From Zora Neale Hurston to Raymond Williams, academics have sometimes turned to fiction as a way of accessing deeper truths than what is possible through academic research and writing. Scholars have lauded fictional dramas such as The Wire for showing the interconnectedness of urban inequality in ways that academic work has failed to do. In this panel, anthropologists Ruth Behar and Paul Stoller will reflect on the kinds of creative and experimental writing that they and other academics have engaged in. The panel will consider the possibilities and place of fiction within the social sciences.
