Lise Dobrin / Anthropology

My proposal for the Mead professors program is to work closely with a small groups of anthropology/linguistics students to organize a staging + audience discussion of the short, powerful play Mountain Language by Harold Pinter. The performance will bring together undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to wrestle with the societal issues surrounding language and human rights. Pinter’s play presents an interrogation encounter between some nameless “mountain people” and their oppressors who do not understand them, dramatizing the situation of many minority peoples in the world today who are subject to discrimination on the basis of the language they speak. I will work with the students to plan, advertise, and host the event. For the students most closely involved, the greatest benefits will be in the preparation. I will support and guide the students as they activate their social networks (e.g., through the undergraduate anthropology and linguistics societies), plan the performance, and develop the background knowledge and leadership skills needed to facilitate the post-performance discussion.

The $3,000.00 budget breakdown is as follows:
$200 advertising
$2,000 props, costumes, lighting rental
$800 reception