Anthropological Airwaves
By Anthropological Airwaves
Anthropological AirwavesAug 31, 2021
Season 05 - Episode 04: Dismantling the Ivory Tower (Open Mic Edition) - Part Two
This episode is the second of a two-episode series on the production of archaeological knowledge in Lebanon produced by Nelly Abboud, contributing editor to the Archaeology Section at American Anthropologist. The series invokes the concept of an “open mic,” or a live show in which members of the audience–no matter their professional stature–take the stage to share their observations, critiques, and analysis. Nelly’s guests are early and mid-career archaeologists working in archaeology and museum worlds that remain elitist and exclusively reserved for members of a privileged and well-established social class. In each episode, she gives the metaphorical floor to a young voice in Lebanese archaeology and asks them to discuss their career within this system and the place of archaeology in contemporary Lebanese public life.
Today, we hear from Dr. Sarah Mady, lecturer in anthropology at Fordham University. Before moving to the United States in 2015, Sarah was a full-time field archaeologist and a research assistant at the University of Balamand, where she had been building a career since 2006. In this episode, Sarah connects the current state of the field of Lebanese archaeology to decades of colonialism, politics, sectarianism, and elitism.
Nelly Abboud is a freelance museum educator, founder, and director of Museolab, a cultural Lab that works on promoting cultural heritage through the use of experiential learning tools and methods. She is also a researcher interested in heritage and museum studies, cultural memory, public archaeology, and social collective impact.
Dr. Sarah Mady holds a Ph.D. from Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is an adjunct lecturer at Fordham University. Her research studies healing shrines in North Lebanon and the ways in which women and mothers have produced and used these spaces as a part of their daily lives and lived religion.
NB: Since this episode was recorded, Sarah Mady has successfully completed her doctoral studies and now holds a PhD in Archaeology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Credits:
Writing, Production, & Editing: Nelly Abboud Production Support: Anar Parikh Thumbnail Image: Sarah Mady Featured Music: ‘Hanging Moon’ by Le Trio Joubran Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Season 05 - Episode 03: Dismantling the Ivory Tower (Open Mic Edition) - Part One
This episode is the first of a two-episode series on the production of archaeological knowledge in Lebanon produced by Nelly Abboud, contributing editor to the Archaeology Section at American Anthropologist. The series invokes the concept of an “open mic,” or a live show in which members of the audience–no matter their professional stature–take the stage to share their observations, critiques, and analysis. Nelly’s guests are early and mid-career archaeologists working in archaeology and museum worlds that remain elitist and exclusively reserved for members of a privileged and well-established social class. In each episode, she gives the metaphorical floor to a young voice in Lebanese archaeology and asks them to discuss their career within this system and the place of archaeology in contemporary Lebanese public life. The series begins with reflections from Lebanese archaeologist Lorine Mouawad about the nature of the archaeological field in Lebanon and how Ottoman and French colonial mentalities continue to inform how the field is managed. She shares her thoughts on the current state of the field and these sociopolitical entaglements in the context of her own experience as a field archaeologist.
Credits:
Producer: Nelly Abboud
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Featured Music: "Relative Serenity Houdou’ Nisbi هدوء نسبي,” by Ziad Rahbani.
Season 05 - Episode 02: What Was Moria and What Comes Next?
This episode features a conversation between Dr. Yannis Hamilakis and Dr. Naor Ben-Yehohada about Moria, once the largest refugee camp in Europe until it was completely destroyed by a fire in September 2020. Dr. Hamilakis had been researching, experiencing, and witnessing the materiality of contemporary migration on Lesvos, the Greek island where Moria was located, since 2016. And, in the aftermath of its destruction, he convened a cohort of archaeologists, social anthropologists, activists, teachers, and authors with direct connections to and experiences of Moria to reflect on what the place meant to them and possible directions for the future. These contributions came together in the form of a multimodal portfolio, “What Was Moria and What Comes Next?” comprising research and photo essays, ethnographic fiction, first-person accounts, lyrical prose, illustration, and more. Dr. Hamilakis’s introduction to the collection, was published in the February 2022 issue of American Anthropologist and the entirety of the collection is available open-access on the journal’s website. To round out the multimodal scope of this project, this episode contributes an oral and aural dimension to the reflections to “What Moria and What Comes Next?”
What Was Moria and What Comes Next?
Credits:
Producer: Anar Parikh
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Featured Music: "Vertigo feat. Sponty" by Krav Boca
Season 05 - Episode 01: Who's Afraid of Universals
In this episode, a professor-student pair, Dr. Atreyee Majumder and Manhar Bansal, provide a glimpse into their ongoing conversation on the enduring role of universal categories and their relationship to anthropological knowledge. In light of the discomfort around universals in contemporary social sciences, we offer the provocation: can there be universals beyond those of capitalist modernity? We talk about the dominant time-space compression account of modernity, the possibility of uncovering other, more liberating and revolutionary temporalities, and the fun of doing theory in anthropology. We argue for the need to revisit the question of universal categories to think through our time and politics, albeit on a broader canvas. Tune in to ask, along with us, who’s afraid of universals?
