Source: Dan Benton, Flickr Commons
public anthropology in the time of Trump
Paul Stoller, professor of anthropology at West Chester University, published a piece in The Huffington Post, describing some public events organized by anthropologists around the Trump inauguration. He argues that anthropologists and other social scientists have the responsibility not to just produce knowledge but to move it into the public domain, and that this task is especially urgent now as a form of resistance to anti-social policies. [Note: one such event, hosted by Georgetown University, included a cultural anthropologist among the panelists; it has been headlined by Breitbart.com as a session for “instructing students” in “how to resist the Trump presidency” – in other words, it was more like brain washing than consciousness raising in their view. Thanks to Graham Hough-Cornwell of Georgetown for alerting me, via Facebook, to the Breitbart article.]
rethinking schizophrenia
Foreign Policy published an article reviewing new research on schizophrenia that offers a culturally-informed critique of the bio-psychiatric model. The article mentions the work of Juli McGruder, professor emerita of anthropology and occupational therapy at the University of Puget Sound. Her research in Zanzibar indicates that anyone who violated social norms, including speaking out of turn to hallucinating, is viewed as possessed by a spirit. Rather than stigmatizing them, their communities offer support. Research by Stanford University anthropology professor Tanya Luhrmann points in a similar direction. She and colleagues interviewed voice-hearers in the United States, India, and West Africa. Americans were more likely to hear voices that threatened and belittled, while participants in other countries heard family members, friends, or deities, and engaged in conversations with them. Luhrmann is quoted as saying: “I think the consequence of the American idea that the mind is broken is so horrifying and upsetting for people that they feel assaulted by these voices.”
“masculinity crisis” in China
NBC News reported on a rising concern among some people in China about a possible “masculinity crisis” and what to do about it. According to Tiantian Zheng, professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Cortland, the issue of masculinity and the upbringing of boys is being treated as a priority of state level educational policy. She said that possible measures include “the establishment of all boys’ middle schools, the textbook…[‘Little Men’], experts’ psychology clinics and media discourse.”
funding sought from a former colony
According to an article in The Hindu (Chennai), the University of Oxford is seeking financial support from India to establish an endowed chair in honor of social anthropologist M.N. Srinivas, a mid-twentieth century scholar of rural southern India. The centenary of his birthday in 2016 has added impetus to the fundraising efforts.
take that anthro degree and…
…direct an arts company. Claudia Zeiske is the founding director of Deveron Projects, an arts company in the town of Huntly in northeast Scotland. The company, now 21 years old, supports artists from many countries who visit Huntly. The artists live and work in the town, engaging with its buildings, people, schools, and landscape. In turn, they leave their mark on it, in sculptures, drawings, events, songs, and even new paths. In March of this year, Deveron Projects will welcome its first Syrian artist, Manaf Halbouni. A visual artist, he studied in Damascus and Dresden and is now based in Germany. Zeiske sees his arrival as a chance to interact with Syrian refugees in north-east Scotland. She says: “I have quite an interest in Africa and the Middle East…we have so little understanding of the Middle East, culturally there is very little understanding, and perhaps art can help bridge that. Manaf Halbouni is Syrian, but he now lives in Germany – it is not possible to get an artist from Syria directly. We have also linked with the around 100 Syrian refugees now living in Aberdeenshire, but it is very difficult because hardly any of them speak English and I don’t speak Arabic, nor do any people in my team. So in order to link with those people, I try to link with artists from the Middle East. He [Halbouni] is the first one.” To mark the company’s 21st birthday, Zeiske made a film featuring 76 of the artists hosted. Zeiske has (in chronological order) a degree in business administration from the Fachhochschule fuer Wirtschaft in Berlin, and M.Sc. in social anthropology from Freie Universität in Berlin, a bachelor’s in social anthropology from the London School of Economics, and an M.Sc. in social anthropology from University College London.
