Consulting, Big Data and Social Justice w/ Dr. Tricia Wang – This Anthro Life
Dr. Tricia Wang sees her work consulting as sitting at the crossroads of data and social justice. As a global tech ethnographer, Dr. Wang is obsessed with how…
Tag: research
Modern Lives and Stone Age Minds: The Ambiguous Rhetoric of Evolutionary Mismatch
Over the last three decades, popular science authors have used evolutionary mismatch theory to shed light on a vast number of modern social problems, pointing to differences between…
Ep. #17 Slamming doors, predicting futures, picking sides & citing informants: this month on TFS
With Julia’s PhD submitted (!!!) and Jodie back from her travels, the band is finally back together! Jodie starts us off, (2:04) asking if a theory from psychology…
Populations, Race, and The Sorites Paradox
The sorites paradox (also called the paradox of the heap) refers to a particular logical contradiction that arises from the analysis of vague terms (Sainsbury, 2009). Terms like…
The Role of Scientific Discourse in Chile’s Trans Rights Movement
También disponible en español aquí. On June 18, 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the removal of “transsexuality” (a term based on psychiatric diagnosis and maligned by…
Ep. #16 The costs of efficiency: Cris Shore talks neoliberalism in the public sector
“Rather than always studying poor, peripheral peasants, pastoralists, and fishermen, let’s turn the critical gaze of our discipline, which we do so well, let’s pivot it round like…
Politics in environmental research infrastructure formation: When top-down policy-making meets bottom-up fragmentation
By: Elena Parmiggiani, Helena Karasti, Karen Baker, and Andrea Botero The environmental sciences have been a fertile ground for the development of scientific infrastructures (a.k.a. cyberinfrastructur…
Book Review: Not in Our Genes
I’ve been slacking on writing book reviews and so I need to get back to it so the next several posts will be just that (unless something happens…
Science as a Structure of Violence
The study of human diversity and subsequent racialisation of people has been examined and critiqued but has escaped interrogation as an institution by which structural violence is enacted.…
A Brief History of Race in the Western Thought
Race, as a concept, has important ontology in American society. In order to understand the relationship between race, genetic research, and the American class structure, it is necessary…
Ethnographic Designs for Buen Vivir: Fieldnotes from Nicaragua
Co-Authored by Alex Nading, Josh Fisher, and Chantelle Falconer What does it mean to find value in urban ecologies? This question sparked our collaborative research in Ciudad Sandino,…
Ep. #15 Designing agency: Vijayendra Rao talks development, anthropology, and making social change
Vijayendra Rao, the lead economist at the World Bank in the research department, talks to our own Ian Pollock about the role that anthropology and ethnography could play in helping…
51 essential rules for doing research
Be free. Eat sweets. Do not go to university (but use the university to print for free). Resist academic hierarchy. Do not believe what professors say. Doubt, always.…
Parrotfish: The Charisma of Conservation in the Caribbean
During the week of Easter, the beaches of the Dominican Republic were converted into billboards for the campaign to stop the consumption of parrotfish. Pictures taken from drones…
Indigenous Women’s Engagements with Technology: From Anomaly to Autonomy
Introduction: Satellite Túpac Katari Editor’s note: this post is also available in Spanish, from the link in the sidebar. In 2013, Bolivia became the last of South America’s…
Fear and Loathing in Atlanta
Content warning: racism, violence, mention of miscarriage. I was on my way to the airplane that would take me back home, to Canada. I boarded the train between…
Diet and the Disease of Civilization: An Interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar
In her recently published Diet and the Disease of Civilization, Dr. Adrienne Rose Bitar argues that diet books capture the socio-political concerns of America. Looking at Paleo,…
Remediation: The Cultural Politics of Oil and Brine Spills in the Bakken
Around Tioga, a small town in northwestern North Dakota, huge tractors, seeders, and sprayers lumber along the shoulders of the highways in spring. In midsummer, sunflowers turn yellow;…
Reading Not to Perish
The “publish or perish” imperative in academia is periodically debated in the newspapers. I think some distance should be taken from the arguments developed in such articles. Even…
Unearthing Knowledge: Forensic Anthropology and Technologies of Memory
What is commonly known as the Colombian conflict refers to more than six decades of enduring violence. During these years, a number of peace agreements have been signed…
Book Review: Among Wolves: Ethnography and the Immersive Study of Power by Timothy Pachirat
In Among Wolves: Ethnography and the Immersive Study of Power, Timothy Pachirat offers an experimental contribution to scholarship on social science methodology. Written in the form of a play,…
CfP – Speaking more broadly: Adapting anthropological concepts for a broader audience
Following up on our previous post, AAA in San Jose – Anthropological Concepts for Non-Anthropologists, Jennifer and I would like to take this opportunity to circulate a call for…
CfP – Speaking more broadly: Adapting anthropological concepts for a broader audience
Following up on our previous post, AAA in San Jose – Anthropological Concepts for Non-Anthropologists, Jennifer and I would like to take this opportunity to circulate a call for…
Research Moving Forward: The Social Construction of Down syndrome
I’m at the point where I’m beginning to plan out my next research project. I’m finishing up work on one manuscript (Genocolonization) and writing another with my partner…