Further Reading:
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2000. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. “Time/Space” pp 91-129.
Li, Darryl. 2020. The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. “Introduction” pp 1-26.
Tsing, Anna L. 2005. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press. “Introduction” pp 1-20.
Walker, Gavin, and Naoki Sakai. 2019. “The End of Area.” Positions: Asia Critique 27(1): 1–31.
Credits:
Writing, Production & Editing: Atreyee Majumder
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Thumbnail Image: "Railroad Sunset" by Edward Hopper (1929)
Featured Music: "Air on a G String" by J.S. Bach
Season 04 - Episode 05: Archaeological Identities, Part 3
This episode is the third (final) installment of a three-part series produced by Eleanor Neil, contributing editor at American Anthropologist and Anthropological Airwaves. From the African American Burial Ground in New York City to the memorialization of violence in Northern Ireland to professional archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor asks archaeologists with different regional and methodological specialties to choose a single object or site, and, in their own words describe how this this site or artefact speaks to the interaction between archaeology and political or social identity across time and place. Here, Eleanor, an archaeologist herself, takes up the very prompt she posed to Dr. Cheryl Janifer LaRoche and Dr. Laura McAtackney in first two episodes of the series: to consider the role archaeology plays in the creation of contemporary political social discourses in the context of her own research on community archaeology on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Further Reading:
Counts, Derek B., and Elisabetta Cova, P. Nick Kardulias, Michael K. Toumazou. “Fitting In: Archaeology and Community in Athienou, Cyprus.” Near Eastern Archaeology 76, no. 3 (2013): 166-177.
Counts, D.B. “A History of Archaeological Activity in the Athienou Region.” In Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, Annual of ASOR 65, edited by M. K. Toumazou, P. N. Kardulias, and D. B. Counts, 45–54. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2012.
Credits:
Writing, Production & Editing: Eleanor Neil Editorial
Production Support: Anar Parikh
Thumbnail Image: Eleanor Neil
Featured Music: “Westlin’ Winds” by Eoin O’Donnell
Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander
Season 04 - Episode 04: Archaeological Identities, Part 2
This episode is the second of a three-part series produced by Eleanor Neil, contributing editor at American Anthropologist and Anthropological Airwaves. From the African American Burial Ground in New York City to the memorialization of violence in Northern Ireland to professional archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor asks archaeologists with different regional and methodological specialties to choose a single object or site, and, in their own words describe how this this site or artefact speaks to the interaction between archaeology and political or social identity across time and place. In this episode, Dr. Laura McAtackney, discusses the materiality of violence and partition, the nature of commemoration and how archaeology of the recent past has an integral role in our understandings of politics, society and conflict. Dr. McAtackney is an associate professor at Aarhus University and her research centres on the historical and contemporary archaeologies of institutions and colonialism in Ireland.
Further Reading:
McAtackney, Laura. “Materials and Memory: Archaeology and Heritage as Tools of Transitional Justice at a Former Magdalen Laundry.” Éire-Ireland 55, nos. 1 & 2, (Spring/Summer 2020): 223-246.
MacAirt, Ciarán. "Corporate memory and the McGurk's Bar Massacre: CQ&A automatically added to new episodes on Spotifiarán MacAirt writes about the murder of his grandmother and 14 other civilians in a Belfast bar 43 years ago, and the families’ on-going campaign for truth." Criminal Justice Matters 98, no. 1 (2014): 6-7.
Justice for Magdalenes Research - an online resource associated with the NGO, Justice for Magdalenes.
Credits:
Writing, Production & Editing: Eleanor Neil
Production Support: Anar Parikh
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Thumbnail Image: Photo by Freya McClements for the Irish Times
Featured Music: “Westlin’ Winds” by Eoin O’Donnell
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander
Season 04 - Episode 03: Archaeological Identities - Part 1
This episode is the first of a three-part series produced by Eleanor Neil, contributing editor at American Anthropologist and Anthropological Airwaves. From the African American Burial Ground in New York City to the memorialization of violence in Northern Ireland to professional archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor asks archaeologists with different regional and methodological specialties to choose a single object or site, and, in their own words describe how this this site or artefact speaks to the interaction between archaeology and political or social identity across time and place. Here, Dr. Cheryl Janifer LaRoche discusses the African American Burial Ground in lower Manhattan and the influence it has had on public engagement, perceptions of slavery in the northern United States, and the empowerment inherent in recognizing one’s own past in the archaeological record. Dr. LaRoche’s is Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Her research on 18th and 19th-century free Black communities, institutions, and spaces combines law, history, oral history, archaeology, geography and material culture to define Black cultural landscapes, often navigating the convergences of public, private, political and social interests.
Further Reading:
LaRoche, Cheryl J. and Michael L. Blakey, ‘Seizing Intellectual Power: The Dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground’, Historical Archaeology, Vol. 31, No. 3 (1997), pp. 84-106.
Leone, Mark P. and Cheryl J. LaRoche, Jennifer J. Babiarz, ‘Archaeology of Black Americans in Recent Times’, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 35 (2005), pp. 575-598. Transcript:
Credits:
Writing, Production & Editing: Eleanor Neil
Production Support: Anar Parikh
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Thumbnail Image: Wally Gobetz, “NYC - Civic Center: African American Burial Ground National Monument” (2008) African American Burial Ground Memorial
Featured Music: “Spirit Blossom” by Roman Belov
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander
Season 04 - Episode 02: The Myth of Closure
In this episode, guest producer Laura Cirilo examines how the idea of closure configures into international applications of forensic anthropological practice in conversation with Dr. Sarah Wagner, Professor of Anthropology at the George Washington University, and Dr. Mercedes Salado, a member of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. The episode was produced as a part of the Vital Topics Forum, "How Academic Diversity is Transforming Scientific Knowledge in Biological Anthropology" in Volume 121, Issue 2 of American Anthropologist.
Credits:
Production & Editing: Laura Cirilo
Writing: Jaymelee Kim, Cate Bird, and Davette Gadison
Thumbnail Image: Jaymelee Kim
Additional Editorial Support - Elaine Chu and Matt Go
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Season 04 - Epiosde 01: "I'm Indigenous, Not Mestizo:" The Art & Activism of Rapper Jaguar Arreola - Part 3
In this three-part series, Brown University PhD Students Benjamin Salinas and Adelaida Tamayo examine questions of art, activism, and identity in conversation with Jaguar Arreoloa, an Indigenous-Chicano rapper based in Los Angeles, California. In Part Three (The Debrief), Ben and Adelaida reflect on the interview with Jaguar, what they found inspiring, and each of their key takeaways from the process of creating the episode.
Credits:
Production & Editing: Adelaida Tamayo and Benjamin Salinas
Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Background Music: Benjamin Salinas
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Season 04 - Epiosde 01: "I'm Indigenous, Not Mestizo:" The Art & Activism of Rapper Jaguar Arreola - Part 2
In this three-part series, Brown University PhD Students Benjamin Salinas and Adelaida Tamayo examine questions of art, activism, and identity in conversation with Jaguar Arreoloa, an Indigenous-Chicano rapper based in Los Angeles, California. In Part Two (The Interview), Adelaida and Ben interview Jaguar Arreola about his music and his activism.
Credits:
Production & Editing: Adelaida Tamayo and Benjamin Salinas
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Featured Music:
"Easy Does" It - Ez E
"Fuerza Guerrera II" - Jaguar Arreola, produced by Accosta the Man
Another Day by Kozmik Force feat. Azomali, produced by Acosta the Man.
Background Music: Benjamin Salinas
Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Season 04 - Epiosde 01: "I'm Indigenous, Not Mestizo:" The Art & Activism of Rapper Jaguar Arreola - Part 1
In this three-part series, Brown University PhD Students Benjamin Salinas and Adelaida Tamayo examine questions of art, activism, and identity in conversation with Jaguar Arreoloa, an Indigenous-Chicano rapper based in Los Angeles, California. In Part One (The Planning), the series begins with a conversation between Adelaida and Ben as they prepare for their interview with Jaguar.
Credits:
Production & Editing: Adelaida Tamayo and Benjamin Salinas
Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Background Music: Benjamin Salinas
Intro/Outro Music "Waiting" by Crowander"
S04 E00 - New Year, New Season
Anthropological Airwaves will be back soon for Season 4!
Credits:
Associate Editor / Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander
Season 03-ish - Epiosde 07: South Africa Special Feature - Part 2
This is the second of two episodes based on interviews recorded at the 2019 African Critical Inquiry Workshop: African Ethnographies conference that was held at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa by Sara Rendell and Dina Asfaha from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. In the the first part of this episode, you will hear a conversation between Dina Asfaha and Kharnita Mohamed – a lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on issues of race, gender, disability, and identity in post-Apartheid South Africa. She is also a novelist, publishing her debut “Called to Song” in 2018 with Kwela Books. In the second half, Sara Rendell returns for an interview with Dominique Santos – a Lecturer at Rhodes University, whose work explores the nexus of music, play, dreaming and heritage practices as they intersect with intimate experiences of the self, space and social change, as well as on dreams and the role of dreaming in refusing the conditions of oppression.
NB: Due to circumstances out of our control, there are parts of this recording with less than ideal sound quality. The episode transcript and close-captioned versions of the episode (linked below) may be a useful resource for following along with the conversation should you have a hard time making out any part of the recording.
Credits:
Producer & Editor: Kyle Olson
Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Thumbnail Image: Madison Paulk
Transition Music: Huku by Sho Madjozi
Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig Episode
Season 03-ish - Epiosde 07: South Africa Special Feature - Part 1
This is the first of two episodes based on interviews recorded at the 2019 African Critical Inquiry Workshop: African Ethnographies conference that was held at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa by Sara Rendell and Dina Asfaha from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. In this installment, Sara Rendell interviews Nosipho Mngomezulu, a lecturer at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg whose research focuses on national and transnational youth cultures, nation-building projects in post-colonial societies, and community engaged learning and teaching.
Credits:
Producer & Editor: Kyle Olson
Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Episode Thumbnail: Madison Paulk
Transition Music: Huku by Sho Madjozi
Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Season 03-ish - Episode 05: Voices To Remember // Voci da Ricordare (English)
Anthropological Airwaves is pleased to present “Voices to Remember: Conversation on the Digital Archive of Indigenous America” a conversation between Massimo Squillacciotti - Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and the founder of the first Italian course of Cognitive Anthropology at the University of Siena; Luciano Giannelli - Professor of Glottology and South American Indigenous Languages at the University of Siena, and Paola Tine - PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. This episode was originally recorded in Italian, and we are excited to be able to make both the Italian version and in English. For the original conversation in Italian, please look for the title "S03-ish E05: Voci da Ricordare" in your Anthro Airwaves podcast feed.
Credits:
Producer/Editor/Engineer: Paola Tine
Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Season 03-ish - Episode 05: Voci da Ricordare // Voices to Remember (Italian)
Anthropological Airwaves is pleased to present “Voices to Remember: Conversation on the Digital Archive of Indigenous America” a conversation between Massimo Squillacciotti - Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and the founder of the first Italian course of Cognitive Anthropology at the University of Siena; Luciano Giannelli - Professor of Glottology and South American Indigenous Languages at the University of Siena, and Paola Tine - PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. This episode was originally recorded in Italian, and we are excited to be able to make both the Italian version and in English. For the dubbed version in English, please look for the title "S03-ish E05: Voices to Remember" in your Anthro Airwaves podcast feed.
Credits:
Producer/Editor/Engineer: Paola Tine
Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Season 03ish - Episode 04 (Crossover): Talking Culture
In the fourth episode of this mini-season, "Crossover," Anar Parikh chats with Daniel Chiu Castillo, Meghan McGill, and Alejandra Melian-Morse, the trio behind Talking Culture--an anthropology podcast that looks at issues in the world through the lens of anthropology as well as issues within the discipline of anthropology itself.
What We Talked About:
Barbash, Ilisa & Lucien Castaing-Taylor. 2009. Sweetgrass.
Castaing-Taylor, Lucien. Véréna Paravel. 2012. Levianthan.
Credits:
Associate Editor / Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Season 03ish - Episode 03 (Crossover): AnthroDish
In the third episode of this mini-season, "Crossover," Anar Parikh chats with Sarah Duignan, of Anthro Dish--a weekly show about the intersections between our foods, cultures, and identities.
What we talked about:
AnthroDish Episode 86: Seedkeeping and Land Back with Tiffany Traverse of 4th Sister Farm
Credits:
Associate Editor / Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Season 03ish - Episode 02 (Crossover): Zora's Daughters
In the second episode of this mini-season, "Crossover," Anar Parikh chats with Alyssa James and Brendane Tynes, the creators of Zora's Daughters--a society and culture podcast that uses Black feminist anthropology to think about race, politics, and popular culture.
What We Talked About:
Tynes, Brendane. 2020. "How Do We Listen to the Living." Anthropology News, August 31.
Zora's Daughters' Reaction to How Not To Travel Like a Basic B*tch -
Zora's Daughters Semester 2 Episode 16 - "The Empire Claps Back"
Credits:
Associate Editor / Executive Producer - Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Season 03ish - Episode 01 (Crossover): BLK IRL
In the latest episode of Anthropological Airwaves, Anar Parikh talks to Anuli Akanegbu, a PhD student at NYU and a transdisciplinary scholar, about her project BLK IRL -- a podcast that explores the business of "influencing" and the power dynamics at play in the act of cultural exchange.
What We Talked About:
Akanegbu, Anuli. 2021. "Podcasts As A Form of Scholarship." American Anthropologist website.
Briggs, Charles. 1986. Learning How to Ask. Cambridge: Cambrige University Press.
Credits:
Associate Editor / Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: Mike Koenig
Coming Soon: Season 3ish - "Crossover"
Anthropological Airwaves will be back soon for Season 3-ish with the theme "Crossover."
Credits:
Associate Editor / Executive Producer: Anar Parikh
Intro/Outro: "Waiting" by Crowander"
Sound Effects: "Dialing Phone Number" by Mike Koenig
Season 02 - Episode 05: "Care In/Out the Clinic" (Feat. Carolyn Sufrin and Xochitl Marsili-Vargas)
In Episode 13 of Anthropological Airwaves, producer Diego Arispe-Bazan introduces two interviews, one between Penn grad student Josh Franklin and Professor Carolyn Sufrin. They discuss her recent book Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars (2017), interspersed with news clips and testimonials on the topic. After a rare recorded quote by Sigmund Freud, Diego returns in the second half of the episode to talk with Xochitl Marsili-Vargas to discuss the ways that psychoanalytic discourse circulates outside of the clinic through questions such as "what you really mean is," the kinds of conversations one might have with strangers, and reflect on the differences between mental health care in Argentina and the United States.
