Anthropology

Anthropology

episodes

Interviews with anthropologists about their new books.

Lisa Messeri, "In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles" (Duke UP, 2024)

March 16, 2024

In the Land of the Unreal

Lisa Messeri
Hosted by Noopur Raval

In the mid-2010s, a passionate community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, media artists, and tech innovators formed around virtual reality (VR), bel…

Jonas Tinius, "State of the Arts: An Ethnography of German Theatre and Migration" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

State of the Arts

Jonas Tinius
Hosted by Adam Bobeck

State of the Arts: An Ethnography of German Theatre and Migration (Cambridge UP, 2023) is a bold and wide-ranging account of the unique German public …

Amber Worlds: The Global Amber Trade in the China-Myanmar Borderlands

March 15, 2024

Amber Worlds

Alessandro Rippa

What role do China and other Asian countries play in the global amber trade? And, what can we learn about the big challenges of our time by studying a…

Charlotte Setijadi, "Memories of Unbelonging: Ethnic Chinese Identity Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Memories of Unbelonging

Charlotte Setijadi
Hosted by Michele Ford

The ethnic Chinese have had a long and problematic history in Indonesia, commonly stereotyped as a market-dominant minority with dubious political loy…

Pankaj Jain and Jeffery D. Long, "Indian and Western Philosophical Concepts in Religion" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023)

March 14, 2024

Indian and Western Philosophical Concepts in Religion

Pankaj Jain and Jeffery D. Long
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Philosophical concepts are influential in the theories and methods to study the world religions. Even though the disciplines of anthropology and relig…

Religious Minorities Online

March 13, 2024

Religious Minorities Online

Erica Baffelli, Alexander van der Haven, and Michael Stausberg
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Religious Minorities Online (RMO) is the premier academic resource on religious minorities worldwide, reflecting the state of the art in scholarship. …

David E. Gilbert, "Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography" (U California Press, 2024)

March 12, 2024

Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land

David E. Gilbert
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Two decades ago, a group of Indonesian agricultural workers began occupying the agribusiness plantation near their homes. In the years since, members …

Xin Gu, "Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity: Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Industries" (Routledge, 2023)

March 11, 2024

Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity

Xin Gu
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How can artists survive today? In Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity: Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Indu…

Mara Albrecht and Alke Jenss, "The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence: Histories, Rhythms and Ruptures" (Manchester UP, 2023)

March 10, 2024

The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence

Mara Albrecht and Alke Jenss
Hosted by Roberto Mazza

The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence: Histories, Rhythms and Ruptures (Manchester UP, 2023) asks how the city, with its spatial and tempor…

Laura Huttunen and Gerhild Perl, "An Anthropology of Disappearance: Politics, Intimacies and Alternative Ways of Knowing" (Berghahn Books, 2023)

March 10, 2024

An Anthropology of Disappearance

Laura Huttunen and Gerhild Perl
Hosted by Yadong Li

All over the world, people disappear from their families, communities and the state’s bureaucratic gaze, as victims of oppressive regimes or while mig…

Priyanka Basu, "The Poet’s Song: ‘Folk’ and its Cultural Politics in South Asia" (Routledge, 2023)

March 6, 2024

The Poet’s Song

Priyanka Basu
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How can culture be authentic in the modern world? In The Poet's Song: Folk and its Cultural Politics in South Asia (Rouitledge, 2023), Dr Priyanka Bas…

Will Rollason and Eric Hirsch eds., "Compliance: Cultures and Networks of Accommodation" (Berghahn Books, 2023)

March 4, 2024

Compliance

Will Rollason and Eric Hirsch
Hosted by Yadong Li

Compliance, namely everyday accommodations, is a practice allowing us to work and live with others. Exploring compliance from an anthropological persp…

Joseph Cone, "Seeing Opera Anew: A Cultural and Biological Perspective" (Routledge, 2023)

March 3, 2024

Seeing Opera Anew

Joseph Cone
Hosted by James Kates

What people ultimately want from music-drama, audience research suggests, is to be absorbed in a story that engages their feelings, even moves them de…

Poppy Wilde, "Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities" (Routledge, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Posthuman Gaming

Poppy Wilde

Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities (Routledge, 2023) explores the relationship between avatar and gamer in the massively …

Terry Williams, "Life Underground: Encounters with People Below the Streets of New York" (Columbia UP, 2024)

March 1, 2024

Life Underground

Terry Williams
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Aboveground, Manhattan’s Riverside Park provides open space for the densely populated Upper West Side. Beneath its surface run railroad tunnels, disus…

Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama, "The Play of the Feminine" (HASP, 2023)

February 29, 2024

The Play of the Feminine

Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

In Tamil Nadu, the nine-night autumnal Navarātri festival can be viewed as a celebration of feminine powers in association with the goddess. Ina Marie…

Steve Ferzacca, "Sonic City: Making Rock Music and Urban Life in Singapore" (NUS Press, 2021)

February 29, 2024

Sonic City

Steve Ferzacca
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

The basement of a veteran shopping mall located in the central business district of Singapore affords opportunities to a group of amateur and semi-pro…

Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu, "Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam" (Duke UP, 2021)

February 26, 2024

Experiments in Skin

Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu
Hosted by Yadong Li

Through a creative focus on skin, in Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam (Duke UP, 2021), Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu examines the …

Mai Corlin, "The Bishan Commune and the Practice of Socially Engaged Art in Rural China" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

February 26, 2024

The Bishan Commune and the Practice of Socially Engaged Art in Rural China

Mai Corlin
Hosted by Suvi Rautio

On the podcast today, I am joined by Mai Corlin, who is external researcher at the department of cross-cultural and regional studies in the University…

Aaron J. Jackson, "Worlds of Care: The Emotional Lives of Fathers Caring for Children with Disabilities" (U California Press, 2021)

February 25, 2024

Worlds of Care

Aaron J. Jackson
Hosted by Alize Arıcan

Vulnerable narratives of fatherhood are few and far between; rarer still is an ethnography that delves into the practical and emotional realities of i…