Ethnographies of Academia #UniversityCrisis
There is a mythology of nourishment deposited in the language of the intellect.[1] Thoughts are digested. Ideas are chewed upon. There is hunger for information and a thirst…
Tag: Stuff
NO WALL TO LEAN ON #newtonloss
Who counts as human? Whose lives count as lives?… Loss and vulnerability seem to follow from our being socially constituted bodies, attached to others, at risk of losing…
Urban development and the resistance of archaeology #newtonloss
By some estimates, one in ten thousand people in Turkey is an unemployed archaeologist. In an alternative café while on a last-minute contract in Istanbul, I got talking…
A Story of Two Stones #newtonloss
On a cold December day in 1995, after finishing my daily studies as a junior high school student, I was trying to catch the bus to go back…
From self-identified ‘Turkish migrants’ to ‘Kurdish Diaspora’ in London #newtonloss
Loss and its relationship to translation and incommensurability have been central features of my work. My interdisciplinary PhD (Social and Political Thought, Sussex) and Post-doc (HPS, Cambridge) exa…
Loss in times of revolution and exile #newtonloss
What does loss mean for Syrians living in Southern Turkey in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution and in the midst of an ongoing war? How is this…
Counting our Losses: Reflections from a Newton Fund/British Council Workshop on Loss and Displacement #newtonloss
The past is irrecoverable and the past is not past; the past is the resource for the future and the future is the redemption of the past; loss…
Selective access or how states make #remoteness
What makes a place remote? Is remoteness that which is geographically distant from the centre of administrative, political and economic activities? Or is remoteness a construct of connectivity?…
Banditry and the Politics of #Remoteness in the Highlands of Madagascar
Over the past few years, the resurgence of rural banditry in many regions of Madagascar has been an important topic of public and political debate. Local and national…
Being there: Humanitarian #remoteness
During World War II, Ruth Benedict conducted research about Japan at a distance. Challenging the stereotypical image of the white male researcher risking his life alone under fire,…
Making #Remoteness in the Sonoran desert
When we think about deserts, we usually imagine them as quintessentially remote. We tend to take their remoteness as primordial rather than see it as a result of…
Economic #Remoteness and the ‘Development’ of Rural Ukraine
Nagorna, a village in Odessa province, Ukraine, has not always been a ‘remote’ place. During Soviet times, it was part of a thriving agricultural district, with the nearby…
Zomia 2.0: Political #remoteness and neoliberal connectivity in two casino towns in Myanmar and Laos
The forested hills where Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and China meet are commonly known as the Golden Triangle, the world’s second largest opium-producing area. A common narrative when it…
Introduction to the week: #Remoteness redux?
For a long time, the direction seemed to be clear: the days of remote areas were numbered and it was only a question of time before they would…
A Short Reflection on the Evidentiality of #Evidence
Evidence sometimes suffers from a peculiar problem. It is not always evident. I call this the problem of the evidentiality of evidence. By definition, evidence is that which…
Emerging #Evidence
My goal is to skirt gingerly around evidence leaving it just where it lies, and instead to prod the contingent margins where iterative social practices and their artifacts…
#Evidence for the future: time and proof in commercial risk forecasting
“We are an intelligence and analysis company that forecasts. We are not a news organisation that tells stories. We are not political scientists who explain. We do a…
Does #Evidence Matter?
Evidence, whether in law, in natural or social science, or in belief systems, is about establishing certainty. Evidence has thus been central to law, to science, and to…
Cultural #evidence and the law
How do we decide whether or not to accept the evidence of our senses, or to put our faith in the statements of others? These are questions we…
Interrogating #Evidence: Epistemological Challenges in the Contemporary World
What social practices are used to constitute evidence? What counts as evidence and why? How are different types of evidence processed, and how do evidence protocols participate in…
Bonded labour in Pakistan
The most common pattern for bonded labour in Pakistan is for a landlord or an employer to extend a loan to labourers, in advance of the work done,…
A Tale of Two Rooms: Debt, Success, and Freedom in Indian Microfinance
“See, I don’t have a TV or an almirah [wardrobe],” said Ilina, pointing to her sparse one-room flat, while in one corner—the makeshift kitchen—her husband squatted over a…
‘Epitome of feminism’: the rise of the social phenomenon of trendy hijabistas
Feminism is not an immutable and easily-defined concept. It is conditioned by culture, religion, politics, education and other social factors. The secular-humanist approach to feminism has long domina…
And the winner is… #NextMargaretMead
The work of anthropology explores some of the most exciting and relevant issues facing humanity. We study our collective origins, the roots of violence, economic injustice, health disparities,…