Author: Guest Contributor

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,” …

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 …

+ Read More The Labor of Racism

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 …

Challenging the New Colonialism, and Celebrating the (Almost) Eradication of Polio: An Anthropological Response to Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now

By Guest Contributor | March 17, 2018

By Elizabeth Marino* Why I Read Enlightenment Now Cognitive Psychologist, Steven Pinker, wrote a book called Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. This would have casually rolled around the edges of my conscious mind, and then promptly fallen out, until a piece in the New York Times came out titled: The …

Another Scene in the Fight Against Islamophobia

By Guest Contributor | March 14, 2018

By: Darren Byler In early March 2018 the influential Uyghur poet Tahir Hamut gave a series of readings in Seattle. Unlike in years past when Uyghur celebrities had come to the city, only a handful of Uyghurs—Turkic Muslims native to what has become Northwest China—came to hear Tahir speak. This was not because they did …

Between Expert and Witness: Insider Anthropology and Public Engagement

By Guest Contributor | February 5, 2018

By Larisa Kurtović Making anthropological expertise public—that is, releasing our insights into the world of non-academic publics—is never easy. Anthropological engagements with media are frequently awkward, fraught and unsatisfying. But what happens when an anthropologist who conducts research “at home” is summoned by the media as simultaneously an expert and a witness? On November 22, 2017, …

Ursula K. Le Guin, Interplanetary Anthropologist

By Guest Contributor | January 26, 2018

By Anand Pandian Sometime early in the year 1980, Ursula K. Le Guin receives a fan letter. And yet the letter isn’t actually addressed to Le Guin, but instead to “Faxe,” a minor character in one of her most beloved books, The Left Hand of Darkness, first published in 1969. Inked with fine calligraphy …

In an era of climate change, our ethics code is clear: We need to end the AAA annual meeting

By Guest Contributor | January 13, 2018

By Dr. Jason Hickel I remember when the AAA shifted from the old printed program to the new default paperless version. It was part of a noble effort to “green” the meetings, and of course we all welcomed it. But I couldn’t help but think it was all a bit quaint given that the annual …

About last night: Honduras Elections

By Guest Contributor | December 2, 2017

By Rosemary Joyce Last night, the incumbent president of Honduras declared a state of emergency, suspending the constitutional guarantee of the right to move freely around the country. He ordered the armed forces and the police, whose militarization he has promoted, to remove protests that have closed roads, taken bridges, and occupied public spaces throughout …