Anthropology

Anthropology

episodes

Interviews with anthropologists about their new books.

Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha, "Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States" (UNC Press, 2023)

May 7, 2024

Vodou en Vogue

Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

In Haitian Vodou, spirits impact Black practitioners' everyday lives, tightly connecting the sacred and the secular. As Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha reveals…

Sreeparna Chattopadhyay, "The Gravity of Hope" (Crossed Arrows, 2023)

May 6, 2024

The Gravity of Hope

Sreeparna Chattopadhyay

Sreeparna Chattopadhyay's book The Gravity of Hope (Crossed Arrows, 2023) is a non-fictional account of women’s lives who sometimes endured, often res…

Matilda Bickers, "Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex" (PM Press, 2023)

May 5, 2024

Working It

Matilda Bickers, Janis Luna, and Peech Breshears
Hosted by Gregory Soden

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of…

Ketaki Chowkhani and Craig Wynne, "Singular Selves: An Introduction to Singles Studies" (Routledge, 2024)

May 4, 2024

Singular Selves

Ketaki Chowkhani and Craig Wynne

Singular Selves: An Introduction to Singles Studies (Routledge, 2024) edited By Ketaki Chowkhani and Craig Wynne examines, for perhaps the first time,…

Fauzia Husain, "The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the Agency of Pakistan's Frontline Women" (Stanford UP, 2024)

May 3, 2024

The Stigma Matrix

Fauzia Husain
Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu

As developing states adopt neoliberal policies, more and more working-class women find themselves pulled into the public sphere. They are pressed into…

Nadine A. Sinno, "A War of Colors: Graffiti and Street Art in Postwar Beirut" (U Texas Press, 2024)

May 2, 2024

A War of Colors

Nadine A. Sinno
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the last two decades in Beirut, graffiti makers have engaged in a fierce “war of colors,” seeking to disrupt and transform the city’s physical an…

Harry Pettit, "The Labor of Hope: Meritocracy and Precarity in Egypt" (Stanford UP, 2023)

May 2, 2024

The Labor of Hope

Harry Pettit
Hosted by Yadong Li

Capitalism is not only an economic system but also a system of production and allocation of hope. In Egypt, a generation of young men desire fulfillin…

Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil, "The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala: Reading Borders and Belonging" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 1, 2024

The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala

Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

The Indian state of Kerala is one of the largest blocs of migrants in the oil economies of the Arab Gulf. Looking closely at the cultural archives p…

Kenneth R. Valpey, "Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

April 30, 2024

Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics

Kenneth R. Valpey
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

What does cow care in India have to offer modern Western discourse animal ethics? Why are cows treated with such reverence in the Indian context? Join…

Adia Harvey Wingfield, "Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It" (Amistad Press, 2023)

April 30, 2024

Gray Areas

Adia Harvey Wingfield
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Labor and race have shared a complex, interconnected history in America. For decades, key aspects of work—from getting a job to workplace norms to adv…

John O'Brien, "States of Intoxication: The Place of Alcohol in Civilisation" (Routledge, 2018)

April 29, 2024

States of Intoxication

John O'Brien
Hosted by Lucas Richert

Is alcohol a universal feature of human society? Why is it problematic in some countries and not others? How did alcohol help build the modern state? …

Ross Perlin, "Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Language City

Ross Perlin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century and—because many have never been recorded—when they’re gone, it will be for…

Steven C. Beda, "Strong Winds and Widow Makers: Workers, Nature, and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber Country" (U Illinois Press, 2022)

April 26, 2024

Strong Winds and Widow Makers

Steven C. Beda
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Imagine an environmentalist. Are you picturing a Birkenstock-clad hippie? An office worker who hikes on weekends? A political lobbyist? What about a m…

Philipp Demgenski, "Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

April 22, 2024

Seeking a Future for the Past

Philipp Demgenski
Hosted by Yadong Li

In Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City (U Michigan Press, 2024), Philipp Demgenski examines the complexities a…

Charis Enns and Brock Bersaglio, "Settler Ecologies: The Enduring Nature of Settler Colonialism in Kenya" (U Toronto Press, 2024)

April 21, 2024

Settler Ecologies

Charis Enns and Brock Bersaglio
Hosted by Louisa Hann

Settler Ecologies: The Enduring Nature of Settler Colonialism in Kenya (University of Toronto Press, 2024) tells the story of how settler colonialism …

Héctor Beltrán, "Code Work: Hacking Across the US/México Techno-Borderlands" (Princeton UP, 2023)

April 21, 2024

Code Work

Héctor Beltrán
Hosted by Liliana Gil

In Code Work: Hacking Across the US/México Techno-Borderlands (Princeton UP, 2023), Héctor Beltrán examines Mexican and Latinx coders’ personal strate…

Fumilayo Showers, "Migrants Who Care: West Africans Working and Building Lives in U.S. Health Care" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

April 21, 2024

Migrants Who Care

Fumilayo Showers
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

As the U.S. population ages and as health care needs become more complex, demand for paid care workers in home and institutional settings has increase…

Vaia Touna and Richard Newton, "Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

April 21, 2024

Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion

Vaia Touna and Richard Newton
Hosted by Jacob Barrett

Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists (Bloomsbury, 2023) introduces students to the so-called classics of the f…

Arsalan Khan, "The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan" (Cornell UP, 2024)

April 19, 2024

The Promise of Piety

Arsalan Khan
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan (Cornell University Press, 2024) by Arsalan Khan is an incisive ethnographic s…

Bruce O'Neill, "Underground: Dreams and Degradations in Bucharest" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)

April 17, 2024

Underground

Bruce O'Neill
Hosted by Roland Clark

Bruce O'Neill's Underground: Dreams and Degradations in Bucharest (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) gets to the bottom of the twenty-first-century city, li…