The Ku Klux Klan and the Value of Shame
A recent Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, drew close to 1,000 counterprotestors. Steve Helber/Associated Press On July 8, Charlottesville, Virginia, witnessed the value of…
Tag: Opinion
America’s Most Consequential Racial Divide
Last October in the vice-presidential debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, moderator Elaine Quijano brought up the “issue of law enforcement and race relations.” Only a few…
The Voice of Hunger, Part 1
A Two Part Series on Lives Sacrificed under Turkey’s State of Emergency For Nuriye, Semih and many other brave souls who choose to carry on… Part 1: The…
Women in the Middle East Take a Stand
The 2016 edition of the Arab Human Development Report by the UNDP highlighted the challenges of reporting on young women in the region. The report’s authors encountered objections…
Trump Echoes Bush in Middle East Visit
President Introduces New Term into Counterterrorism Lexicon President Trump embarked on his first international trip since moving into the White House after a special counsel was appointed to…
Managing Hope after Affirmative Action
What “Diversity of Thought” Reveals About the Disappearing Corporate Ladder In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg took the media by storm with the publication of her book, Lean In:…
AnthroVice
Grumpy Grad Student I am an early tenure-track professor with a needy grad student advisee. I appreciated my PhD advisor’s practice of briefly checking in with my mental…
The Myth of the Apolitical Judge
How Language Ideologies Underlie the Judicial Confirmation Process One thing Neil Gorsuch has in common with many previous Supreme Court nominees is his insistence that he is an…
The Unwelcomed Guest
Fibonacci Blue, CC BY 2.0 Early in April the faculty at Indiana University had a heated email discussion about Charles Murray’s visit to our campus. The co-author of…
Populating the Pacific Northwest
On the Discovery of a 14,000 year old settlement on the west coast of Canada. Mainstream media were quick to pick up on a report of a 14,000…
Turkey Votes
The Turkish referendum could extend President Erdoğan’s one-man rule. A piece of bicolored paper. On the left is printed EVET (YES), in black font over a white background,…
Dream Factories in the Time of War
On Sunday, February 26, 2017, the Arab world held elections—anyone who had access to a cell phone and wanted to pay the extra fee to send an SMS…
Six Ways Anthropologists Can Challenge White Supremacy
Recently, white supremacists attempted to defame Boasian Anthropology and its historic role in challenging scientific racism. This article proposes some concrete steps by which to challenge whiteness …
The Strange Public Afterlife of Anthropological Theory
Didier Fassin, in an important recent intervention, directed our attention to the “public afterlife of ethnography.” We as anthropologists do not and cannot expect to control how anthropological theor…
The Docile Ethnographer?
On Self-Censure and Fieldwork “Looking forward to reading more in this series. Would have liked to retweet it, but I’m not touching anything critical until I’m done with…
Failing The Moral Test: Canadians Must Redress our Nation’s Abuse of Children
the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children* On Valentine’s Day, 2017, Justice Edward Belobaba of…
Failing The Moral Test: Canadians Must Redress Our Nation’s Abuse Of Children
the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children* On Valentine’s Day, 2017, Justice Edward Belobaba of…
New Study: 60 Percent of Primate Species Threatened With Extinction
The Philippine tarsier, a small primate that is increasingly threatened by habitat destruction and the pet trade, is just one example of the many primates throughout the world…
From Erdoğan’s Turkey to Trump’s America
Since signing a petition to end state violence against Kurds in southeast Turkey, academics critical of the Turkish regime have come under increased scrutiny. These “dopey academics” as…
How Will the Power of the Pussyhat Endure?
Pussyhats—pink, handcrafted caps with cat-like ears that were worn during the Women’s March on Washington and in supporting women’s marches around the world—are more than just a visual…
A Field Guide to Trump’s Swamp
The president-elect has populated “the swamp” with power brokers who are marred by potential conflicts of interest. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press For me, a social anthropologist who has …
Trump’s Formulaic Twitter Insults
Every presidential transition also involves a change in the regime of language. This year the juxtaposition between the outgoing and incoming regimes is especially stark, something President Obama’s…
Native by Design
Who has the right to manufacture, sell, wear, or display objects and designs that come from or are inspired by Native Americans? Alannah Giannino/Flickr In March 2016, Denver,…
How Our Contradictions Make Us Human and Inspire Creativity
The fissures created in our experiences between our principles and actions can be a source of profound creativity and reflection. Nicolas Nova/Flickr This article was originally published…