics. To study their biographies, aspirations, predicaments and self-images thus offers an important window onto Ghana’s post-independence history.

For this book project, different dimensions of time are crucial. Both the elite men’s life courses and the researcher’s biography unfold within the coordinates of individual time, family time, and historical time (Hareven 1977). Lentz’ interview partners often discussed these tensions between individual ambitions, the unfolding family cycle with its role expectations, and national developments which generate or prevent opportunities. A book based on biographical research also has to be sensitive to what we may call “narrative time.” From which point in his life does an interviewee look at his own trajectory, and how does this shape his narrative? And finally, the book has to reflect on its “writing time,” that is, its character as a retrospective analysis, with temporal distance to the original encounters and research.

Participants can join the online Chronoi Talk by clicking on the following link:

https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=mbf17cf3026a975fb675324ff3d123177

The conference room can be accessed using the following methods:

• Joining directly in your browser; simply click the link above, and look for a button with this option near the bottom of the webpage.

• Downloading the program to your computer (instructions can be found by following the meeting link)

• Using the smartphone app called "Cisco Webex Meetings."

You are welcome to enter the online conference room up to 15 minutes in advance of the start time.