The opening workshop of the network, titled „Collaborations and Contestations in Publicly Engaged Anthropologies“, took place as an online event in January 2022. Thematically, it focused on collaborative approaches of anthropological research and practice in exchange with social actors. It addressed emerging forms of solidarity and empathy as well as ethical conflicts and field-related challenges in politically contested fields. The event was opened with a presentation by Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo (Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology, Mexico City) on her activist-feminist research on mass graves in Mexico. The workshop was organized by Olaf Zenker and Asta Vonderau (Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) and Jacqueline Knörr and Carolin Görzig (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology).