Intel?s Anthropologist Genevieve Bell Questions the Smart Watch
Genevieve Bell, director of Intel?s user experience research, says companies building wearable computers haven?t figured out why people might want them.
Anthropology: Growth and Relevance, Not Popularity
Anthropologists can suffer from Jared Diamond envy. Here in the United States we bemoan when Diamond?s latest book rises on the bestseller list. While he might deliver anthropology-lite to the masses, he?s not even an anthropologist! goes the lament. It?s not even good anthropology, others add. Undergrads could take it apart.
Academic Deans, The NSA and Censorship
Jay Rosen has written a fascinating article in the Guardian today about Johns Hopkin?s response to this blog post by Professor Matthew Green.
The short version of the story is that Green wrote a blog post about the NSA and cryptography on September 5th. Last Monday, Green received a takedown request from the dean of the engineering school claiming that his blog post contained ?classified? information and that his use of the NSA logo was a violation of some kind. In response, Green took to twitter and made public some behind the scenes machinations which led to the takedown request. Happily, as of now, Green?s original post has been restored and his dean sent him this note of apology.
Peter K. New Student Paper Prize
The Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) announces an annual student research competition in the applied social and behavioral sciences. The winner of the competition will receive a cash prize of $2000 and travel funds to attend the annual meetings of the SfAA.
(This guest post comes from Matt Watson, a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Texas Tech University. He?s developing these ideas in a book manuscript titled Reading Latour?s Cosmopolitics: Ontology, Ecology, Love. Descriptions of his research and publications are available atwww.matthewcwatson.org. Feel free to send thoughts, corrections, objections, specific compliments, or notes (love or ransom) to matthew.clay.watson@gmail.com. -R )
Statement by AAU Executive Committee on Support for the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Following is a newly released statement by the Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities on the importance of the federal investment in research in the social and behavioral sciences. The Association of American Universities is an association of 60 U.S. and two Canadian research universities organized to develop and implement effective national and institutional policies supporting research and scholarship, graduate and professional education, undergraduate education, and public service in research universities.
? Battle for Ground Zero
Boston?s NPR reported on the political and emotional struggles over what the site of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City should represent.
: Additions, Revisions, New Blogs
It?s been too long since I?ve updated the big Anthropology Blogs 2013 list. Below are the additions, revisions, and new blogs, all added or revised back to the big list. Please let me know what I?m missing or got wrong! Also see the Anthropology Blogosphere 2013 post for a summary or grouping of anthropology blogs.
Creativity, Intellectual Freedom & the Field School
Savage Minds welcomes guest blogger Sara Perry.
I have spent a significant portion of the past 1.5 years designing and implementing a series of new courses for archaeology and heritage undergraduate and graduate students at my university. By far the most challenging of these experiences has been the creation of a nine-week field school for first-year undergrads enrolled on our BA in Heritage Studies?a programme intended to mirror the standard field school that archaeology-specific undergrads are obliged to complete. This topic is an interesting one for me not because of the difficulty of launching and directing such a course. Indeed, anyone who has led a multi-collaborator fieldwork project will be intimately familiar with the many logistical, conceptual, economic, emotional, physical and related challenges?although locating frank reflections upon these challenges is not necessarily an easy feat (but see Colleen Morgan?s blog posts on Archaeological Field Schools & Management Styles and Creature Comforts & Happiness in the Field; also, if you have institutional access, see Harold Mytum?s 2012Global Perspectives on Archaeological Field Schools).
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