ERC Study Day – Interspecifics: Fieldwork Feedback

Fieldwork Feedback May 2023

During this study day, our PhD students will take us to different corners of Austronesia – and beyond – to share their first impressions or recent field advances, centered around one key theme: bats. From the flying foxes of Vanuatu to the markets of Tomohon, and South American perspectives on hematophagous bats.

Among the morning presentations, David Demeyer (UCLouvain) will talk about the flying fox “from forest to plate” in Vanuatu, with comments from Professor Jean-Guy Goulet (Saint Paul University), while Nicolas Baran (UCLouvain) will take us to the wet markets of North Sulawesi with an ethnography of gestures, in dialogue with Frédéric Keck (CNRS, Collège de France).

In the afternoon, Robert Crépeau (Université de Montréal) will offer a South American reading of hematophagous bats, enriched by comments from Antoine Laugrand (University of Ottawa / Academia Sinica).

Later in the day, two recent works will serve as a foundation to explore Austronesia as a space for social relationships and sensitive approaches. We will discuss Des voies de l’ombre. Quand les chauves-souris sèment le trouble with its authors, Frédéric Laugrand (UCLouvain) and Antoine Laugrand, and then delve into the comparative reflections of Charles Macdonald (CNRS) around the Blaan and Palawan.

Presided over by Justine Vanhaelen, Aiko Cappe, and Margot Coetsier (UCLouvain), this day aims to be convivial, open to discussion, and the circulation of ideas between young and established researchers. It will conclude with a word from Lionel Simon and Frédéric Laugrand (UCLouvain), followed by a drink or a smile.