Tag: Trauma

On The Culture of Harassment in Archaeology: An interview with Barbara L. Voss

On The Culture of Harassment in Archaeology: An interview with Barbara L. Voss

[Content advisory: This article discusses harassment and discrimination in archaeology, including discussion of sexual assault.] On the morning of March 30, 2021, three articles on the culture of harassment within archaeology dropped. And it was epic. Across three articles, Barbara (Barb) Voss reviewed and analyzed current research about the prevalence and patterns of harassment within our discipline. Most useful was her list of proven interventions that have demonstrable results in reducing harassment. Most difficult and heart wrenching to read were {+}

What 9/11 Taught Me about COVID-19

What 9/11 Taught Me about COVID-19

Anthrodendum welcomes guest blogger David Vine, Professor of Anthropology at American University in Washington, DC. He is the author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military on Diego Garcia (Princeton University Press, 2009). His new book, The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State (University of California Press) will be released in October. What 9/11 Taught Me about COVID-19 by David Vine On the morning of September {+}

El Cruce de la Muerte: Fieldwork and Carework at the Crossroad of Death

El Cruce de la Muerte: Fieldwork and Carework at the Crossroad of Death

Anthrodendum welcomes guest blogger Amarilys Estrella, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. Her research examines the role of human rights discourse in transnational activism against anti-Black racism. El Cruce de la Muerte: Fieldwork and Carework at the Crossroad of Death by Amarilys Estrella In July of 2017, one year after having moved with my family to the Dominican Republic for my dissertation research, I survived a car accident. Our car crashed {+}

Writing, Silence, and Sensemaking After Fieldwork Trauma

Writing, Silence, and Sensemaking After Fieldwork Trauma

Anthrodendum welcomes guest blogger Kimberly J. Lewis, Associate Director of the Office of Scholars and Fellowships at the University of Richmond. She earned her PhD in Anthropology from Brown University in 2019 and her research interests include higher education, academic labor, and inclusive pedagogy. She is on Twitter @kimjunelewis. Writing, Silence, and Sensemaking After Fieldwork Trauma by Kimberly J. Lewis Crashing During my first summer of graduate fieldwork, I was on an overnight bus that skidded and tumbled off the {+}

Writing for Them, Writing for Us: Resilience in Practice

Writing for Them, Writing for Us: Resilience in Practice

Anthrodendum welcomes guest editors Beatriz Reyes-Foster and Rebecca J. Lester. Writing for Them, Writing for Us: Resilience in Practice In part two of our series, Humanizing Fieldwork, we considered the everyday challenges of conducting fieldwork abroad and at home. As all anthropologists know, the ethnographic fieldwork experience is not immune to the unexpected, and emergencies affecting the physical and emotional well-being of the field worker can and do occur. What do we do when fieldwork flips violently on itself, like {+}

Humanizing Fieldwork

Humanizing Fieldwork

Anthrodendum welcomes guest editors Beatriz Reyes-Foster and Rebecca J. Lester. Humanizing Fieldwork: Trauma and Resilience in Ethnographic Fieldwork, Part II The first collection of posts in this series demanded that we recognize the fact that fieldwork can hurt, and that we have fostered a disciplinary culture where that hurt has been normalized and even celebrated. In this next installment, our contributors recognize the challenges of navigating mental illness before and during fieldwork as well as the multiple structural constraints faced {+}

Staying with the Feeling: Trauma, Humility, and Care in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Staying with the Feeling: Trauma, Humility, and Care in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Anthrodendum welcomes guest blogger Greg Beckett. He is assistant professor of anthropology at Western University (Canada) where his work focuses on crisis, disaster, and humanitarian intervention in Haiti. He is the author of There Is No More Haiti: Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince (University of California Press, 2019). Staying with the Feeling: Trauma, Humility, and Care in Ethnographic Fieldwork by Greg Beckett I don’t remember when it happened, but at some point, I began to respond to questions about {+}

Trauma and Resilience in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Trauma and Resilience in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Anthrodendum welcomes guest editors Beatriz Reyes-Foster and Rebecca J. Lester. Beatriz Reyes-Foster (Twitter @BeatriAnthro) is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Central Florida (USA).  Her research focuses on medical interactions, the production of health disparities, and mental health in Mexico. She currently serves as co-chair of the Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group, an SMA Interest Group. She is the author of Psychiatric Encounters: Madness and Modernity in Yucatan, Mexico (Rutgers University Press, 2018). Rebecca Lester (Twitter @psychanthro) {+}

Between Expert and Witness: Insider Anthropology and Public Engagement

Between Expert and Witness: Insider Anthropology and Public Engagement

By Larisa Kurtović Making anthropological expertise public—that is, releasing our insights into the world of non-academic publics—is never easy. Anthropological engagements with media are frequently awkward, fraught and unsatisfying. But what happens when an anthropologist who conducts research “at home” is summoned by the media as simultaneously an expert and a witness? On November 22, 2017, Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military leader, was convicted of genocide and sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the {+}