"Fishing Ban at Lake Sevan: Surveillance, Arbitrariness and the Multilayered State” - Online Talk by Arev Papazian
Events
On December 8, at 5:00 p.m., a series of anthropology research seminars with the doctoral program will host Arev Papazian, a PhD candidate at the Central European University, presenting her research titled “Fishing Ban at Lake Sevan: Surveillance, Arbitrariness and the Multilayered State”.
FISHING BAN AT LAKE SEVAN: SURVEILLANCE, ARBITRARINESS AND THE MULTILAYERED STATE
About the Research
Both the opening and closure of Arev's yearlong intensive fieldwork at Lake Sevan in Armenia were marked by the strict period of ban on fishing. However, there was a remarkable difference between those two moments. While, as an outsider in the beginning, she mostly saw the performance of the official state, toward the end of the fieldwork she was part of the ‘intimate social space’ (Hertzfeld 2014) of the state and the fishing economy, seeing the contradictions, 'secrets' and seeming failures of imposing the ban. What were the challenges in entering this space? How to interpet its 'secrets'? How to move from the puzzling contradictions to conceptual explanations? This seminar is as much about presenting ethnographic findings from Arev Papazian's PhD research at Lake Sevan, as it is about reliving together her fieldwork and discussing how an anthropologist transitions from the minor details observed in the most ordinary situations – like a park ranger's meal – to abstract concepts – like the fluidity of the state. Together with the presenter we will look into the ban on fishing at Lake Sevan, observe the surveillance activities of the state offices, and attempt to make sense of its seeming failure in imposing the ban.
About the Speaker
Arev Papazian is a PhD candidate in sociology and social anthropology at the Central European University. Her research project is an ethnography of fishing and nature protection at Lake Sevan, and looks into nature management through conservation and resource use, its relation to labor, capital, and the state. She holds an MSc in social anthropology from the University of Oxford.
The talk will be conducted in English via Zoom: https://shorturl.at/exBMY
Date and Time: December 8, 5:00 p.m.
Attendance is free.
2023