For Rio’s Poorest Citizens, Police and Gang Violence Reigns
Protestors in Brazilian favelas—poor neighborhoods in urban areas—have been caught between the police and gangs. Marcos De Paula/Associated Press On the night …
Will GMOs Put an End to Hunger? Ask the Hungry
When it comes to food, few topics are as contentious and polarizing as genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Hyperbole is rampant in …
Animal Trafficking Is Big Business on Instagram
Social media platforms can be used to perpetuate the trafficking of animals and animal products such as bear bile, which is commonly …
Understanding Mass Killings
Media commentary on Micah Johnson, the African-American who killed five police officers in Dallas on July 7, has focused on his animus …
Arizona’s Inmate Firefighters
In the state of Arizona, all able-bodied incarcerated people are required to work. Most prison jobs are monotonous and consist of low-skill, …
The future of designing autonomous systems will involve ethnographers
Note from the Editor, Tricia Wang: Next up in our Co-designing with machines edition is Madeleine Clare Elish, (@mcette), is an anthropologist and researcher at …
The Big Business of Europe’s Migration Crisis
Governments have erected numerous barriers to stem the tide of migrants and refugees flowing into Europe. These obstacles fuel a system that …
The Politics of Peace in Captain America: Civil War
By Emma Louise Backe Marvel’s latest superhero juggernaut, Captain America: Civil War (2016) is a tense, tightly paced skirmish. The camera skitters …
Europe’s Destructive Spirals of Distrust
On February 6, 2016, thousands of people protested the immigration of Muslims, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and other cities across Europe. Peter Dejong/AP …
Hurricane Katrina’s Forgotten Survivors
Following Katrina, progress rebuilding New Orleans has been uneven. In the Lower 9th Ward, house foundations are still a common sight. Max …
Are We to Blame for the Colorado Theater Shooter?
Around midnight on July 20, 2012, James Holmes entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, for a showing of the Batman movie …
The Nachtwinkels of Antwerp
Cities have always been places where different customs, cultures, and individuals come in contact. In Antwerp, Belgium, a large network of nachtwinkels, …
Zika’s Frightening Stranglehold
Some of the earliest vampire stories were about demons or shape-shifters who spent their nights robbing pregnant women of their unborn fetuses, …
Notes From a Crime Scene
Drive out in the late afternoon to one of the many hills on the outskirts of the tiny Arizona town of Arivaca …
A View From the Train Tracks
In September 2015, the disturbing image of a drowned Syrian toddler named Aylan Kurdi, whose body had washed ashore on a beach …
Fortress Europe continues to treat migrants as criminals
Dimitris Dalakoglou, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Antonios Alexandridis, University of Sussex The European Union, one of the strongest economies in the world and …
When We Assess Democracy In Egypt, Whose “Democracy” Are We Measuring?
“Bread, freedom, social justice!” What’s your definition of democracy? Yesterday, after a lecture on ethnographic fieldwork, a student came up to me …
Disability Fieldnotes Week in Review: June 26-July 2
Here is a curated collection of last week’s disability news. Enjoy! History: “Laura’s World” (Louis Menand) New Yorker feature story on Laura Bridgman, …
In the Journals – April 2015
Welcome back to In the Journals, a monthly review of just a fraction of the most recent academic research on security, crime, …
The Politics and Power of Internet Infrastructure, Pt. 3
Please see also Part 1 and Part 2. PART 3: NGOs AND DIGITAL RIGHTS In the last section I considered the roles …
The Politics and Power of Internet Infrastructure Pt. 2
Please see the first part of this project here. PART 2: NETWORK NEUTRALITY In my last post I described the centralized control …