Jodie is one of the founders of TFS, and was primarily responsible for public outreach and project management, as well as contributing content to the podcast and blog. She is currently in charge of the Familiar Strange Chats group over on Facebook. Jodie is an organisational anthropologist. She used her PhD research to study the changing nature of academic labour on global, neoliberal university campuses. Jodie’s dissertation is titled ‘Marketing Academic Authenticities at an international branch campus in Vietnam‘. 

See all of Jodie’s TFS posts here.

Julia is a founding member of TFS. For the first three years, she managed our website content and was co-editor of the blog, as well as contributing regularly to the podcast. Her anthropological interests mostly include social inequities and experiences of health in western culture, STS and the ethics and philosophy of medicine. Julia’s PhD dissertation is titled ‘Making Health Agency: Clozapine, Schizophrenia, and Personal Power.’  

See all of Julia’s TFS posts here.

Ian is a founding member of TFS, and is the founding executive producer of the podcast (2017-2018), as well as regular contributor to the blog. Ian came to anthropology through history, museums, and development work. Ian’s interests include textiles and garments, value and exchange, and Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, where he has spent much of his adult life.

See all of Ian’s TFS posts here.

Simon is a founding member of TFS, and is submissions manager and co-editor of the blog, as well as regular contributor to the podcast. Simon’s PhD research focuses on Utopianism and its legacies in contemporary Iran. He spent 14 months conducting fieldwork among young families in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city.

See all of Simon’s TFS posts here.

Alex is our Managing Editor. Alex is a fourth year PhD student at the ANU, working in both economic anthropology and anthropology of the state. His project examines the implementation of Popular Solidarity Economy as public policy in Ecuador. He is particularly interested in how our status as both citizens and economic actors are intertwined and what this means for our understanding of the state.

See all of Alex’s TFS posts here.

Kylie is a regular contributor to the blog and podcast. Kylie is a second year PhD candidate in anthropology at the ANU. Her project will explore the ways that research is performed with Aboriginal people in Australia today. She is interested in how particular kinds of knowledges are formed and shared in research, and the often unspoken conditions that shape them. She came to anthropology after working in research and youth work in the Northern Territory.

See all of Kylie’s TFS posts here.

Dee is our multi-media content manager and an executive producer for the TFS podcast. Dee has a BA/BSc from the ANU, majoring in both cultural anthropology and science communication. She is interested in all things anthropology, particularly the shifting nature of public spaces through the way people interact within them. Dee also has a passion for passion for new and exciting ways to make knowledge accessible for public audiences, an addiction to coffee, and loves exploring the world around her (and cuddling her very fluffy cat).

Matthew is an executive producer of the TFS podcast and technical co-ordinator for future projects. Matthew has a BSc, majoring in biology and psychology, from the ANU. He is currently doing a Master of Science Communication at the ANU. Matthew is very interested in communication of complex topics such as anthropology and some of the underlying principles of ethnography. In his spare time, Matthew enjoys partaking in combat sports and a nice chocolate milkshake.

Alisa interned with the TFS team in 2018 and is now working primarily to promote the podcast and find contributors overseas while completing her Bachelor of International Security on exchange in Helsinki. Alisa is passionate about interdisciplinary thinking and making academic work more accessible to the wider public.

Esther R. Anderson is a doctoral candidate and sessional lecturer in anthropology at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Her PhD research explores how working holidaymakers conducting seasonal agricultural labour in regional Australia encounter senses of place and feelings of community. She is also interested in the methodological implications of fieldwork ‘at home’, ethnobotany, and outer space.

Holly Walters is a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses on religion, language, and ritual practice in South Asia. Her current research addresses issues of political practice and ritual mobility in the high Himalayas of Mustang, Nepal among Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims who venerate sacred ammonite fossils, called Shaligrams. Her research also explores the emergence of digital and robotic religious practices throughout South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora and virtual community-building between India, Tibet and Nepal in a time of globalization and great social upheaval.