My Digital Anthropology Readings for the Fall 2025 Semester

I have revised my syllabus and replaced some readings with more recent ones. I like to frequently update my readings so that I can stay current with the latest research. I might have missed some topics, but I am satisfied with what I have come up with. There has been a rising- and unsurprising- interest in AI in recent years. I haven’t announced a separate topic for AI ethics, as my general policy is to embed ethical issues in any relevant topic instead of isolating and abstracting them.

You are welcome to audit the classes on Monday evenings at the İstanbul Bilgi University campus. Room no: E4-116

Weekly Topics and Readings 

All readings can be found here

Pieces in red font are new additions

Week 1: Introduction to Digital Anthropology

• Course overview and introduction to key concepts

Week 2: Foundations of Digital Anthropology

• Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual review of anthropology, 24(1), 95-117.
• Horst, H. A., & Miller, D. (2012). Digital anthropology. London: Berg. (Introduction chapter)

Forberg, P., & Schilt, K. (2023). What is ethnographic about digital ethnography? A sociological perspective. Frontiers in Sociology, 8, 1156776.

Week 3: Theoretical Approaches to Digital Media

• Miller, D. (2024). The maturing of anthropology. American Ethnologist, 51(1), 147-152.
• Boellstorff, T. (2012). Rethinking digital anthropology. In Digital Anthropology (pp. 39-60). Routledge.

Week 4: Digital Ethnography Methods

• Hine, C. (2015). Ethnography for the internet: Embedded, embodied and everyday. Bloomsbury Publishing. (Chapter 1-3)
• Airoldi, M., & Rokka, J. (2022). “Algorithmic Consumer Culture.” Consumption Markets & Culture, 25(5), 411-428.

Week 5: Virtual Communities and Online Cultures

• Boellstorff, T. (2015). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton University Press. (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Boellstorff, T. (2024). Toward anthropologies of the metaverse. American Ethnologist, 51(1), 47-56.
• Taylor, T. L. (2022). Ethnography as Play. American Journal of Play, 14(1), 33-57.

Week 6: Digital Activism and Social Movements

• Treré, E. (2019). Hybrid Media Activism: Ecologies, Imaginaries, Algorithms. Routledge. (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Chang, H. C. H., Richardson, A., & Ferrara, E. (2022). # justiceforgeorgefloyd: how instagram facilitated the 2020 black lives matter protests. PLoS one, 17(12), e0277864.
• Cervi, L., & Divon, T. (2023). Playful activism: Memetic performances of Palestinian resistance in TikTok# Challenges. Social media+ society, 9(1), 20563051231157607.
• Richterich, A. (2025). Data solidarity in feminist technology activism and innovation. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 28(3), 545-561.

Week 7: Algorithms, AI, and Digital Culture

• Seaver, N. (2017). Algorithms as culture: Some tactics for the ethnography of algorithmic systems. Big Data & Society, 4(2), 2053951717738104.
• van Voorst, R., & Ahlin, T. (2024). Key points for an ethnography of AI: an approach towards crucial data. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1-5.
• Roe, J. (2025). Generative AI as Cultural Artifact: Applying Anthropological Methods to AI Literacy. Postdigital Science and Education, 1-18.
• Bode, I., Huelss, H., Nadibaidze, A., & Watts, T. F. (2024). Cross-cultural narratives of weaponised artificial intelligence: Comparing France, India, Japan and the United States. Big Data & Society, 11(4), 20539517241303151.

Week 8: Digital Labor and Platform Economies

• Kassem, Sarrah (2023), Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organization. Bristol University Press. (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Human Rights Watch (2025) The Gig Trap: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US

Week 9: Digital Privacy and Surveillance

• Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Profile Books. (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Molnar, Petra (2024). The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The New Press. (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Marwick, A. (2022). Privacy without power: What privacy research can learn from surveillance studies. Surveillance & Society, 20(4), 397-405.

Week 10: Digital Identities and Self-Presentation

• Hund, E. (2023). The influencer industry: The quest for authenticity on social media. Princeton University Press ((Introduction and Chapter 1 or Chapter 2)
• Rowland, J., & Estevens, J. (2025). “What is your digital identity?” Unpacking users’ understandings of an evolving concept in datafied societies. Media, Culture & Society, 47(2), 336-353.
• Bluteau, J. M. (2025). Crafting the Digital Self: Exploring Instagram Self-Portraiture as an Anthropological Endeavor. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 08912416251339677.

Week 11: Digital Anthropology and Global Health

• Manderson, L., & Wahlberg, A. (2023). Digital Health Futures: Datafication, Automation, and Care. Annual Review of Anthropology, 52, 249-265.
• Lang, C., Meier zu Biesen, C., & Burchardt, M. (2024). Digital technologies and the future of health: aspirations, care and data. Anthropology & Medicine, 31(3), 201-214.

Week 12: Artificial Intelligence and Society

• Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press. (Introduction and Chapter 1)

Week 13: Anthropological Approaches to AI and Machine Learning

• Seaver, N. (2018). What should an anthropology of algorithms do? Cultural Anthropology, 33(3), 375-385.
• Munk, A. K., Olesen, A. G., & Jacomy, M. (2022). The thick machine: Anthropological AI between explanation and explication. Big Data & Society, 9(1), 20539517211069891.
• Munk, A. K., Olesen, A. G., & Jacomy, M. (2022). The Thick Machine: Anthropological AI between explanation and explication. Big Data & Society, 9(1).
• Demuro, E., & Gurney, L. (2024). Artificial intelligence and the ethnographic encounter: Transhuman language ontologies, or what it means “to write like a human, think like a machine”. Language & Communication, 96, 1-12.

Week 14: Course Review and Future of Digital Anthropology

• Review of key concepts and emerging trends
• Discussion on the future of digital anthropology and its impact on media studies

• Miller, D. (2024). The Maturing of Anthropology. American Ethnologist, 51(1), 147–152.