Meta-Reflection as a Teaching Tool
This semester I taught a new course called “Wicked Science,” which examines the challenges posed by wicked problems — those problems that defy solution because of fundamental di…
Author: nckawa
Plantas para alejar las malas vibras
Aquí se puede leer mi ponencia del Congreso Internacional sobre la Amazonía Peruana II, titulado “Plantas para alejar las malas vibras: Observaciones etnbotánicas de la Amazonía urbana.” …
Who gets to be an author?
Who gets to be an author in contemporary ethnographic anthropology and who does not? And how does inquiry into the norms of authorship expose problems surrounding academic labor…
10 Ways that Human Waste Isn’t Waste at All
You can find this short essay (or academic listicle?!?) in the latest issue of Anthropology News, which explores research on waste. Kawa (2022) Anthropology News – 10 waysDownload
Welcome to the Anthropozine
Anthropozine Pop-Up at #AAA2021Baltimore
#AmAnth2021: Anthropological Engagements with Optimism?
This year’s American Anthropological Association meeting is likely to be one of the weirder ones in recent memory. The general feeling is that: 1) the conference costs far…
Wicked Science
Wicked problems defy easy resolution and are plaqued by disagreements over their fundamental nature and cause (Credit: image by Via Sannevanderbeek) A recent article I published with colleagues…
No-Till: A Win-Win for Soil Conservation?
No-till is a soil conservation practice that has been widely adopted by Midwestern farmers. Many have described it as a “win-win” for soil conservation because it offers benefits…
Wasted: An Inquiry into the Management of Human Excrement
The Department of Anthropology at SUNY-Brockport was kind enough to invite me to share some insights from my ongoing research examining the use of human waste as a…
Debating the Origins of the Anthropocene (on NPR)
This morning, National Public Radio aired a short segment on scientific investigation and debate surrounding the origins of the Anthropocene. The story considers the mid-20th century date proposed…
Memoria y Salud Andino-Amazónica
En el 18 de julio de 2020, participé en un evento interdisciplinario organizado por el grupo estudiantil Abya Yala (de Ohio State) y el Foro Permanente de Estudios,…
Placing the Anthropos in the Anthropocene
Jeff Hoelle and I just wrapped up proofs on an article that will be part of a special issue dedicated to the Anthropocene in the Annals of the…
Thinking with Soils
The new edited volume Thinking with Soils – edited by Juan Francisco Salazar, Céline Granjou, Matthew Kearnes, Anna Krzywoszynska, and Manuel Tironi – is now available. You can…
Plants that Keep the Bad Vibes Away
A special issue on “Phyto-Communicability” will be coming out in the journal Ethnos at the end of this year. I contributed a research article to the issue that…
Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon
The edited volume Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon, edited by Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian, was just published by Punctum Books and is available in pdf format FOR FREE…
Little Free Zine Library in the Collaboratorium @ Ohio State
As students and I have been creating more zines (both through classes and research projects), we have started to build a critical mass of them. You can now…
New Zine on the History of Sanitation
Our zine “Infrastructural Digest” is now completed(!) and 250 copies have just been printed for the opening of the Privy2 demonstration garden. The zine features original artwork and…
Night Soil and the Metabolic Rift
Our latest article is out, which examines the history and cross-cultural management of human waste (or “night soil”) as an agricultural resource. The paper grew out of a…
Privy2
This summer I’ve been working with students and colleagues in the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State to install a demonstration garden, titled “Privy2: Biosolids and You.”…
Show & Tell: Using Sensorial Art to Teach Environmental Anthropology
When I first started teaching an environmental anthropology class several years ago, I wanted students to develop group projects that could potentially address some local environmental problem or…
Amazonia and the Ontological Turn: A Dialogue
In July 2017, I visited Manaus to work on a new collaboration with researchers in the Sociology Department at the Federal University of Amazonas State (UFAM) and I…
A Story of Us
For the past several years, the graduate students of the Ohio State Department of Anthropology have produced A Story of Us, a podcast that is sponsored by the…