Web Roundup: Data, Safety, and Bias by Lily Shapiro
Many people probably saw the news that Facebook allegedly privileges left-leaning stories in its trending news section, a story broken by Gizmodo at the beginning of this month.…
Tag: politics
Affiliation is power (without irony)
As many of my readers probably know, the big controversy in my field this year (in American cultural anthropology) has been about a proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions, essentially…
Who’s Playing the ‘Nazi Card’ in Anthropology?: Rhetorical Spectres of Anti-Semitism in the BDS Debate by David Rosen
Two recent articles by BDS leaders in anthropology have accused boycott opponents of debasing the debate in anthropology, either by playing the “Nazi card” or by introducing the…
Rethinking Political Agency in the Middle East | Workshop Abstracts
Over the next two days, Allegra will be busy reporting on the international workshop Rethinking political agency in the Middle East: Engaging political anthropology which is taking place…
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 Photo Controversies around minori…
Anthropology Boycott: Supporting BDS but Voting Against
After a long time thinking about it, I’ve decided that I support the BDS Movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. But I plan to vote against…
Anthropology Boycott: Supporting BDS, Voting Against AAA proposal
After a long time thinking about it, I’ve decided that I support the BDS Movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. But I plan to vote against…
Graduate Student Response to “When It’s Time to Vote, Don’t Boycott Academics–Cut the Purse Strings” by Emma Shaw Crane
As graduate students and new members of the American Association of Anthropologists, we approach the academic boycott resolution vote with hope. We write today in response to “When…
Seminar: Indigenous Media 2016
Again, I have the pleasure to teach the Seminar “Indigenous Media” for the MA Program in Visual and Media Anthropology at the Free University Berlin. Find below a…
On the Brazilian crisis, Pentecostalism and thinking out of the bubble
Pentecostal service in the Brazilian field site. Photo by: Juliano Spyer Brazil is in the midst of a heated national debate between people in favour of, and those contrary…
Disciplinary Peace Above All Else? by Nadia Abu El-Haj
“When It’s Time to Vote, Don’t Boycott Academics – Cut the Purse-strings” raises important questions about the power of economic divestment in the struggle for Palestinian rights. In…
When It’s Time to Vote, Don’t Boycott Academics – Cut the Purse-strings by Jennifer S. Hirsch
Editor’s note: We received this letter, signed by the authors listed above and by nine anonymous authors, as a reply to our earlier Debate Forum. After far too…
Water, democracy, neoliberalism
Sidney Mintz’ classic work on sugar illustrated how “following the thing” can tell us about deeper cultural and political issues. Now, Anthropologist Andrea Muehlebach’s recent work “finds water…
How Immigration Policies Create Smugglers
In the spring of 2007, when I was driving with Ramón (all names have been changed), a Mexican man who lives along an unmonitored road that crosses the…
34. In search of psychedelia: for a technopolitics beyond institutions
This is the thirty-fourth post in the freedom technologists series This past March 2016 I spent three weeks in Lima (Peru), as well as a few days in…
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 and look west. You will see…
In the Journals – March 2016
Welcome back to In the Journals, our monthly recap of recent publications regarding security, law, crime, and governance. The upcoming April edition of Security Dialogue features a fantastic…
Flight 1095
Coming home from Phoenix on Friday, I found myself sharing the plane with Aidy Bryant, Vanessa Bayer, and Bret Stephens. Bryant and Bayer are SNL players. Stephens (below) is Foreign…
Lifting the Emotional Embargo With Cuba
The June heat was so intense, the air so still, that the open balcony doors offered little relief. Anthropologist Ruth Behar felt her clothes sticking as she looked…
What’s Fueling “The Bern?” The Secret Every Marketer Should Know
Yet another view into the world of a “professional” narcissistic anthropologist at work. Posted this morning on the company site / linkedin. On a side note, I was…
33. Iñigo Errejón: Podemos as an emergent cultural practice
Photo credit: ca.wikipedia.org This is the thirty-third post in the freedom technologists series I have pasted below some highlights (in Spanish) of an excellent interview with Podemos’ ‘…
Trump’s Tactics and Republican Speechlessness
The most astounding thing about the rise of Donald Trump is not his willingness to use racist hatred as a central theme in his presidential campaign—it’s the unwillingness…
Scholarly meetings with a “Disclaimer and Waiver”
I’m guessing that most anthropologists don’t read the Disclaimer and Waiver to which you must consent when you register for conferences through the American Anthropological Association. It…
Exploring Boundaries: From Access to Female Sexworkers to the Question of Research
When designing a research project, a researcher’s initial plans are often interrupted by what data we actually can access. Whether negotiating political structures, cultural taboos, necessary permissi…