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One of the most important conferences for anthropology in Europe and beyond is Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). Approximately 1,200 anthropologists from around the world are expected to participate in this major international conference, which will take place in Tallinn from 31 July to 3 August 2014. The conference topic is “Collaboration, Intimacy & Revolution - Innovation and Continuity in an Interconnected World”.

It is fortuitous that a major conference addressing such important issues will take place in Tallinn. This year’s conference, which also celebrates the 25th anniversary of EASA's inaugural meeting, takes place a quarter-century after the end of the Cold War and the events that triggered dramatic changes around the world. Along with other Baltic states, Estonia initiated the Singing Revolution, which has been credited playing a central role in the country’s move towards independence and post-Soviet reformation. Today, Estonia is also at the forefront of the digital revolution – a complex socio-technological process that is likely to have an impact analogous to that of the printing press 500 years ago.

The conference organisers are pround to confirm that the influential American anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli will deliver the keynote speech. Professor Povinelli has done research on work, politics, intimacy and media with an aboriginal group in Australia since the 1970s. Povinelli’s keynote, entitled “Downloading the Dreaming - All of it extinguished but none of it dead?” will focus on efforts of this group to make a meaningful living in a political climate that Povinelli calls “late liberalism”.

The 150 discussion panels, film screenings and laboratories during the EASA 2014 conference will provide arenas for discussing current anthropological research and developments in social and cultural theory. The 21st century has provided anthropology with new types of data, new methods for research and collaboration, and new interdisciplinary connections.

Anthropology is a discipline that studies human ways of life, cultures and societies. Anthropologists aim to understand human life holistically and comparatively . They often carry out long-term ethnographic fieldwork to learn about people’s everyday lives in detail.

Tallinn University’s Estonian Institute of Humanities will be hosting the conference in collaboration with the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), the University of Tartu and Riga Stradins University.

For more information, please visit the conference website .