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…
Author: nckawa
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…
The Social Network of US Academic Anthropology and Its Inequalities
This project has taken several years to come together, but I’m happy to share that “The Social Network of US Academic Anthropology and Its Inequalities” was recently published…
Zines!
Rather than do terms papers or group presentations for my History of Anthropological Theory class this semester, I had students work in groups to develop zines based on…
Wakanda University at #AmAnth2018
Elizabeth Chin, @nidhisrathore, @allergyPhD, @dorinnekondo, Chibundo Egwuatu & others at #WakandaUniversity gave us an alternative vision of what the space of the AAA conference can be like, look…
Urban Amazonian Show & Tell at #AmAnth18
At this year’s AAA meeting, I’ll be presenting a paper on a panel titled “The Cultural Work of Aesthetics: Brazilian Notions of the Beautiful and the Crafting of…
What Happens When We Flush? Public Talk at Whetstone Library
If you want to learn about all the fascinating things central Ohio does with its so-called “human waste,” come to this public talk I’ll be giving at Whetstone…
U.S. Academic Anthropology’s Hiring Network
A paper I authored with several colleagues titled “The Social Network of U.S. Academic Anthropology and Its Inequalities” was recently accepted by American Anthropologist and will be publ…
Maya Milpa Workshop at OSU’s Waterman Farm
Last Friday and Saturday, we hosted a workshop that invited students, faculty, and staff from Ohio State (as well as new friends from Kenyon College) to learn about…
A Pretext for Plunder? Environmental Change and State-Led Redevelopment in the Peruvian Amazon
Gordon Ulmer, Sydney Silverstein, and I just published a short article (with lots of photos!) in the latest edition of Anthropology Today. It examines how projected environmental changes…
Lee Hoffer on the Opioid Epidemic
Last week, the OSU Undergraduate Anthropology Club invited Lee Hoffer, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University, to give a guest lecture on the opioid epidemic.…
How Academic Hierarchy Shapes the Distribution of Precarity
Yesterday, Cultural Anthropology updated its recent forum on academic precarity with several additional essays, including one that I wrote about the role that academic hierarchy plays in shaping…
First Trip Back Home – A Photo Essay
Amazônica just published a short interview and photo essay that I helped develop with friends while living in Iquitos, Peru in 2016. Roldan (the first author) is an indigenous…
Sedimentation
On Tuesday afternoon at the American Anthropological Association Meeting, I had the opportunity to participate as discussant on a panel that focused on sedimentation as a social analytic.…
The Fermentological Turn
What does the Culture and Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association have brewing up for this year’s meeting? Take a look.
New Books in Anthropology Podcast
A few weeks ago, Nivedita Kar interviewed me for the New Books in Anthropology Podcast. The episode just went online yesterday. In our conversation, we discussed some of…
Margaret’s Mead: C&A’s First Zine
Last week, we printed off the first zine produced by the Culture & Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). It’s a collaborative effort with essays, art, and…
The Pop Garden at Ohio State
One of the projects I’ve been really happy to collaborate on here at Ohio State is the “Pop Garden” outside of Smith Laboratory, where my office is located.…