Featured Audio:
Bajofondo Tango Club - "Perfume"
Shaka Senghor - "How Prison Sets Inmates Up for Failure: Racism, Mental Illness, Poverty"
Healthcare in America's Prison System
ABC15 Arizona - "Arizona's prisons boss found in contempt over inmate care"
Credits:
Producer, Editor, and Interviewer: Diego Arispe-Bazán
Interviewer: Josh Franklin
Co-Editor: Kyle Olson
Season 02 - Episode 04: "Voice, Sound and Democracy"
In Episode 12 of Anthropological Airwaves, producer Nooshin Sadeq-Samimi interviews Laura Kunreuther. They cover a range of issues related to how voice and sound figure into the political process, focusing on Kunreuther's monograph Voicing Subjects: Public Intimacy and Mediation in Kathmandu and her recent article in Cultural Anthropology, "Sounds of Democracy: Performance, Protest, and Political Subjectivity."
Credits:
Producer and Interviewer: Nooshin Sadeq-Samimi
Co-Editor and Host: Kyle Olson
Co-Editor: Diego Arispe-Bazán
Thumnail Image: Cover of Voicing Subjects, Laura Kunreuther, UC Press (2014).
Featured Audio:
Byzantine Time Machine - "Glimpses of Kathmandu"
AP Archive - "Strike, police presence, violence, pro-democracy protest"
Special Feature: "Decolonizing Museums in Practice" - Part 3 (Feat. Wayne Modest)
In this follow-up to our two-part special feature on the 2018 Museum Ethnographer's Group conference "Decolonizing the Museum in Practice", held in April of last year we interview Dr. Wayne Modest, director of the Research Center for Material Culture. Hosted by Deborah Thomas and interviewed by Chris Green, Dr. Modest shares with us his thoughts on decolonizing as an ongoing commitment. He emphasizes the great responsibility that curators have to the people, past and present, who are represented in museum collections. In his view, museum research and curation must always be public-facing and must commit to working together with those whose lives are most precarious in the afterlives of colonialism and empire.
Image Credit. For educational purposes only.
Image Caption: The central atrium of the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. Straight-view of the barrel-vaulted space from the middle of the room, oriented length-wise with the central staircase in the background. Gallery spaces are visible along top level above the stairs and light streams in from a glass-and-steel half-cylindrical dome at the top.
Credits:
Introduction: Deborah Thomas
Interviewer: Chris Green
Recorder: Kyle Olson
Producer: Kyle Olson
Featured Audio:
KOKOROKO - "Abusey Junction // We Out Here"
Bob Marley and the Wailers - "War"
Season 02 - Episode 03: "Anthropology and Humanitarianism"
In Episode 11 of Anthropological Airwaves, we speak with Professors Adia Benton of Northwestern University and Miriam Ticktin of The New School about multimodal and public anthropology through the lens of humanitarianism. Benton shows us how visual analysis can be used to plumb the depths of contradictions in humanitarianism, both in its ethos and specific interventions, exposing the white supremacist framework baked into the humanitarian project. Ticktin picks up where Benton leaves off, sharing insights from her work with immigrant and refugee populations in Europe, showing how the same logics are at work in the constitution of and efforts to ameliorate the "Refugee Crisis" in Europe. These conversations both challenge us to think more deeply about our commitments to our interlocutors and our various audiences, disciplinary, public, or otherwise.
Thumbnail Image: ABC News Still Depicting Salma Hayek and a Sierra Leonean baby (part of the sequence discussed in Adia's interview)
Credits:
Producer: Nooshin Sadeq-Samimi
Editor and Host: Kyle Olson
Interviewers: Sarah Rendell and Sharon Jacobs
Music:
Season 02 - Episode 02: "Collaborative Digital Archaeology"
In Episode 10 of Anthropological Airwaves, we talk with Tiffany Earley-Spadoni (University of Central Florida) and Stefani Crabtree (Penn State) about digital archaeology, covering both its more humanistic and computational modes. Earley-Spadoni shows us how collaboration with local community stakeholders and colleagues abroad can produce rich digital narratives, allowing people to tell and hear stories about places of memory in multiple languages alongside rich multimedia content. Crabtree argues for the importance of archaeology for solving contemporary problems, drawing on her research with food-web modeling in the US Southwest, which has considerable implications for modern-day resource management and climate change mitigation. She also demonstrates that archaeologists need to think more expansively about collaboration, particularly with whom we collaborate, if we want the results of our work to matter for a broader audience.
