perhaps the most perplexing item she had kept from her time was the empty casing of an artillery shell from World War Two. She told me that many of the ladies would find these shells (sometimes still live) and would commission a local Papua New Guinean man to convert them into modest flower vases.
BONUS EPISODE: Faire une anthropologie multilingue, avec Monica Heller et Émilie Urbain: TFS in French
Monica Heller est professeure en anthropologie linguistique à l’Université de Toronto (Canada). Émilie Urbain est professeure adjointe de linguistique au département de français de l’Université Carleton. Elles sont bilingues (français/anglais). Elles ont grandi et travaillent dans des zones périphériques des marchés linguistiques dominants de production du savoir anthropologique que sont les États-Unis et la France … Continue reading BONUS EPISODE: Faire une anthropologie multilingue, avec Monica Heller et Émilie Urbain: TFS in French
Ep #49: Intolerable Ads, Introvert Anthros, Irrevocable Ties & Indigenous Symbols: This Month on TFS
This month, Kylie [0:50] kicks off our conversation by reflecting on our blog about racism in sport and asks us about the ethics of ad targeting on social media. This comes after we decided to try boosting the blog post through a paid Facebook advertisement, since we felt this was a topic that needed to … Continue reading Ep #49: Intolerable Ads, Introvert Anthros, Irrevocable Ties & Indigenous Symbols: This Month on TFS
“It’s a lot of sand”: An anthropological take on Trump’s Syrian withdrawal
That Syria has “a lot of sand” is meant to stand in for its lack of value. As a place that is sandy, it is not worth US lives; good enough for less valued Syrians and Russians but not good enough for Americans ... But it also got me thinking about a more fundamental question. Why is it that we, in the Anglo-American world, devalue ‘sand’?
Single Shot: Laying an Egg
“She likes it in here,” he said. “Sometimes I have to catch the eggs so they don’t roll onto the floor.”
Ep. #48 The Nature of Anthropology: Andrew Kipnis on China, Funerals, Ethnographic Socialising & Academic Speech
"I think you’d be crazy to go into something like anthropology if you want to learn how to say whatever other people tell you to say - you know, maybe you should become a lawyer!" This week we bring you a special treat - an interview between our good friend Zoe Hatten and her PhD … Continue reading Ep. #48 The Nature of Anthropology: Andrew Kipnis on China, Funerals, Ethnographic Socialising & Academic Speech
Calling it out: Our Australian rules?
The documentaries about Adam Goodes capture and abbreviate an array of events on and off the ground that might make recognising and responding to racism seem straightforward. The release of the films and the ensuing national reflection they appeared to invoke might also give the impression that this chapter in our story is now closed, but I think this is far from true.
Ep. #47: Meaningful Declutter, Local Activism, Managing Fire & Writing Up: This month on TFS
Firstly, we’d like to introduce you all to Alex D’Aloia, who is managing our Facebook group TFS Chats – you might remember the blog post that he wrote for us at the start of this year: "Anthropologists and Dragons". Make sure to check out the chat group after listening to this episode and let us … Continue reading Ep. #47: Meaningful Declutter, Local Activism, Managing Fire & Writing Up: This month on TFS
In University Restructures, is Trauma too Strong a Word?
I would argue that the unhappy academics were creating and adding to what I described in my thesis as affective swirls of discontent, and that they were doing this as a means of bonding, or collective self-comforting. Anthropologist Nigel Thrift (2004), in discussing spatial affect, might argue that these swirls gather momentum, affecting the moods and feelings of others as they circulate. As they get translated into different, perhaps more durable contexts — such as via technologies like online chat and email — the affect begins to bed down into the objects (such as emails, or policies), as well as into the humans, strengthening the network and the feelings of discontent further. This is where collective trauma may become an apt description.
Ep #46 Reconfigurable: Elanor Huntington talks engineering, anthropology, & how we’re making our world
“Not only do we need engineers working alongside anthropologists to do good quality engineering, I also think that we need to do an anthropology of engineers… Engineers are making our world, right? And, the way that we, as engineers, think collectively, behave collectively, what we consider to be important... I think somebody should be watching … Continue reading Ep #46 Reconfigurable: Elanor Huntington talks engineering, anthropology, & how we’re making our world
The Familiar Strange 