Collins, Samuel GeraldDurington, Matthew SloverCollins, Samuel Gerald2018-10-292018-10-292017-01-12Collins, S. G., Durington, M. and Gill, H. (2017), Multimodality: An Invitation. American Anthropologist, 119: 142-146. doi:10.1111/aman.128261548-1433https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12826http://hdl.handle.net/11603/11766This section used to be called Visual Anthropology. Its new name—Multimodal Anthropologies—reflects changes in the media ecologies we engage as anthropologists, changes that have broadened our perspective to include other forms of media practice, while remaining inclusive of visual anthropology. Many of these changes can be linked to three developments: (1) the (relative) democratization and integration of media production; (2) the shift toward engagement and collaboration in anthropological research; and (3) the dynamic roles of anthropologists vis‐à‐vis both the profession and the communities in which they work. Together, these changes suggest a new framework, multimodal anthropology, by which we mean not only an anthropology that works across multiple media but one that also engages in public anthropology and collaborative anthropology through a field of differentially linked media platforms. This is not, however, a decisive “break” with the past. Many of us already practice multimodal anthropology (Collins and Durington 2014; Cool 2014; Edwards 1997; Pink 2011; Postill 2011; Stewart 2013). When we consider the different opportunities and possibilities for engaging with ethnographically intended media in the age of diverse tools and platforms, we see multimodal anthropology. When we look at the transmedia installations of Ethnographic Terminalia, we see articulations of multimodal anthropology. Multimodal anthropology is also encapsulated within the numerous visual, aural, and tactile media that anthropologists produce, post, and share—the growing decoupage of social media that is one symptom of a changing anthropological practice. Multimodal practice is not limited to self‐identification as a visual anthropologist. Rather, it encompasses this subdiscipline and also invites practitioners from within and outside anthropology. Finally, we see multimodality in the ways communities of non‐anthropologists interact with us, from para‐anthropological productions to critique and commentary. In what follows, we lay out our vision and ever‐expanding areas of interest for this section as we explore the transformative potentialities of the multimodal. It is meant less as a provocation than an invitation to submit works that engage multimodal possibilities.application/pdf9 pagesen-USMultimodal anthropologyMedia ecologyPublic anthropologyVisual anthropologyText