Austerity: An Economy of Words? – Pt. 1
By Keith Hart This essay starts with a personal account of the near starvation of Europe after the Second World …
Category: English
Damien M. Sojoyner, “Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums” (U California Press, 2022)
This highly original story reflects on how the carceral state shapes daily life for young Black people–and how Black Americans resist, find joy, and cultivate new visions for…
Arthur Kleinman, “Writing at the Margin: Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine” (U California Press, 1997)
One of the most influential and creative scholars in medical anthropology takes stock of his recent intellectual odysseys in this collection of essays. Arthur Kleinman, an anthropologist and…
Celeste Vaughan Curington et al., “The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance” (U California Press, 2021)
The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance (U California Press, 2021) is the first comprehensive look at “digital-sexual racism,” a distinct form of racism…
The Colonial Roots of Peru’s Troubles
An archaeologist traces the current protests in Peru to exploitive labor policies enacted in silver mines during Spanish colonial rule from 1532 to 1800. ✽ Last month, Peru’s…
How to approach a research proposal: The Literature Review
This is a follow-up to my earlier post “How to approach a research proposal: Writing Questions.” In that entry, I laid out a dynamic hierarchy of questions—conceptual questions,…
National responsibility for ecological breakdown
Abstract. High-income countries are responsible for up to 93% of global excess material use over the period 1970-2017. Specific results depend on the methods used, ranging from…
Calling Worlds into Being
BLM Banner Black Lives Matter!…Black Lives Matter!…..Say it loud…. I’m Black and I’m proud! ……I’m Black and I’m so fucking proud!” (BLMB demo 2021) It’s been years now…
As Above, So Below: Vertical Territory in Northern Sweden
Space exploration in northern Sweden often gains meaning in relation to mining. In this blog post, I ask: how does mining serve as a “speculative device” (McCormack 2018)…
Picturing the Deep Universe Is Deeply Human
The James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning photos require extensive image processing—revealing as much about humanity as about the universe. In July 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled “Webb’s…
Att läsa böcker och följa förfädernas spår
Sverker Finnström: Skärmar i alla ära, men det är svårt att slå läsupplevelsen med en bok i ena handen och en blyertspenna i den andra. I bokhögens tillfälligheter…
Post-doctoral position in justice-oriented plastic pollution research and management
2-year position from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2025$50,00/year, including benefitsLocation: CLEAR Lab, Geography Department, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, Canada …
‘I’ve seen things …’ and other pleasures of war
This blog post is part of the Experience of War conference, March 24, 2023, funded by the WARFUN project. “The world is not in your books and maps. It’s…
Born of “All That Good”
An Indigenous poet-anthropologist and new mother interrogates the idea that, overall, historic Indigenous boarding schools brought a lot of “good.” “Born of ‘All That Good’” is part …
Valérie Robin Azevedo on her book, Los Silencios de la guerra
https://lasiniestraensayos.com/libro/los-silencios-de-la-guerra-memorias-y-conflicto-armado-en-ayacucho-peru/ Interview (and translation) by Emily Fjaellon Thompson English version below …
Affective Masculinities
Amrita De talks about affective masculinities, aspirational linkages with dominant scripts of masculinities, socially organized. As she expands her work beyond her study of South Asian masculinities, she…
Dan DiPiero, “Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life” (U Michigan Press, 2022)
Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life (U Michigan Press, 2022) offers a sustained comparative study of improvisation as it appears between music and everyday life. Drawing on…
Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt: A Conversation with Andrew Simon
Andrew Simon, a historian of media, popular culture, and the Middle East at Dartmouth College, discusses his new book Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt (Stanford University…
Teaching from the Textbooks: An Archaeology of the Current Historical Moment
On the last day of class, my advanced theory students would break up into small groups and each have the option of choosing one such old anthropology textbook…
Stephen Bullivant, “Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America” (Oxford UP, 2022)
The United States is in the midst of a religious revolution. Or, perhaps it is better to say a non-religious revolution. Around a quarter of US adults now…
Gary Alan Fine, “Fair Share: Senior Activism, Tiny Publics, and the Culture of Resistance” (U Chicago Press, 2023)
If you’ve ever been to a protest or been involved in a movement for social change, you have likely experienced a local culture, one with slogans, jargon, and…
Pirate Reboot – Occupy Madagascar
Graeber, David. 2023. Pirate Enlightenment, Or the real Libertalia. London: Allen Lane. In this entertaining book, the world of early eighteenth century Madagascar piracy, and the women they…