Author: Uzma Z. Rizvi

Uzma Z. Rizvi is an associate professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY, and a Visiting Scholar at Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Pakistan. Her current work focuses on Ancient Pakistan and UAE, during the third millennium BCE. She utilizes poetics as a mode through which to push the limits of archaeological theory. Additionally, her research focuses on ancient subjectivity, intimate architecture; memory, war, and trauma in relationship to the urban fabric, critical heritage studies at the intersections of contemporary art and history, and finally, epistemological critiques of the discipline in the service of decolonization.
Previous posts can be accessed via https://savageminds.org/author/uzma/

Mutual Aid in Archaeology: The Black Trowel Collective Microgrants

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | October 1, 2021

An interview with the Black Trowel Collective conducted during the Summer of 2021. June 22nd, 2021 marked a year for the Black Trowel Collective (BTC) microgrants program, and in that time, BTC has distributed $43,500 USD to archaeological students in need from 22 countries, including India and Brazil. The latter two countries were recently centered due to the impact of COVID-19 in those regions. The total to students from India and Brazil since this push at the beginning of May {+}

On The Culture of Harassment in Archaeology: An interview with Barbara L. Voss

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | June 22, 2021

[Content advisory: This article discusses harassment and discrimination in archaeology, including discussion of sexual assault.] On the morning of March 30, 2021, three articles on the culture of harassment within archaeology dropped. And it was epic. Across three articles, Barbara (Barb) Voss reviewed and analyzed current research about the prevalence and patterns of harassment within our discipline. Most useful was her list of proven interventions that have demonstrable results in reducing harassment. Most difficult and heart wrenching to read were {+}

Unexpected happiness in virtual spaces.

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | January 27, 2021

This piece was co-authored and experienced by the following (in alphabetical order): Zoe Crossland, Celine Gillot, Praveena Gullapalli, Sven Haakanson, Christina Halperin, Sarah Jackson, George Lau, Uzma Z. Rizvi, Kisha Supernant, Dawn Wambold, and Joshua Wright. This essay is about ice cream, beading, trust, friendship, and finding happiness in unexpected spaces while being an anthropologist. Collaboratively envisioned and written, we offer these reflections on praxis for a screen-bound contemporary moment, as well as an equitable and critical way to conceive {+}

Holding, Centering, Being: The many ways we live in the world.

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | March 19, 2019

Images and notes overwhelmed my various forms of media: I was flooded with New Zealand. My heart was flooded, my being was flooded, and I knew, once again, we could not sink, but had to float. Quietly float. Unobtrusively float. Since 9/11, I could no longer float with a voice. And so I left it to those who were too young to know what it meant to have that voice stripped and to be disappeared. And I watched as it {+}

Hooligans, Aggression, and the FIFA World Cup: How Football Reflects upon Race/Class/Gender/Power

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | June 8, 2018

The 2018 FIFA World Cup starts on June 14, 2018. This year it is being hosted by Russia. And in case you haven’t heard: we have a Russian ‘hooligan’ problem on our hands. The organized form of this practice falls along the lines of a Fight Club (1999) situation in which young (and not so young men) get together and fight. For those of us unused to the visuality of such consensual violence, it remains jarring, disconcerting and sometimes upsetting. But for those {+}

Public Anthropology and negotiating what that means on TV.

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | May 24, 2018

A few years ago, I wrote a piece on making archaeology popular in which I recounted the ways in which archaeology became part of public discourse through television media, and its impact on peoples lives. In that post I also write about how through archaeology game shows, Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s personality becomes associated with a certain kind of archaeological knowledge, and how he is voted TV personality of the year in 1954. His face, his demeanor, his person becoming a household name {+}

Saba Mahmood: A tribute

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | April 19, 2018

Today marks 40 days since Saba Mahmood’s passing. In my family culture and tradition, 40 days after death is an important marker of passage, of coping, of figuring out how you will move on… for both those who have passed and those who experienced the loss. To mark this moment, on behalf of Anthrodendum, I invited scholars representing diverse stages in their own careers, each of whom has a different relationship to Saba and her work. As a collection of notes, these {+}

Whose Streets: Protest and Drifting

By Uzma Z. Rizvi | December 15, 2017

As I drove home on I-95 from the AAAs this year thinking about conversations, old friends, future projects, Honduras, and the tax bill, I heard a car swoosh by me. Immediately sitting up, I knew there would be more. I looked in the rear view mirror and found myself surrounded by fast moving vehicles, all with shaded windows, souped up engines, and a speed that made the rest of us all look like lumbering slow pokes. It was like suddenly {+}