…become a nonfiction writer. Morvarid Fernandez has published her first book, ‘Seasoned’ for Family and Friends: Contemporary Recipes with an Old World Flavour and Reminiscences and Vignettes of Life in Provincial India. The book contains stories from the author’s life interspersed with recipes of soups, salads, dips, pork, stir-fries, foogath, Iranian Khoresh, and Anglo-Indian Brown Stew. Fernandez has an M.A. degree in anthropology from Pune University.
…become a novelist. Wang Weilian has gained success in the “traditional” mold of writing in an era spearheaded by avant-garde poets and novelists. “As serious writers, we regard literature as the criticism of life, and the seriousness of life as the only rule to judge a great writer,” says Wang. A recent publication, The Sound of Salt Forming, is a collection of 16 short stories by these post-1980s serious writers. Wang’s piece was chosen as the title of the book. Set in northwest China’s Qinghai Province, his story describes the life of two young men who have been good friends since their school days. Wang’s major works include the novels A Man without Fingerprints and The Second Person. Wang has a degree in anthropology and a PhD. In literature from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.
…become a health policy professor. Jessica Mulligan is assistant professor of health policy and management at Providence Coll
ege, Rhode Island, with specializations in medical anthropology, insurance, managed care, health policy, and ethnography. Her current research project uses life history interviews to explore the health and financial impacts of insurance coverage on the formerly uninsured. She has published journal articles in Medical Anthropology; Medical Anthropology Quarterly; and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law; as well as a book, Unmanageable Care: An Ethnography of Health Care Privatization in Puerto Rico. She serves on the Expert Advisory Committee of HealthSource RI. Mulligan has a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the George Washington University, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University.
…become a professor of sociology. Kirk Dombrowski is John Bruhn Professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. According to his university web page, his research focuses on broad interdisciplinary approaches to addiction and its related social and personal harms. He works across sociology, anthropology, psychology and political-economy. He has developed specialized research methods in network analysis and hard-to-reach populations that are highly stigmatized. He teaches undergraduate courses on social and cultural theory, criminology, social psychology, and systems science approaches to the social and behavioral sciences. At the doctoral level he teaches courses in research methods and core-social theory, with a focus on public health and health disparities. He is the Principal Investigator of the UNL Research, Evaluation and Analysis for Community Health Lab, which is currently conducting several NIH-funded projects in locations ranging from Puerto Rico to Alaska. He is also the director of UNL’s Minority Health Disparities Initiative, a project aimed at understanding and addressing health disparities in the Great Plains. Recently, he was selected to join the Education Board at the American Health Council. In that role, he will be sharing his knowledge and expertise on social network analysis in health, rural public health, and drug abuse. Dombrowski has a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in anthropology from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from City University of New York Graduate School and University Center.
working together toward shared goals
An article in The New York Times described an unusual collaboration between an archaeologist and a metal detectorist. Archaeologist Kevin McBride, associate professor at the University of Connecticut and research director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut, welcomes visits from Keith Wille who often goes metal detecting in the woods of Connecticut. His findings can help McBride in his work with and for the local Mashantucket Pequot Nation, researching a “history that’s written by the conquered and not by the conqueror” according to tribal spokeswoman Lori A. Potter.
wild primates in increasing danger
Several mainstream media, including The BBC and The Daily Mail, reported on new research indicating the increasing threats to the world’s primates, with 60 percent of species now facing extinction. The global study, involving more than 30 scientists, assessed the conservation status of more than 500 species, including apes, monkeys, lemurs and lorises. The article quotes Jo Setchell, a professor at Durham University, who referred to main threats of “massive habitat loss” and illegal hunting. Further, “Forests are destroyed when primate habitat is converted to industrial agriculture, leaving primates with nowhere to live…primates are hunted for meat and trade, either as pets or as body parts.” Other threats – all driven by human behavior – are forest clearance for livestock and cattle ranching; oil and gas drilling and mining. “The short answer is that we must reduce human domination of the planet, and learn to share space with other species,” Setchell commented. The study also cited poverty and civil unrest as a driving force for hunting – in the poorest parts of the world many people are being driven to hunting primates in order to feed themselves. For others living in high income countries, the message is: “… don’t buy tropical timber, don’t eat palm oil.” The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.
anthropologyworks 