Visiting Anthropology Professor to Share Illustrative Journey Using Comics-based Research March 12

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Luis Vivanco, professor and chair of anthropology at the University of Vermont, will present “Adventures in Creative Stumbling: Research comics, creativity and emergent inquiry practices” on March 12 at 1 p.m. in Furcolo Hall, North 113.

Vivanco describes his lecture as an illustrative talk that will reflect on his intentional and emergent inquiry practices, “tripping, stumbling and backing my way into inquiries, while embracing the generative intellectual and creative possibilities that exist in unfamiliar and bewildering spaces, moments and processes.”

He will share how his journey researching the social history of bicycles began as a diversion, but generated new creative revelations about his relationship with scholarship and teaching.

Vivanco’s scholarship focuses on the culture and politics of environmentalist social movements and activism, drawing primarily on research in Latin America. His writings have explored community-level biodiversity conservation and ecotourism; the history of nature cinema and wildlife film; and the socio-cultural dimensions of urban bicycle mobility and political activism. The author of the “Oxford Dictionary of Cultural Anthropology,” he is currently writing his 10th book on environmental anthropology and has co-written four widely used anthropology textbooks. He has won UVM’s Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, Scholar-Teacher Award and the University Outstanding Advising Award.

The lecture, which is free and open to the university community, is sponsored by the Comics-based Research Lab (CBR Lab).  For more information, visit the CBR Lab website or contact Sally Pirie, professor of education, at sallyann@umass.edu.