Cultural Anthropology
What can a hydroelectric dam teach us about inequality, injustice, poverty and the environment? Quite a lot, it turns out, when the dam in question it sits on the border between one of the smaller countries in South America, Paraguay, and the global giant that is Brazil. Christine Folch, an assistant professor in Cultural Anthropology, has been studying the politics of the Itaipu Dam for the past 10 years, leading to the publication of her first book on the subject in 2019. Since arriving at Duke, she has engaged students… read more about Cultural anthropologist awarded Carnegie Fellowship for her work in Latin America »
Welcome to the end of semester digital ethnography collaboratively produced by students in Cultural Anthropology 302: Fieldwork Methods. This class, a requirement for all Cultural Anthropology majors and also popular with students in other majors, is a rigorous introduction to the core methodology anthropologists utilize in ethnographic research: participant observation, or more colloquially, “deep hanging out.” Through participating, observing and talking to people in what is often an unfamiliar (to the anthropologist… read more about Duke in the Time of Covid »
Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm Online Event Contact Rogers, Sarah sarah.rogers@duke.edu 919-668-2401 Please register here The explosive rise of Amazon poses questions about labor rights and surveillance, privacy and logistics, and monopoly practices and the new economy among many others. Join us for a discussion with three experts - an anthropologist, a journalist, and an antitrust expert - about Amazon and its role in our lives and the world. Read more. read more about Unpacking Amazon: Consumerism, Labor Rights, Monopoly »
Paul Rabinow, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of anthropology and world-renowned anthropologist, died April 6 at the age of 76 in his Berkeley home. Rabinow spent about 41 years at UC Berkeley between 1978 to 2019, serving as the director of anthropology for the Contemporary Research Collaboratory and as the former director of human practices for the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center. Read more. read more about UC-Berkeley Professor Emeritus Paul Rabinow dies at age 76 »
Marshall D. Sahlins, a brilliant and witty anthropologist who, starting in the 1970s, explored how individuals shape and are shaped by their cultures — a point he had already put in practice a decade earlier as the inventor of the “teach-in” against the Vietnam War — died on April 5 at his home in Chicago. He was 90. His son, Peter Sahlins, a historian at the University of California, Berkeley, confirmed the death. Read more. read more about Marshall D. Sahlins, Groundbreaking Anthropologist, Dies at 90 »
Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds us of the integral role poets play in our culture. For the 25th anniversary of this annual celebration of poets and poetry, we highlight six poets among the university's faculty who have published collections of poetry. The works of these poets, along with many others, are available at Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. In addition, Duke University Press is offering a… read more about Celebrate National Poetry Month with Six Duke Faculty Poets »
We are stunned by the anti-Asian mass shootings in Atlanta and Acworth on March 16, 2021. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families who have suffered from this senseless act. Eight innocent lives were brutally taken away by a gunman, six of them women of Asian descent. This is not an isolated incident and comes out of the current-day repetition of long-standing racist sentiments targeting various minority communities fueled by political rhetoric. Read and sign the complete statement. read more about Statement of Solidarity Against Anti-Asian Violence »
Please register here for this event. Ethnographic Sense: Composing the Contemporary Friday, April 9, 2021, 2:00-3:30 PM (Eastern Time) What does it mean to write from the inside of our current condition—a global pandemic that has kept us home for a year, even as events unfold across the nation and the globe. How can we “make something” of the present, when conditions for doing ethnography have fundamentally changed? Read more. read more about Ethnographic Sense: Composing the Contemporary »
The Office for Faculty Advancement has awarded seed grants to 14 faculty-led projects exploring new ideas and expanding existing initiatives to promote an equitable and inclusive academic environment at Duke. The theme for this cycle was "Confronting Racism and Bias: Fostering an Inclusive Community." Faculty Advancement Seed Grants provide a financial head start for novel faculty development initiatives within academic units. 2021-22 Faculty Advancement Seed Grants Art, Art History and Visual Studies Anti-Racist Pedagogy… read more about Seed Grants Help Faculty Lead the Way in Confronting Racism and Bias »
Dr. Layla Brown-Vincent by That Anthro Podcast • A podcast on Anchor Welcome to another episode of That Anthro Podcast, where we dive into all things anthropology. This episode was just as much of a treat to record as it is to listen to, Dr. Layla Brown-Vincent is a captivating scholar, storyteller, and professor. Dr. Brown-Vincent is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at U Mass Boston, but holds a Phd in Cultural Anthropology. Read more. read more about Dr. Layla Brown-Vincent by That Anthro Podcast »
The Office for Faculty Advancement has awarded seed grants to 14 faculty-led projects exploring new ideas and expanding existing initiatives to promote an equitable and inclusive academic environment at Duke. The theme for this cycle was "Confronting Racism and Bias: Fostering an Inclusive Community." Faculty Advancement Seed Grants provide a financial head start for novel faculty development initiatives within academic units. Read more. read more about Seed Grants Help Faculty Lead the Way in Confronting Racism and Bias »
Duke University's Trinity College of Arts and Sciences seeks candidates for three tenure/tenure-track professorships in the study of Native, Indigenous, and/or First Nations people of the Americas. Candidates should be at the assistant or associate professor level; distinguished candidates at the full professor level will also be considered. These hires are part of a sustained commitment by Trinity College of Arts and Sciences to increase the expertise and representation of Native American and Indigenous studies across core… read more about Open Rank Tenure Track Faculty Positions - Study of Native, Indigenous, and/or First Nations people of the Americas »
