Towards a technical pedagogy

A coalition of educators believes that ChatGPT will kill the essay. But should we really fear the algorithms used in large language models? Anthropology has the generative potential to re-evaluate teaching practices that attend to the use of emergent technologies in the classroom.

Sander Hölsgens • January 10, 2023

Memory, loss and living in a post-disaster village

Eighteen years after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, Annemarie Samuels visits her long-term research village in Aceh where old and new grief is met with prayer.

Annemarie Samuels • December 02, 2022 • 1 comment

The dark humor of PhD life

Dark humor internet memes on Twitter show some of the emotions PhD students experience during their trajectory. This digital ethnographic blog reflects on these memes and what they say about academic culture.

Vincent Walstra • September 28, 2022 • 1 comment

[Politics] practices of collaboration

How can anthropologists further problematize hierarchies of knowledge production that are haunting the discipline? Based on her PhD trajectory and research on environment and (im)mobilities in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Daniela Paredes Grijalva argues for advancing practices of collaboration.

Daniela Paredes Grijalva • July 13, 2022

Uncertain Heritage: Musicking in Estonia

Estonians often refer themselves as a “small Singing Nation”. Siyun Wu studies music heritage and its impact on Estonian society. She notes that in searching for their musical past, music practitioners embrace uncertainty in a way that is strikingly similar to another favourite pastime: finding mushrooms.

Siyun Wu • May 23, 2022

We need to talk about skateboarding

Skateboarding is a skilful practice, a discipline of failure, and a global culture. Sander Hölsgens studies skateboarding as a tool for social good and reflects on three socio-political interventions by skaters in the Netherlands.

Sander Hölsgens • May 11, 2022

On the Corona crisis and numbers

Dutch policy has placed health metrics at the center of discussions around the Corona Crisis. Numbers visualize the urgency of the societal threat and form the basis for policy intervention, but they are also feared, celebrated and presented as proof that ‘we are all in this together’.

Tim van de Meerendonk • April 22, 2022

Making it Happen: comparison through teamwork in the Food Citizens? project

On February 4th, 2022 the Food Citizens? conference wrapped up four years of research in the ERC Consolidator project Collective Food Procurement in European Cities: Solidarity and Diversity, Skill and Scale, profiling the team’s comparative research.

Cristina Grasseni • February 18, 2022

Climate change in plain sight: anthropological contribution in the time of climate crisis

In-depth fieldwork methods can reveal invaluable insights of climate change beyond the domain of science and politics. Based on her ethnography of Sicilian farmers amidst agricultural transition, Anna Notsu shows how participant observation may unveil embodied climate change experiences.

Anna Notsu • February 07, 2022