Credits"
Interviewer, Producer, and Editor: Kyle Olson
Special Feature: "Decolonizing Museums in Practice" - Part 2 (Stories and Objects)
In this two-part special feature we think with the Museum Ethnographer's Group conference "Decolonizing the Museum in Practice", held in April of this year . The second part focuses on the stories and objects around which much decolonizing work revolves and features a read paper by JC Niala and an interview with Laura Peers. Niala relates to us a story that illustrates, among many other insights, what is lost when indigenous perspectives are not included or even considered in museum exhibits; Peers shows us what the process of building relationships between museums and indigenous communities might look like and the challenges that must be overcome to successfully share access to and ultimately governance of museum collections. Hosted by Deborah Thomas and with interviews conducted by Chris and Cassandra Green, this two-part series on “decolonizing museums” examines the past, present, and future(s) of museum practice. Given often sordid collection histories and the strained at best or non-existent at worst relations that museums have had with communities of origin, these interviews address how we might face head-on the legacies of colonialism and empire. Full episode transcript.
Image Caption: The central gallery of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, UK. View from the upper mezzanine showing the gallery length-wise. The many glass cases containing artifacts from all over the world on and around the ground floor are clearly visible, while two people look on in the lower foreground.
Credits:
Introduction/Conclusion: Deborah Thomas
Interviewer: Chris Green
Recorder: Cassandra Green Producers: Kyle Olson and Nooshin Sadegh-Samimi
Assistant Producer: Chris Green
Featured Audio:
Gingee - "Decolonize your Mind"
The University of Oxford - "Inside the Pitt Rivers Museum"
Decolonize This Place - "Anti-Columbus Day: Decolonize This Museum"
Special Feature: "Decolonizing Museums in Practice - Part 1 (Legacies & Futures)
In this two-part special feature we think with the Museum Ethnographer's Group conference "Decolonizing the Museum in Practice", held in April of this year. The first part focuses on the legacies and futures of ethnographic museums and features interviews with Faye Belsey, Laura Van Broekhoven, and Rachael Minott. Together, these conversations ask us: what does decolonization look like in practice, how can injustices past and present be addressed by museum professionals, and by what means might we better balance power and access between museum staff and diverse stakeholders? Hosted by Deborah Thomas and with interviews conducted by Chris and Cassandra Green, this two-part series on “decolonizing museums” examines the past, present, and future(s) of museum practice. Given often sordid collection histories and the strained at best or non-existent at worst relations that museums have had with communities of origin, these interviews address how we might face head-on the legacies of colonialism and empire. Full episode transcript.
Image Caption: The central gallery of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, UK. View from the upper mezzanine showing the gallery length-wise. The many glass cases containing artifacts from all over the world on and around the ground floor are clearly visible, while two people look on in the lower foreground.
Credits:
Introduction/Conclusion: Deborah Thomas
Interviewers: Chris Green Recorder: Cassandra Green
Producers: Kyle Olson and Nooshin Sadegh-Samimi
Assistant Producer: Chris Green
Featured Audio:
Gingee - "Decolonize your Mind"
"Brooklyn Museum Hires White Curator of African Art, Horace Cooper Responds to Backlash"
Now This Video - "Why We Need to Decolonize the Brooklyn Museum"
Decolonize This Place - "Anti-Columbus Day: Decolonize This Museum"
Season 02 - Episode 01: "Race and Language"
In Season 2, Episode 1 of Anthropological Airwaves, we talk with Adrienne Lo (Waterloo) and Jonathan Rosa (Stanford) about race and language in Korea and the United States. In conversation with Kristina Nielsen and Diego Arispe-Bazán, Lo and Rosa identify and critique the ways that different kinds of English, and by extension the speakers of these different kinds of English, are understood through racialized lenses in varying contexts. These racialized stereotypes of groups of people based on how they are perceived to speak spill over into many social domains, affecting everything from educational policy in the US to economic advancement in Korea. Full episode transcript.
Credits:
Interviewer: Kristina Nielsen & Diego Arispe-Bazán
Producer: Diego Arispe-Bazán
Editors: Diego Arispe-Bazán and Kyle Olson
Featured Audio:
"What’s it like being a foreigner in Korea?"
Special Feature "The Military Present" - Episode 4 (Feat. Omar Dewachi)
In the fourth and final episode of the series, "The Military Present," anthropologist and physician Omar Dewachi (American University of Beirut) discusses war as a form of governance, drawing on years of ethnographic research on the breakdown of health care in Iraq as well as the travelling wounds of injured Iraqi patients forced to seek medical treatment in other Middle Eastern countries. Dewachi traces the historical formation and effects of global discourses casting Iraq as ungovernable and connects the construction of Iraq as ungovernable to the emergence of the multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Dewachi offers fascinating insights into how war is fueling antimicrobial resistance and generative suggestions about the kinds of ethnographic objects that can help anthropologists talk about war without reproducing the distinction between the direct and indirect effects of war. Hosted by Vasiliki Touhouliotis and Emily Sogn, this four-part series on the “military present” features interviews with scholars of war and militarism that explore how our present is shaped by the technologies, logics, histories, and economy of war. Full episode transcript.
