Anna Balazs: War, displacement, and cultural heritage: reflections on a workshop
“On the form, I ticked that I had got enough pads. I ticked that I had been instructed. I ticked that I had applied for microloans, more than…
“On the form, I ticked that I had got enough pads. I ticked that I had been instructed. I ticked that I had applied for microloans, more than…
Introduction Soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in an earlier post on this blog (Hann 2022), I emphasized the geopolitical and economic interests of the west, especially…
Thomas Mouat Tate, with a cuppa and (ship)mates was, he said, taken in Malta in May 1942. They are, I expect, quite jolly since they will have just…
It’s so easy to see our enemies as — well, enemies. What does it take to re-see them as human? Late in life, Erika Jacoby and Ursula Martens…
RAAF Squadron Leader Keith “Bluey” Truscott taxiing his P-40E Kittyhawk along the Marston Mats at Milne Bay Fighter Strip #3, Milne Bay, New Guinea, Sep 1942. Some slightly…
The speaker of a poem refuses linguistic erasure, passing secret notes with untranslated lines in Korean—keeping the language alive during Japanese occupation. “Passing Notes” is part of the…
A poet calls readers to act in the face of interconnected violence, exploitation, and privilege. “Heaven on Earth” and “Jesus Is Palestinian” are part of the collection Poets…
An archaeologist from Palestine is urgently working to assess archaeological sites in the West Bank devastated by destruction and looting amid Israel’s ongoing war in the region. ✽…
Dow chimicals… grrrr. but there is a backstory to this despicable substance, I cannot yet see a full version of Pantelis Vougaris’ film With Heart and Soul (- yet,…
A poet moves through rituals of silence and erasure that permeate the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. “An Order for My Backpack” and “Three Stages of…
Sure, rescuing Matt Damon from Mars is easier than fixing Earth, but planetary survival is imperative and cannot be left to NASA’s zero-gravity speculative research project or the…
The Soviet documentary maker Roman Karmen at Điện Biên Phủ in 1954 From this English language Doco: His film on Vietnam here:
In Jewish Odesa, Marina Sapritsky-Nahum explores Jewish identity in Odesa over the course of Soviet history, Ukrainian nation-building and global Jewish revivals. Combining oral histories, anthropolo…
An anthropologist takes a critical eye to a long-running holiday tradition: a U.S. military mission that drops toys and supplies throughout Micronesia. ✽ On a balmy December morning…
is 50,000 enough in Palestine? 60,000+ in Sudan? 73,000 in Russia-Ukraine? 300k+ in Syria? 6 mill in Congo? When does it stop? Let’s celebrate with some games, like…
“Have thousand bolts of lightening struck the city? No, not from the sky-from the caverns of hell have come thousands of monsters! Mad, hungry from ages and aeons…
An anthropologist who works with deaf communities in the Arabic-speaking Middle East argues that ending Israel’s war on Gaza and occupation of Palestine is a matter of disability…
In a dystopian short story, an anthropologist imagines an alternate world in which Kashmiris are forbidden to dream. Republished by permission from English Language Notes, 61(2): 15–18. Copyright…
Educators and students critical of Israel’s war on Gaza face censorship, harassment, and dismissal. An anthropologist who researches coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians argues such critics n…
After a 60-year haitus, an Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna was seen in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains. A poet-anthropologist reflects on the echidna’s message through the storied lens of the people…
. It is now all the more necessary to make anti-war a credo with results. Would you defend the saboteurs of attack aircraft, the sugar in the tank’s…
Max Ernst (1891-1976)- Die ganze Stadt // aka Die versteinerte Stadt // The Entire City – Paintings from circa 1934-37. Is this Max anticipating Marston mats? The earliest…
In Significant Emotions, Ashley Frawley critiques the trend of pathologising distress caused by socio-economic problems (like cost-of-living pressures and insecure, low-paid employment) as “ment…