Relationship-Making, Scaffolding, and a Pandemic in Istanbul
This piece was going to be mainly about relation-making as a method that facilitated my fieldwork, which in turn formed the backbone of my article, “Behind the Scaffolding.”…
Tag: Section News
Anthropology of Wage Theft in Colorado
The theft of immigrant workers’ wages is a growing problem in the United States. In March 2018, University of Denver law student Katie Brown won $15,000 in County…
Capitalism and the Coronavirus Conspiracy
In France, like many other places, social confinement due to the Coronavirus unfolded quickly. On March 12, President Emmanuel Macron addressed the country to announce the first nation-wide…
Going Viral in Hong Kong
Disease is but the most obvious part of an epidemic. As coronavirus spreads, it fuels many other kinds of contagious forces. AN editor’s note: How can anthropology help…
Feminist Anthropology Is Teamwork
As the launch of Feminist Anthropology was becoming visible in 2019, I found myself working on its editorial board with colleagues with whom I had collaborated over the…
Fieldnotes on Bribes, Smiles, and Myths
This summer, a new billboard in Vilnius Old Town, caught my eye. A healthy-looking man was pointing his finger up and informing Lithuanians, “Don’t Believe the Myths—patients are…
Household Workers’ Struggle for Equal Rights
Domestic labor in urban Latin American life takes center stage in the film, Roma. “Have you seen Roma?” This is perhaps the single most prevalent question I get as…
Teaching Literature on the Arabian Peninsula
Even after 15 years of teaching literature on the Arabian Peninsula, I still worry about finding the right texts for my students. They are majoring in English language,…
Witnessing Puerto Rico, Recognition, and Feeling in the Wake of Hurricane Maria
As the plane descended to land in San Juan’s Airport in August 2018, almost a year after Hurricane Maria jolted Puerto Ricans on the island and elsewhere, I…
Indigenous Survival Politics in the Promotion of a National Discourse
In January 2018, 10 members from an Ainu traditional performance group, Sapporo Upopo Hozonkai (Sapporo Upopo Preservation Society, hereafter SUH), traveled from Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido…
Rapping Blackness
As a biracial man, there’s something visceral about being in a room full of black people of all shades, from across the United States—all of whom have dressed…
Speak American
October 16, 2017, begins as a normal day at your New Jersey high school. You are chatting with friends in Spanish, the second most-spoken language in the United…
Encounters with Lunar Dust
From Neil Armstrong’s footprints to future missions to Mars, contamination fears and policies lie at the heart of our cosmic explorations. The stiff, gray cardboard box sat calmly…
When Women Take Up Space Not Built for Them
It is not enough to be intentional and intersectional in research settings. We must rework the spaces of the academy and knowledge production to better acknowledge and suit…
From Mexico to the Moon
Five stories about Mexican entanglements with outer space. Paloma Romano Andrade, La alegoría mexicana en el cosmos. Winner of first place in the “juvenile” category of the Third…
The Moon as Metaphor in Migration Research
Chinese migrants are influential players in the Made in Italy fashion sector. They are also perceived as unfamiliar and alien, inauthentic producers of uniquely “Italian” merchandise. I figure…
Finding Home
As Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon my mother leapt toward marriage in Tehran. The night of the moon landing fell in the middle of a hectic week…
Curating African Cosmos/Stellar Arts
From ancient stone reliefs to contemporary works of art, African artists have looked to the sun, moon, and stars for inspiration. We have all experienced the wonder of…
Yugoslav Peasants Land Apollo 8
Is there salad on the Moon? Down on Earth, Yugoslav peasants argued the question. On Christmas Eve 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to venture around…
Practicing Heritage Means Life or Death in Rwanda
Community engagement and participation in heritage have become buzzwords for heritage scholarship. Both community engagement and participating in heritage have promised not only a path out of uneth…
Letting Go and Holding On, Documenting Hope in Postwar Guatemala
When Beti asked her twelfth-grade students to consider Guatemala’s contemporary challenges, their suggestions quickly filled the board. In large letters, their words loomed like storm clouds: corrupti…
Making, Holding, and Guarding as Spatial Politics of Healing
“I wouldn’t want anyone to get attached to a space. But if, for the sake of an example, there is going to be a space, then it needs…
Emotions, Archistars, and Genoa’s New Bridge
What it means to rebuild in neoliberal times. On August 14, 2018, a large segment of the Morandi Bridge on Italy’s A20 highway connecting Genoa’s western outskirts to…
Upon This Break, I Build My House
[pquote]There is a way that we exist among ourselves, nestled securely into our knowing, oyster knives in hand. [/pquote]I have a quite uncomfortable visceral reaction when I am…