Projects

In the first edition of AnthroArt: Action for People and Planet, three applied anthropology organisations – Antropedia, Namla and Ambigrama – collaborated to create an international platform for connecting anthropology and art. The purpose of AnthroArt 1.0 is to deepen awareness about inequality and our relation with the environment. We first focused on driving change across three geographies: Romania, The Netherlands, and Portugal, as well as beyond. 

We worked to create bridges  – by translating anthropological knowledge into accessible information, art, and solutions through design thinking. AnthroArt 1.0 comes to an end at the end of 2024. The website remains online as a repository of anthropological knowledge, accessible to the public through easily digested articles and associated artworks.

To continue contributing to the pressing issues of our time, Namla is now part of an expanded consortium of exciting new partners who are building AnthroArt 2.0. We hope to bring the second edition live in 2026.

AnthroAction is a project funded by Erasmus+ to increase employability and societal impact amongst qualitative researchers. From March 2024 to February 2025, our aim is to reach a group of adults who have studied or graduated from a variety of qualitative research studies, but cannot find a job in their field. In a partnership with the University of Pardubice (Czech Republic), we are piloting a course that connects 16 researchers to 4 NGOs. 

Together the researchers will look for and test solutions to the organisations’ ‘wicked problems’, strengthening civil society. On December 15th, 14:00-16:00 CET, the final pitches of the researchers to their NGOs will be held in a hybrid event. A conference for disseminating the results of this project will take place in early February of 2026. Subscribe to Namla’s newsletter to be kept informed.

Namla partnered with a team from an organisation to build a learning program combined with a one-week trip to Prague, in August of 2024. Alongside social scientists, the team experienced anthropological methods and (new) ways of thinking and engaging with their consumers. Our partner was looking for extra insights in user behaviour as well as new methodologies of research and development that they can bring and put to use in future projects.

The first session of our PhD Bootcamp with UvA was hosted in April 2024, and the second in November 2024. The course is a partnership between Namla, the Anthropology department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and the Netherlands School of Anthropology (NESA).

In collaboration with the University of Amsterdam’s Summer School office, Namla has hosted Winter Schools in Ethnography and Design for three years, from 2022 to 2024. The course held participants from all continents and a wide variety of disciplines. The average rating of the programme and teachers was 8,5 out of 10.

If you want to know more about the experience of participants in our Winter School at UvA, check what they wrote on Medium.

The AnthroArt bootcamps were interdisciplinary workshops with mixed teams between anthropologists and artists. The teams were guided in a process of exploration and problem-solving to come up with actual ideas and initiatives on how to improve social inclusion and build a more sustainable relationship with the planet. Participants went through a small project from start to finish: research design, research in action, interventions and final presentation.

If you want to know more about the experience of participants in the AnthroArt bootcamps, have a look at what the teams have done.