Katya Wesolowski's new article "Imagining Brazil in Africa: Capoeira's Transatlantic Roots and Routes" and co-authored piece for a new article format “Ethnography In-Sight” which is a reflection on a photo-montage created by one of Professor Wesolowski's artist-collaborators in Angola and which is the cover image for the issue. read more about Imagining Brazil in Africa: Capoeira's Transatlantic Roots and Routes »
J. Lorand Matory, the Lawrence Richardson Distinguished Professor of Cultural Anthropology, was interview for an NBC New York story about botánicas, which are "brightly colored stores, often adorned with statues and idols in their windows." read more about The African History Behind Latino Botánicas »
Mar 5, 2021 02:00 PM In recent years, researchers have highlighted the importance of using “Asia” as a site to develop new research tools and methods to rethink the global world. The outbreak of Covid-19, in many ways, has only heightened this call. Beyond the Asian stories of “failures” and “successes” in dealing with the ongoing public health crisis, the pandemic has exacerbated the existing geopolitical tensions, dispossession, as well as state violence against minorities and political dissidents, all against the… read more about Asian Research in the Fog of Pandemic »
Professor Ralph Litzinger’s conversation with former Duke undergrad Aydin Anwar on the Xinjiang camps in China, forced labor, labor transfer programs, surveillance and incarceration, missing relatives, genocide, and questions of complicity is now live on Duke’s You Tube channel. read more about Live on Duke's You Tube channel - Professor Ralph Litzinger’s conversation with Aydin Anwar '19 »
The Dean of the Social Sciences at Duke University invites applications for a one-year residential postdoctoral fellowship focused on race and sports. The fellow will be appointed in one of four departments: Cultural Anthropology; African and African American Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; or Education. Applications must be submitted online. Apply here. read more about Postdoctoral Fellowship in Race and Sports »
After the declaration of a public health emergency following the outbreak of coronavirus, it became clear to me that this was a vitally important time to learn about infectious disease control, medical management and the role of care-providers in delivering proper healthcare to the people who are most likely to need it and least likely to have it. The mission of my project, Sustainably Improving Neurosurgical Patient Outcomes in Uganda, is to focus on all these aspects of healthcare… read more about Bass Connections: Maria Pita, Cultural Anthropology '21 »
In this covid moment, death has altered the social landscape. How is this taking place and how do anthropologists deal with death as a concept and a method ethnographically: a vital event in our collective life? In this session, the speakers draw upon their own research —on mass graves in Hart Island, digital economies and media communication, and (dis)locations of silence—to consider how death can bring us beyond the sense(s) of finality to shape lives in inalterable ways. Read more. Please register here… read more about Deathscapes: Ethnography of/beyond Senses »
As part of its event series tgiFHI, the Franklin Humanities Institute is conducting interviews with its faculty speakers in order to familiarize broader audiences with the diversity of research approaches in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences at Duke University. Dr. Lee Baker is Mrs. A. Hehmeyer Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and African and African American Studies. In this edited and condensed interview, he describes how science and society shape one another, the racist… read more about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Lee Baker »
This month, we present a collection of 10 Duke-authored books detailing the history of Black life in America. While this is not a comprehensive list of all Duke scholarship on Black history, it is intended to be an introduction to the multifaceted work of Duke scholars in public policy, history, documentary studies, religious studies, African and African-American studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, art, art history, and visual studies. These books, along with many others, are available at Duke… read more about 10 Duke-Authored Books on Black History »
It was 1968, and I was an 11-year-old white boy in Appalachian Virginia imagining I was Hank Aaron. Home from school for the summer, a small group of us gathered for mornings in our backyard to play Whiffle ball — with a plastic bat and ball, and bases made from scraps of wood. A forsythia hedge, some 75 feet from the back steps where we batted, was the outfield fence. The innovation we came up with was to pretend to be major league players, reading stats and biographical facts about our favorite players from their baseball… read more about Being Hank Aaron, Just For a Moment, Beyond that Forsythia »
It was 1968, and I was an 11-year-old white boy in Appalachian Virginia imagining I was Hank Aaron. Home from school for the summer, a small group of us gathered for mornings in our backyard to play Whiffle ball — with a plastic bat and ball, and bases made from scraps of wood. A forsythia hedge, some 75 feet from the back steps where we batted, was the outfield fence. The innovation we came up with was to pretend to be major league players, reading stats and biographical facts about our favorite players from their baseball… read more about Being Hank Aaron, Just For a Moment, Beyond that Forsythia »
This month we offer a collection of Duke-authored works that reflect human experiences through fiction. These books along with many others are available at the Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In "A Life of Adventure and Delight," Professor Akhil Sharma delivers eight stories that focus on Indian protagonists at home and abroad. A… read more about 10 Works of Fiction from Duke Authors »
The Senior Book Prize is awarded biennially for a book by a senior scholar. The prize goes to a work that speaks to contemporary social issues with relevance beyond the discipline and beyond the academy. The 2020 Senior Book Prize award committee presents the prize to Deborah Thomas for Political Life in the Wake of the Plantation: Sovereignty, Witnessing, Repair, and to J. Lorand Matory for The Fetish Revisited: Marx, Freud, and the Gods Black People Make. Read more. View presentation. read more about Randy Matory Joint Winner of 2020 AES Senior Book Prize »