Author: Kerim

Looking back, looking forward

Looking back, looking forward

The blog may be shutting down, but I’m not! I started blogging in 2001 and my personal blog, Keywords, is still going strong. Check out this recent post about the movie Killers of the Flower Moon. I’ve also started a newsletter, Triptych. I wanted to recreate the joy and excitement I used to feel in the early days of the internet. The content is a smorgasbord, including everything from youtube clips, to long form journalism, to weird websites that are {+}

Sunset

Sunset

Dear readers, We are sorry to say that after eighteen years, we are going to be shutting down this blog at the end of the year. We will write a longer farewell post later on, but we wanted to announce that we are closing this site and project down at the end of this year. A huge thanks to all our loyal readers who have stuck with us all these years, as well as new ones who may have only {+}

Anthro Boycott 2.0

Anthro Boycott 2.0

Responding to the petition members submitted on March 3, the American Anthropological Association has scheduled a vote on the boycott of Israeli academic institutions from June 15-30. Make sure your AAA membership is active and watch your email for information about how to vote. In 2015 a similar resolution “narrowly missed adoption in the subsequent full membership vote by a margin of only 39 votes (2,384 in favor and 2,423 opposed; 49.6% – 50.4%).” This one will be close again. {+}

In 2023, Question Everything

In 2023, Question Everything

Here’s a New Year’s Resolution for everyone for 2023: Question everything about how we teach, do research, and select students or job applicants. – Question grades – Question letters of recommendation – Question peer review What else should we question about academia this year? (Sorry for the paywalled links, I usually try to avoid them, but couldn’t find an alternative just now.) KerimP. Kerim Friedman is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa {+}

What makes a job ad “terrible”?

What makes a job ad “terrible”?

On September 18, 2021, Dada Docot launched what she called “Search for 2021 Worst Anthro Job Ads.” Taking place on Twitter, this “contest” brought public attention to conversations that often happen in private between friends and colleagues who may bemoan the state of the job market and the endlessly multiplying requirements of job ads but feel relatively powerless to do much about these things. This eventually resulted in the open access article: The Worst of Anthro Job Ads for 2021 {+}

Follow us on Mastodon

Follow us on Mastodon

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, there has been an exodus of “Twitter executives on the front lines of protecting safety, security, speech, and accessibility. Some were fired, others resigned.” Most of the employees tasked with enforcing and designing these policies have been fired or quit as well. For these reasons, we at anthrodendum no longer feel comfortable promoting Twitter as a way to follow or engage with our account. I personally have already deactivated my Twitter account and moved to {+}

Tips for Better Online Teaching

Tips for Better Online Teaching

As I write this, colleges in Taiwan are switching to online learning for the first time since the pandemic started. This is because, for most of the past year, Taiwan was able to contain the pandemic at the border. This past week, however, marks the first time ever that there has been sustained local transmission and it is currently unclear whether or not the government can get things back under control. I actually started teaching online for the first time {+}

Roam If You Want To

Roam If You Want To

You already know how to use Roam Research, the new note taking app taking the internet by storm. You don’t need to follow the #roamcult hashtag on Twitter, or watch the dozens of YouTube explainer videos in order to start using Roam. If you’ve used Wikipedia (with its web of interlinked definitions), an outliner (with information organized by indented bullet points), Twitter (where you can find subjects by #hashtags), or any desktop computer (where items can exist in multiple locations {+}

COVID-19 Potpourri

COVID-19 Potpourri

The WHO declared that COVID-19 is now officially a “pandemic.” It should be: "COVID-19 declared a pandemic by WHOM." — John Gemberling (@Gemberlicking) March 11, 2020 While this news came as a shock to some, many feel that the WHO should have made the announcement weeks ago. Things are moving fast and it can feel hard to keep up. While it can feel like everyone with an internet connection is suddenly an expert in public health, the truth is that {+}

Inventing the Way of Tea in Taiwan

Inventing the Way of Tea in Taiwan

One never knows how to read the NY Times when it comes to their reporting on the lifestyles of the one-percenters, but not far into a recent cringe-worthy NY Times article about a tea ceremony being held in California I began to suspect that the author was not on the same side as her subjects. Ms. Elspeth is one of Los Angeles’s early tea ceremony adopters in certain and predominantly white wellness circles. She was introduced to it after what {+}