Assistant Professor of Anthropology Brian C. Smithson delivered an invited talk titled "From Collaborator to Star: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Celebrity Labor in West African Digital FIlmmaking” for the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists (WAPA) on January 24. Smithson focused on the complexities of researching African movies as a full participant in the production process, drawing from his ethnographic field research in Bénin. He highlighted his dual roles as both researcher and actor, exploring how his presence stoked entrenched notions of racial difference for African collaborators, while simultaneously inspiring them to improvise comic scenes that featured him. In this way, Smithson showed that even though Beninese friends joked that he was becoming a “star,” his participation inspired them to satirize white supremacy by drawing from comic traditions rooted in Nàgó–Yorùbá religions. WAPA is the oldest anthropology professional organization in the United States.
