With my fieldwork diary coming to a close, I would like to reflect on an experience I had very early in my fieldwork. This is not going to be a long post. I will talk about death, or rather letting people die – and I think there is only so much that can be gracefully said about that.
Read MoreEncountering Sexual Harassment during Research
Is there a right response to improper and unwelcome sexual suggestions in the workplace? How do women researchers respond when their dignity and rights are violated during research? How do students, interns and volunteers deal with the bitter disillusion of being sexually harassed in a humanitarian setting?
Read MoreFrom Homer to Edinburgh: Mentoring among postgraduate students
The wisdom, guidance, and support of others are critical in our personal and professional development. This support often comes from friends, families or colleagues in the enactment of their particular role in one’s life. But support can also come from a person whose primary role in our lives is to provide guidance.
Read MoreWhat Really Matters: Reflections on the Experience of Displacement from the Earthquake in Central Nepal
One minute you’re walking down the street, carrying with you a feeling of stability and security. In the next, you’re being swept away by a current of chaos and panic, with nothing but a profound feeling of being completely trapped by the uncertainty of what’s to come next.
Read MoreOn home ground…
If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you might have noticed that we are a somewhat eclectic mix of contributors, with a fairly eclectic selection of things to say about a rather eclectic range of topics. That is actually quite a good representation of our home institution – the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.
Read MoreField work Diary: the Tourist versus the Anthropologist
This post is about an experience which certainly wasn’t my proudest moment in the field and was, probably, the most uncomfortable I have felt in a very long time: the experience of being a tourist. So if emotional voyeurism is your thing, this is the fieldnote for you.
Read Morecommand + shift + 3
The exhibit by Croatian photographer Tomislav Može entitled command+shift+3 (the shortcut keys for a screenshot) is an exploration into our daily involvement with the digital world. Far beyond its mechanical creativity, the project challenges the modern world of social media we have constructed.
Read More‘God Works through Doctors’: Perceptions of healing within a Baptist Church
Problematizing the distinction drawn between the spheres of science and religion, this fieldwork report considers portrayals of physical healing within a Baptist church and assesses the extent to which the categories of faith healing and biomedicine are considered mutually exclusive within the church context.
Read MoreLetting Go of Beloved Movies
In this opinion piece, George shares his views on the recent Hollywood trend of aging actors reprising their prior famed roles in sequels to 80s classics. He asks: will this really give us the Hollywood magic and endings those classics deserve?
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Kolkata Rising
As part of this year's One Billion Rising (OBR) – a global dance demonstration aimed at eradicating violence against women – women's rights activists and community members across Kolkata came together to rise up in solidarity and resistance.
Read MoreOscars 2015
This evening the 87th Academy Awards - replete with glitz and glamour - will be watched by expectant viewers from across the globe. But what do the Oscars really tell us about the world in which we reside? In this collaborative piece, the best and brightest of IANS staff talk about representation, popular culture, politics and at points - and somewhat refreshingly - an unashamed love of film. Unlike the members of the Academy, we did not reach a consensus!
Read MoreWhiplash Review
Whiplash is the story of aspiring jazz drummer Andrew, played by Miles Teller, and his experiences at a prestigious music conservatory with Terence Fletcher, the conductor of the country’s top jazz ensemble. J.K. Simmons plays Fletcher, and I’ll go ahead and make my prediction that he will not only win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this performance, but that he deserves to by a mile.
Read MoreThe Language of Compassion in Fieldwork
While conducting my PhD fieldwork in west-central Nepal I found that showing respect, compassion and care for the non-human members of the communities in which I was doing research went a long way to build trust and points of connection between myself as an outside researcher and the people and social worlds that I was trying to get to know.
Read MoreQuestioning the ‘Over There’ and ‘A Long Time Ago’ of Imperialism
I am a social anthropology student who focuses on imperial memory rather than history. Often, people think I’m a history student or suggest that I talk to their colleague or friend somewhere in Africa/Asia/Latin America. This suggests to me that there’s a common conception present that imperialism was ‘a long time ago’ and ‘over there.’
Read MoreScene Analysis: The Lion King: “Be Prepared”
The Lion King is one of those spectacles you cannot help but enjoy. Whether you are watching the 1994 animated film or the 1997 Broadway musical, to quote Scar, It’s to die for. For this scene analysis I’ll be looking at Scar’s ‘villain song.’ Every Disney film has one, and “Be Prepared” might be the best, and is definitively the most political, of the lot.
Read MoreAll I get is that I don’t get it: Thoughts on Mobility and Sense of Place
As an academically-inclined person I am driven to understand stuff. More precisely, as an anthropologist, I want to understand why people do certain things or how their actions are interwoven and related. Attempting to make sense of the actions of one particular community has left me wondering, “Can we ever fully grasp another culture’s rationale?”
Read MoreDoes our indigenous media project “destroy” tribal people?
Let’s have a debate… Whilst doing anthropological fieldwork in Tsumkwe I got involved with/co-founded a project which, in my humble opinion, is pretty exciting: CEDU is a grassroot organisation which is helping the Ju/’hoansi San, one of the oldest indigenous groups in the world, claim back their public image by producing their own media.
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A Most Wanted Man & Dracula Untold
A Most Wanted Man, starring the late great Phillip Seymor Hoffman in one of his last roles, is a movie that clings to your psyche long after the credits roll. **ALSO** a bonus second review of Dracula Untold!
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Proof that the paranoia political thriller can be filled with action, the exquisitely enjoyable The Winter Soldier should be viewed not as another Marvel film, but as a standalone commentary on contemporary security issues.
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Politics, Philosophy and Hollywood
George Ligon recently approached the IANS Editorial Team with an exciting proposition. "IANS editorial team", he said, "I want to write movie reviews; movie reviews with a twist; movie reviews which use political and philosophical theories; I want to create a great amalgam of movie-review-theoretical goodness which will elucidate and illuminate both the films in question and the ideas discussed".
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