Image Caption: Berm remains at Fao, Iraq, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Iran Iraq-war (1980-1988). Photograph taken by Omar Dewachi (2015).
Featured Audio:
P.J. Harvey - "The Glorious Land"
Special Feature: "The Military Present" - Episode 3 (Feat. Wazhmah Osman)
This four-part series on “The Military Present” features interviews with scholars of war and militarism that explore how our present is shaped by the technologies, logics, histories, and economy of war. Episode 3 features an interview with Wazhmah Osman, filmmaker and professor of Media Studies and Production. Building on discussions with scholars Joe Masco (Episode 1) and Madiha Tahir (Episode 2) about the uneven distributions of war’s material effects and visibility, the interview with Wazhmah Osman in Episode 3 focuses on the United States’ dropping of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) in Afghanistan in April of 2017. The MOAB is the largest and most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever used. The final episode of this special series will feature an interview with physician and anthropologist Omar Dewachi in which he discusses war, wounding, and the production of ungovernable life in Iraq. Each of the episodes in this special series ask anthropologists (or scholars in related disciplines/trained as anthropologists) to engage with pressing issues of our present. Our hope is that the episodes will be of interest to anyone concerned with US militarized violence, domestically and internationally, and that they will contribute to public scholarship. Full episode transcript.
Image Caption: A picture of Wazhmah as part of a US diplomatic mission in Afghanistan.
Wazhmah Osman spoke on Democracy Now about the MOAB immediately after it was dropped by the United States, which . For a full transcript of this episode, please follow this link: http://www.americananthropologist.org/the-military-present-episode-3-transcript/
Featured Audio:
P.J. Harvey - "The Glorious Land"
Special Feature: "The Military Present" - Episode 2 (Feat. Madiha Tahir)
This four-part series titled, "The Military Present," explores various aspects of how the present is shaped by war. To do so, we've invited anthropologists to help us make sense of the current political moment. Each of these episodes asks anthropologists (or scholars in related disciplines/trained as anthropologists) to engage with pressing issues of our present. Our hope is that the episodes would be of interest to anyone concerned with US militarized violence, domestically and internationally, and that they will contribute to public scholarship. Episode 2 features an interview with Madiha Tahir, focusing on drones and remote warfare in Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world. In the episode image, Madiha Tahir is pictured with Usman Khan whose father was killed in a drone attack on March 17, 2011. Khan asked that the photo be taken to show the world that they are not a "terrorists." Full episode transcript.
Featured Audio:
Credits:
P.J. Harvey - "The Glorious Land"
Special Feature: "The Military Present" - Episode 1 (Feat. Joe Masco)
This four-part series titled, "The Military Present," explores various aspects of how the present is shaped by war. To do so, we've invited anthropologists to help us make sense of the current political moment. In this first episode, structured around the concept of newness and trying to understand the political work it does, Touhouliotis and Sogn present us with an anthropologically informed view of the militarized logics operating in our public discourse and speak with Dr. Joseph P. Masco (Chicago) to help historicize these logics and discourses to understand the work that they do in creating our “military present." Full episode transcript.
Featured Audio:
P.J. Harvey - "The Glorious Land"
Season 01 - Episode 08: "Injury and Healing on Chicago's South Side"
In Episode 8 of Anthropological Airwaves, we catch up with Dr. Laurence Ralph (Harvard) at the AAAs to talk about his ethnographic work on violence, injury, and healing on Chicago's South Side. Full episode transcript.
Credits:
On-the-Street - Sarah Carson
Interviewer - Leniqueca Welcome
Producers - Nooshin Sadegh-Samimi and Kyle Olson
Featured Audio:
Alfa Mist - "Breathe" (feat. Kaya Thomas-Dyke)
Langston Hughes - "Dream Deferred"
Featured Quotes:
"Since Chicago has such a long history of research with researchers in communities, the people in those communities have a pretty good sense of what researchers do. And so they ask you 'are you gonna book like this, or are you gonna write a book like that?' And they position you and hold you accountable in a kind of way" - Laurence Ralph
"The idea of gang violence is so over-determined -- when you're researching it people have canned answers, they have answers they've said a million times, [...] it's cliched sometimes, like 'Oh, there's no role models for these kids, they're growing up in broken homes, educations bad -- that's the reason for gang violence'. In doing research with gangs on the question of violence, one has to figure out other ways to talk about the issue, through the proxies that people use. What are people really talking about when they talk about gang violence?" - Laurence Ralph
Season 01 - Episode 07: "Methods of Studying Human Evolution"
In Episode 7 of Anthropological Airwaves, we sat down with Ralph Holloway (Columbia) and Shara Bailey (NYU) to talk about the different methods biological anthropologists use to study human evolution through comparative anatomy and more! Full episode transcript.
