The ‘wicked grin’ test (as a new creative measure)
How do you know when something in our culture is really good? I think it’s when it makes us grin a wicked grin. This is one of those: Dave Chappelle does…
Interactive reading and beyond – Creating online consensus (and possibly community) one top highlight at a time
I receive a number of emails everyday from various websites that range from teaching innovations and news about higher education to curator services like Pocket. One article set…
Decolonizing Anthropology
Decolonizing Anthropology is a new series on Savage Minds edited by Carole McGranahan and Uzma Z. Rizvi. Welcome. Just about 25 years ago Faye Harrison poignantly asked if “an…
That’s interesting…
In 2009, when I first started grad school, a professor asked each student in the cohort to share the anthropological topic areas they planned to focus on in…
Our Living Message for Extraterrestrials
On March 23, 2016, Microsoft brought a new artificial intelligence (AI) online. Named Tay, she was linked to social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and other sites so…
Applying Anthropology for a Safer World
Claim our bodies, claim our right, Take a stand, take back the night! Across the globe, the month of April is a time for communities to mobilize Take…
Tran Ngoc Angie, “Ties that Bind: Cultural Identity, Class, and Law in Vietnams Labor Resistance” (Cornell UP, 2013)
Labour consciousness is not just class-based; it also emerges out of cultural identities, as Tran Ngoc Angie argues powerfully in Ties that Bind: Cultural Identity, Class, and Law…
Environmental historians get wasted: ASEH conference report
What’s my take on this torrent of waste at ASEH? I think it really signals a maturation of a second generation of waste scholarship in environmental history that…
A former ‘frustrated senior aid official’ talks-and the Daily Mail is happy to spin a story of waste and lying bureaucrats
As part of my engagement with popular and public (re)presentation of development issues, I have commented throughout the years on how mainstream media, e.g. CNN, NYT, BBC, the…
Visaliberalisierung für die Türkei – Ein neuer Zuwanderungskanal?
Im Rahmen des umstrittenen EU-Flüchtlingsabkommens vom 18. März 2016 sagte die EU der Türkei unter anderem die dort schon lange angestrebte Aufhebung des Visumzwangs zu. Skeptiker warnen nun,…
Moments when ‘things happen’: BOREDOM – REDUX!
To set this week in motion we revisit a theme that we seem unable to escape: boredom. Whether at academic conferences or the elaborate corridors of international…
SAFN Membership Drive
We’re having a membership drive! SAFN members, please tell friends and colleagues about our section and ask them to join. A lot of people do research on…
Kurzurlaub in China: Zum Ausflug auf die Autobahn
Essen, Tee und ein Schachspiel: Das bereitet man oft für den Tag der Arbeit vor. Allerdings nicht für ein Picknick im Grünen, sondern um für einen Autobahnstau gerüstet…
Archives Matter Conference features cultural anthropologist Gloria Wekker
Archives Matter: Queer, Feminist and Decolonial Encounters When: June 2 and 3, 2016 Who: Centre for Feminist Research Where: Goldsmiths, University of London, Lewisham Way, New Cross, London…
DC event at Georgetown University
The Georgetown Americas Initiative & Institute for the Study of International Migration present: Susan Terrio, Professor of Anthropology, Georgetown University, Author of: Whose Child Am I? Unacco…
Anthro in the news 4/18/16
Global mental health and economics Source: Flickr USA Today carried an article about a report from the World Health Organization claiming that every U.S. dollar invested in mental health…
Cheap Chinese Goods
In a new project, I trace the fortunes of three interrelated communities across four northern Andean cities. Indigenous Otavaleño traders, mestizo apparel producers in the manufacturing cluster of…
Thomas Grisaffi: After the Referendum: Evo Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism
This post is part of a series on the Latin American pink tide, moderated and edited by Massimiliano Mollona (Goldsmiths, University of London). In February 2016 Bolivian President…
Links & Contents I Liked 179
Hi all,After a busy week of teaching, blogging and ranting about #allmalepanels let’s enjoy the new week with fresh food for thought! Development news features a great think-piece…
Three Millimeters by Christine Labuski
The first time I encountered Judy I was with Dr. Erlich, gathering fact sheets about vulvar pain conditions. Dr. Robichaud, the other physician at the Vulvar Health Clinic…
“I was nowhere”
By Marie Linne Dalal contaced me during my fieldwork among refugees who aspire to study in the Netherlands. She agreed to meet with me for an interview, to…
Why I’m Voting for the Boycott Part 2: SQUIRREL!
This is the second of a series of posts I am writing on the topic of the AAA boycott vote. You can read the previous post here. Last…
Ethnography and the work of the ancestors
Ancestral protection During fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, the Xhosa residents of the townships would sometimes talk about their ancestors. They told me their ancestors offered protection…