Author: Guest Contributor

Social distancing in the times of coronavirus pandemic

By Guest Contributor | March 30, 2020

By Bicram Rijal We are in the middle of a coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with its effects reaching far deep and wide. While different measures are being thought about and implemented worldwide to reduce its spread and impact, social distancing has become a new catchphrase in the global vernacular. As public, we first repeatedly heard about the messages on the importance of frequent handwashing with soap and water, and now—after realizing that handwashing alone will not be just enough—social distancing or {+}

A Call for Transformation: Framing the Situation

By Guest Contributor | June 21, 2019

By Bryan Cockrell At the end of January 2018, I quit a fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. As a cis-gendered white man who was able to find other work, I want to recognize that I had enormous privilege in having the choice to leave, something not everyone is able to do despite their wishes. While in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Met, my role was to {+}

Omens of an Intellectual Death

By Guest Contributor | June 11, 2019

Found Poems on “Scholarly Knowledge” from Promotion Review Letters by Dr. REDACTED, Professor of Anthropology, REDACTED University Dedicated to Dell Hymes, who once said, “One should react to the utterance of ‘That’s not anthropology,’ as one would to the omen of an intellectual death. For that is what it is…. Either one has something to say about [a subject] or one does not.” #1: “Leadership in Scholarly Activities” “It is laudable that Professor REDACTED has chosen to engage with the public {+}

Anthrodendum is hiring!

By Guest Contributor | April 1, 2019

Writing, Editing, & Brand Transformation Post-Doc with Anthrodendum Field of Specialization: Anthropology Unit: Anthrodendum Category of Appointment: Transformational Track (TT) Rank/Position Title: Editing and Brand Transformation Post-Doctoral Fellow Start Date: April 1, 2019 Closing Date: January 23, 2019 About the Position: Anthrodendum is embarking on an exciting new journey, seeking to engage the discipline of Anthropology at the highest levels of imagination and achievement. In keeping with the model set by other Anthropology outlets, we seek an Editing and Brand {+}

Theses on Method: New Media, Social Technologies, and the Anthropology of Digital Worlds

By Guest Contributor | March 28, 2019

This is a guest post by Dr. Travis Cooper, who teaches at Butler University in Indianapolis and is a research fellow with the Lived Religion in the Digital Age initiative. The study of digital worlds is an emerging field in the social sciences and humanities. The concept of studying so-called “online” cultural activities poses difficulties for anthropology and the ethnographic tradition. But how might we imagine this young and controversial field beyond its institutional context and apparent methodological limitations? Drawing {+}

We Settlers Face a Choice: Decolonization or White Supremacy

By Guest Contributor | February 28, 2019

This is a guest post by Dr. Devin Zane Shaw, who teaches at Douglas College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We settlers face a choice: decolonization or white supremacy. We have made excuses for too long. We already have ample evidence of the recent rise of the far right in North America. On the one hand, we have seen the normalization of white nationalism and white supremacy in political discourse; on the other, the mobilization of the alt-right and other {+}

Let’s Do This Together: A Cooperative Vision for Open Access

By Guest Contributor | June 27, 2018

by Marcel LaFlamme, Dominic Boyer, Kirsten Bell, Alberto Corsín Jiménez, Christopher Kelty, and John Willinsky Over the past two weeks, public allegations of abuse at the (formerly) open-access journal HAU have touched off what one scholar has called “a fractal socio-technical controversy exploding in all directions.” Anchored, in part, by the Twitter channel #hautalk, responses from scholars across career stages have grappled with issues from power and privilege in a time of academic precarity to the status of the anthropological canon. {+}

Cloud Security for Anthropologists

By Guest Contributor | June 19, 2018

By Alexander Taylor Our ethnographic data is in the cloud, but our heads are not More and more anthropologists are conducting, storing and circulating their research in the cloud. Cloud storage – typically in the form of Apple iCloud, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive – is now the default storage option on the smartphones, netbooks, tablets and other digital devices that have become commonplace tools of fieldwork. Messages are sent to interlocutors through cloud platforms like WhatsApp. Interviews are carried {+}

Open Secrets: On Power and Publication (#hautalk)

By Guest Contributor | June 16, 2018

This is a Guest Post about the #hautalk by Emily Yates-Doerr Hau’s Editorial Board has just released its second response, this time unsigned, to the grievances aired by former staff. I am concerned that Giovanni da Col’s name remains listed at the top of the board and I am compelled to share my experiences with Hau publically. Last year, just before an article of mine was to be published in Hau, Da Col contacted me about funds for the publication. I {+}

Review of The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism. Bianca C. Williams. Duke University Press, 2018.

By Guest Contributor | June 11, 2018

By Erica Lorraine Williams I recently spent two weeks in Lisbon, Portugal. It was the end of an incredibly busy semester, and I had recently finished reading Bianca Williams’ breathtaking ethnography, The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism. I was reminded of how international travel offers an opportunity to fully immerse oneself in another environment. Despite being in Lisbon for work, I felt free and unencumbered. I was able to enjoy a temporary {+}