Credits:
Interviewer - Volney Friedrich
Producers - Diego Arispe-Bazán and Kyle Olson
Featured Audio:
Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution"
Featured Quotes:
"Anthropology is basically the study of cultural and biological variability, and how that variability interfaces with actual environments and changes in environment. I'm not just talking about the weather, I'm talking about things like colonialism and what kinds of effects they might have had." (Ralph Holloway)
"...the question really should be what don't teeth tell us about human evolution, because there is so much that we can figure out about the behavior, diet, and biological relationships of early humans. All of the questions paleoanthropologists might ask, you can ask and answer, or at least get data for, from dentition" (Shara Bailey)
Season 01 - Episode 06: "Media Projects of Becoming in Religion and Fashion"
In this epsiode of Anthropological Airwaves, we interview Carolyn Rouse and Brent Luvaas about their multi-modal research into various projects of self-making and becoming in religious and fashion media. Full episode transcript.
Credits:
Interviewers - Tali Ziv and Kyle Olson
Featured Audio:
Mark Ronson - "How Sampling Transformed Music"
King Crimson - "Matte Kudesai"
"Representation & the Media: Featuring Stuart Hall"
Season 01 - Episode 05: "Immigration, Discourse, and Trump's Border Wall"
This episode features timely interviews with Jason De León and Hilary Parsons Dick about immigration policy and immigration discourse in relation to Trump's border wall, as well as the roles and responsibilities that anthropologists have in the public sphere. Full episode transcript.
Credits:
Interviewer - Diego Arispe-Bazán
Executive Producer - Arjun Shankar
Producer - Diego Arispe-Bazán
Editors - Nooshin Sadeghsamimi and Kyle Olson
Featured Audio:
Calle 13 - "Pa'l Norte" feat. Orishas
Gustavo Canabarro - "Malaguena"
Calexico - "Fake Fur"
Buzzfeed Video - "Heartbreaking Confessions of Undocumented Immigrants"
Featured Quotes:
"I went to a Trump rally in Warren, Michigan [in] February of last year and its just a room full of Michiganders chanting "build the wall" for almost an hour before he comes out... and of course it's me and a Mexican friend and I just remember thinking you know 'build-the-wall, build-the-wall', like that's the more politically correct way to say I have so many misconceptions and if I chant build the wall its really about security and protecting america, not about how much i hate people who look differently from me" (Jason DeLeon).
"There is actually already a wall, that never gets mentioned. Trump's vision of a "wall" is that it will cover the entire border, but there's already been several -- we've been fortifying and militarizing our southern border with Mexico since the 1980s, including several waves of newer and bigger and longer walls. We've been militarizing and profiting off of the degradation of human life along that border for many many decades now. And I get a little frustrated that that can fall out of the conversation -- "build the wall" is the apotheosis of the worst part of our immigration policy, but it's not new" (Hilary Parsons Dick).
Season 01 - Episode 04: "Museum Anthropology: Research, Design, and the Public"
On this episode of Anthropological Airwaves, we sat down with Stephanie Mach of the Penn Museum for two conversations, the first with Monique Scott of Bryn Mawr College and the second with Salam Al Kuntar of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. Both of our interviewees discuss their museum work, whether ethnographic research or exhibition design & curation and the role of the museum in today's society, both as it currently exists and as it should be going forward. Full episode transcript.
Season 01 - Episode 03: "Social Imaginaries"
In this episode, Penn Ph.D. Candidate Diego Arispe-Bazan interviews Dr. Damien Stankiewicz of Temple University about his recent article in American Anthropologist entitled "Against Imagination: On the Ambiguities of a Composite Concept" and his thoughts on public engagement and politics. A full transcript of this episode is available on the episode page on the American Anthropologist website.
Season 01 - Episode 02: "Islamophobia in American Politics"
This episode features two interviews, with Dr. Nazia Kazi of Stockton University and Dr. Mariam Durrani of Hamilton College. In their remarks, they interrogate anti-Muslim racism in today's America and trace its continuities with other forms of oppression in society. Full episode transcript.
Interviewers: Fatima Tassadiq & Michelle Munyikwa
Producer: Nooshin Sadeghsamimi
Featured Music: "T-5" by the Swet Shop Boys.
Season 01 - Episode 01: "Science and Race"
Episode 1 includes an interview with Deborah Thomas about her vision for the journal and website as well as a discussion about the nexus of race and science featuring Dorothy Roberts, Michael Yudell, and Sarah Tishkoff. Full episode transcript.
Credits:
Interviewers - Arjun Shankar, Kyle Olson, Amber Henry
Featured Audio:
Richie Dagger’s Crime Methods - "Methods"
Roulet – "Amor"
Broke for Free – "Warm Up Suit"
Ars Sonor – "Nityānitya Vastu Viveka"
Bill Clinton Human Genome Announcement
W. E. B. Du Bois Speaks! The Revolt in Africa