Top of the Heap: Reading in pairs with Ayo Wahlberg by Hannah Gibson
For this instalment of the Top of the Heap series, I spoke with Professor Ayo Wahlberg, who is Professor MSO in the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. He…
”Det kändes som om Åbo grät” – Ett år senare
”Satt i soffan och kollade på min telefon. Min partner fixade mat i köket med fönstret öppet. Vi bor centralt i Åbo. Min partner undrade vad det hänt…
Communicating in Times of Crisis
What anthropologists can do to support asylum seekers and the interpreters who serve them. It started with people tagging me on Facebook during the first few days of…
Wizards, Vampires, Klingons, and Other Alternative Cultures
On the last day of my introduction to anthropology class, we watch scenes from the documentary Trekkies. Students grin at the sincere folks dressed as Starfleet officers and…
Monstrous possibilities: Kaiju as beauty and terror
By Esther R. Anderson Kaiju are giant monsters that can be seen causing filmic chaos without apparent cause or motive. As genetically-engineered creatures, aliens, or remnants of a…
Research and Rewards: An Update from AAA Intern Evan Olinger
I can and can’t believe it’s my last week here in DC. In one respect my time here has gone about as fast as I thought it would,…
The Sacrifice Zones of American “Energy Independence”: Pipeline and Refinery Expansion in the Chicago Region
By Graham Pickren, Roosevelt University § The United States is seemingly on its way to “energy independence.” Since the oil price increases and gas lines of the 1970s shocked…
Long Read Review: Think Like an Anthropologist by Matthew Engelke
In Think Like an Anthropologist, Matthew Engelke offers a concise history of anthropology, drawing on a variety of ethnographic works and theoretical tools to dissect nine key concepts…
The Reproductive and Carceral Politics of Ambiguity by Natali Valdez
Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women behind Bars Carolyn Sufrin University of California Press, 2017, 311 pages. Jailcare sheds light on a dark place. The ethnography exposes…
Book Review: Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World by Crystal Biruk
In Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World, Crystal Biruk offers an analysis of the production of data within HIV-AIDS quantitative survey research conducted in Malawi. This…
Das Integrationsparadox
Buch zu Effekten von Integration Autor: Prof. Dr. Aladin El-Mafaalani Aladin El-Mafaalani legt in seinem Buch eine Neubewertung der aktuellen Situation vor: Wer davon ausgehe, dass Konfliktfreiheit…
Is Higher Education a “Family-Friendly” Career Choice?
At the end of a day of academic work, you may not want to talk to anybody else, and giving yourself that option is a form of self-care.…
Anthropology in Brazil
Antropologia. Uma Introdução Professor Roberto Jarry Richardson sent me this excellent question: I am a Brazilian professor with a Ph.D. in International Development Education at Stanford University. …
We Are the Stories We Tell Ourselves: An Update from AAA Intern Sam Ropa
“We are the stories we tell ourselves” — Aja Monet Hello, Associated American Anthropologists! A dispatch from your cultural anthropologist in DC: This city is steeped in stories.…
Euphemisms for the Global Other
I recently attended a conference in Copenhagen about sustainable consumption where I kept hearing “the Global South” used to refer to poor people in general, to low income…
#EASA2018: Motion against apartheid academia in the West Bank
Matan Kaminer is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan and a member of the Israeli Anthropological Association and of Academia for Equality, an Israeli group for…
Globalization has broken the chain of responsibility
In his new book, “Boomtown”, Thomas Hylland Eriksen investigates the ambivalence and conflict in Gladstone, Australia, a community that is struggling with the effects of globa…
Globalization has broken the chain of responsibility
In his new book, “Boomtown”, Thomas Hylland Eriksen investigates the ambivalence and conflict in Gladstone, Australia, a community that is struggling with the effects of globa…
Is Your DNA You?
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS What does your DNA have to do with who you are? On a journey for answers, SAPIENS hosts Chip Colwell, Jen Shannon, and Esteban Gómez…
Don’t Lose Sight
I’ve been working on a different post but this one seemed more context-appropriate and I am giving another pass over Kinji Imanishi’s A Japanses View of Nature: The World of…
System, Space and Ecobiopolitics: A Conversation with Valerie Olson About “Into the Extreme”
[This week we present excerpts of an interview with Valerie Olson conducted by Lisa Messeri focused on Olson’s new book, Into the Extreme (U Minnesota P, 2018).…
How an Archaeological Experiment Revealed California’s Ancient Past
San Nicolas Island, the most remote and one of the smallest of California’s Channel Islands, is more than 60 miles from the mainland. The seas around the island…
Christina Gish Hill, “Webs of Kinship: Family in Northern Cheyenne Nationhood” (U Oklahoma Press, 2017)
One summer evening discussion on a front porch sparked Webs of Kinship: Family in Northern Cheyenne Nationhood, Christina Gish Hill’s 2017 book from the University of Oklahoma Press.…
John H. McWhorter, “The Creole Debate” (Cambridge UP, 2018)
John H. McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He has written academic books on creole linguistics, including the book we’ll be talking…