“We don’t look back enough to go forward, I don’t think. We need to look in the rear view mirror everyday”. Professor Mick Dodson AM, a Yawuru Aboriginal man, Australian barrister, academic and recently retired Director of the National Centre of Indigenous Studies at ANU, talks to our own Julia Brown about some of the ongoing struggles for Indigenous Australians.
Author: thinkingthroughambiguity
Gender and Mental health: The need for a wider lens
As the Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby powerfully put it, it would help if we didn’t start by seeing females and males as being from different planets. Experiences of violence and the broader social receptiveness to vulnerability, along with the manifestation of mental disorders and treatment, are influenced - but not entirely determined by gender.
Another Life
As anthropologist Kirin Narayan put to readers of her book Alive in the Writing, the creative process of ethnographic writing can grow from ‘the impulse to find company amid the often isolating and difficult aspects of writing’. In ethnographic writing, we need to somehow re-galvanise our fieldwork experiences that are now in the past.
Intimacy and Violence
At what point does a moment of mutual intimacy become intrusive, or even violent? As ethnographers, we strive to learn the dance of our participants; we follow their lead as they generously guide us through their worlds. That dancing can be enthralling and as intense as it is intimate, and it can also invite unintentional violence.
The Facebook Data Scandal and Why Anthropology Should get More Comfortable with Journalism
There’s anthropological spirit in investigative journalism that anthropologists could better acknowledge. Regardless of whether it has a anthropology qualification attached or it is embedded in complex cultural theory, it is something that sparks thinking about the ‘other’; the ‘strange’.
Ep. #9 Calculated risk: Elizabeth Watt talks sexual power, politics, and vulnerability in the field
This track has been removed. Please read the blog post Lizzy wrote to accompany this conversation: "Why #metoo is complicated for female anthropologists." “I knew I was making myself vulnerable, but I also knew that there was phone reception down there, and there were other people within shouting range, and that I had a weapon … Continue reading Ep. #9 Calculated risk: Elizabeth Watt talks sexual power, politics, and vulnerability in the field
Invisible Lines, Sacrificial Children and Touchy Subjects: Ethics in Psychiatric Anthropology
As I now write up my data, I’m representing people that I can no longer consult. I can only draw on the words they gave me and the unspoken elements that I observed. I would like to think that they would approve of anything I write. I know this is not, however, realistic.
This New Year, Think About Your Social Health Too
Feeling 'well' can mean many different things. Generally, though, intentions still count, and even more powerful are the social connections we feel along the way. “That will be next year’s project”, say many of us. “By then, I’ll be ready for it”, we might add. These kinds of statements also featured in several conversations with my … Continue reading This New Year, Think About Your Social Health Too
Ep. #2 Medical tribes: Tanisha Jowsey talks anthropology in the emergency room and teaching medical students to be human
Dr. Tanisha Jowsey, an applied medical anthropologist at the University of Auckland (unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/people/t-jowsey), spoke to our own Julia Brown about how to analyze a medical emergency, how machines and people communicate in the Operating Theatre, and how to manage her position as a pregnant anthropologist when there's blood on the floor.
Are You Living in Haste?
Can you engage in the present moment and let go of your other concerns while not engaged in a) an activity that demands all your attention, or b) under the influence of any drugs, or c) taking a sick day? Reading this might be a start, but hardly enough to free yourself from the pull … Continue reading Are You Living in Haste?
The Familiar Strange 