Guest Contributor

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 {+}

Reflecting on Boundaries, Protection, and Inspiration

By Guest Contributor | May 22, 2018

By: Gina Athena Ulysse Before reading Zoe Todd’s “Should I stay or Should I go?,” I had been pondering writing a post about why and how, I, a Black Haitian woman, claim anthropology. Since I usually begin with titles, I contemplated a few including, “One Foot in and One Foot Out: Post-Zora in da House,” “I Can’t Believe I Lasted this Long,” and my favorite, “Evolve or Be Extinct”— a nod to the King of Grime, English rapper Wiley. While {+}

The Labor of Racism

By Guest Contributor | May 7, 2018

By: Dána-Ain Davis One night in early 2018, a doula-friend of mine, Josie who is white, sent me a photo of a Black woman sitting in a wheelchair. A doula is a person who provides support during pregnancy and post-partum care. The woman’s name was Michelle. Michelle was both Josie’s friend and her client. The photo was taken as she had arrived at the hospital because she was in labor. Michelle looked beautiful sitting in the wheelchair. She was smiling. {+}

Race is Still a Problem in Anthropology

By Guest Contributor | April 9, 2018

By Anar Parikh [The following essay emerges from conversation with fellow PhD student and AES/SVA attendee, Scott Ross (George Washington University).] How is it that a senior anthropologist used the n-word during a plenary lecture and no one is talking about it? At last month’s American Ethnological Society Spring Conference in Philadelphia, Sherry Ortner delivered one of three keynote lectures, titled “Documenting Newark: Violent Resemblances.” Whereas much of Ortner’s work during the past two decades has focused on conceptualizing and {+}