All posts by Dick Powis

Dick Powis

Dick Powis is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, and is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His research interests include men and childbirth, prenatal screening technologies, and reproductive health in urban settings in Senegal. Read more at dickpowis.com.

Around the Web: Year in Review 2014

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As 2014 comes to a close, I thought I’d take up the annual task of rounding up the best of Savage Minds and the anthroblogosphere. First, some fellow Savage Minds authors will share their favorite posts from the year. As the Around the Web curator, I’ll list the posts (from SM and elsewhere) that stood out for me. Then, I’ll show some of the submissions that we received from our readers. Finally, we’ll review some of the best blogs and articles that have provided an anthropological perspective on the 2014’s current events.

Let’s go! Continue reading →

Nothing like #Ferguson to Reveal those Closeted Racists (in Anthropology)

We all knew it was going to happen. For a couple weeks, we kept hearing about how the Grand Jury decision was going to happen at any moment. The governor called in the National Guard and declared a state of emergency; businesses in Clayton, MO (a small affluent suburb of St. Louis) started boarding up windows and blockading the streets. And then came Monday morning: as I left home for school, I saw the news. The city was wrapping monuments to keep them from being vandalized. As Michael Che commented on SNL: That’s like your lawyer telling you to show up to court in something orange. Continue reading →

Around the Web Digest: Week of September 28

After a couple rather dry months on the anthroblogosphere, it seems that this week anthro-bloggers have rallied (and conspired against me?) to give you, dear reader, so much content. There are so many blog entries (this doesn’t include anthropology-related news) that I can’t even read them all. I just can’t – it’s not gonna happen. We’re going to try a (‘nother) new format for cases like these – author name, title, and blog – and please let me know how you feel about it. If you have a blog article that you’d like me to share next week, please don’t hesitate to hit me up at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis.

First, some business:

Most importantly, the AAA Webinar on Ebola and Anthropology. If you missed it, do yourself a favor, watch it, show it to your classes, and talk with them about it.

Next, a petition: Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

And then: A Letter to the AAA in Response to IAA’s Letter of 28 August 2014

And now your digest awaits. Continue reading →

Around the Web Digest: Week of September 21

Here are some items you may have missed this week in anthropology. If you have something that you’d like me to share next week, email me or hit me on Twitter @dtpowis.

Bruce O’Neill wrote about living a life of boredom in Bucharest. (Allegra Lab)

Anne-Marie Martindale talked about ethics and the face, in the context of facial transplant. (Allegra Lab)

Sharon Abramowitz listed the reasons that anthropologists are needed by the global response to Ebola. (Somatosphere)

Susan Lepselter moved towards an ethnography of feeling. (CASTAC Blog)

Anthony Stavrianakis related impatience to assisted suicide. (ARC)

This is why liberals love the Disease Theory of Addiction, written by a liberal who hates it. (Pacific Standard)

The names of our diseases carry meaning and the way we use Ebola is political, racist, and xenophobic. (Salon)

Around the Web Digest: Week of September 14

In case you missed it, here are some of the best things provided by the internet this week. If you have something that you want me to post next week, email it to me at richard.powis@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter at @dtpowis. Now go ahead a procrastinate a little.

Dr. Todd and Natalia are talking shit again. (YouTube)

Adia Benton called attention to the “race and immuno-logics” of spectators of humanitarian efforts in Ebola-afflicted regions of West Africa. (Somatosphere)

Raad Fadaak discussed the difficulty of tracking the migration of “emerging infectious disease.” (Somatosphere)

Anthony Stavrianakis responded to George Marcus’ reviews of Demands of the Day and The Accompaniment, as well as Michael Fisher’s review of the latter. (ARC)

Elizabeth Ferry described the ritual of the West Point Class Ring Memorial Melt. (CASTAC Blog)

Michael White wrote on why science might help, but it certainly won’t stop Ebola. (Pacific Standard)

Around the Web Digest: Week of August 24

If, like me, you’ve been living under a rock this week, here are some things you may have missed. (From the size of this list, I feel like I missed a lot.) If you have something that you’d like me to feature next weekend, please send it to me at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis.

A new anthropology MOOC is starting up on edX, called World101x: Anthropology of Current World Issues. (World101x)

Gerhard Hoffstaedter, course director of World101x, has written on the immigration from the perspective of Australia’s own crisis. (HuffPo)

Also, be sure to check out the World101x interview with anthropologist-journalist-blogger Sarah Kendzior. (YouTube)

While you’re on YouTube, a full length video of the documentary on Bourdieu, “La sociologie est un sport de combat,” was uploaded this week (in French, no subtitles). (YouTube)

Continuing in the theme of legendary French theorists, the audio of a lecture by Durkheim was also made available this week (in French). (Urban Demographics)

Stephen T. Casper discussed neuroscience, Ferguson, and the concept of “contagious shooting.” (Somatosphere)

Jennifer Carlson sat down with John Hartigan, anthropologist and director of the Americo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies at University of Texas at Austin, to talk about the use of multispecies ethnography in his work. (CASTAC Blog)

Laura Seay and Kim Yi Dionne described the long history of Africa’s reputation as a “dirty, diseased place.” (WaPo)

Around the Web Digest: Week of August 17

Here’s a recap of what you might have missed this week. If you have something to send me for next week, shoot me an email at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis. Classes start this week for me, and I know they’ve already started for some of you. If you’re teaching a course with a Twitter component, tell me about it! If you have articles or blogs that you’re linking your students to, let me know! I want to see what kinds of class discussions are springing out of the blogosphere.

Until then, let’s see what we have from last week. Continue reading →

Around the Web Digest: Week of August 10

Between the crisis in Gaza, the militarization of Ferguson, and the death of Robin Williams, this has been a rough week in the news. At least Rick Perry is being indicted. Also, as of today, I’ve been writing these digests for six months, and it’s been a blast. Thanks for your help and support. If you have a blog article or something that you think should be in next week’s digest, send it me at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis.

Check out what you may have missed last week. Continue reading →

On Being Fed Up: Blackness, Resistance, and the Death of Michael Brown – [An Invited Post]

[This invited post is submitted by Discuss White Privilege, an anthropologist who has written extensively to refocus the academy’s critique of racism on itself. We respectfully ask that you review our Comments Policy before responding below. Thank you. –DP]

Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492
I just read the Michael Brown post [by Uzma Z. Rizvi] while in a Black hair salon in East Oakland, where my African friend is getting her hair done (behold: transnationalism, diaspora!). I found the shirt pictured [above], worn by an older Black man exiting the salon, poignant in light of the article mentioning the Department of Homeland Security, and Prof. Rizvi’s statement about the inescapablity of being judged on the color of one’s skin. I wonder how many White anthropologists, reading what Prof. Rizvi has written about racism and the absence of benefitting from White privilege, are really willing to reckon with the implications of this admission, or care about the deep pain of racism they know they will never experience, especially in relation to racial profiling and brutalization by police–which as Prof. Rizvi rightly notes, occurs, especially to bodies coded Black, regardless of education and class (though low socio-economic status clearly exacerbates such racist encounters and outcomes).

Continue reading →

Around the Web Digest: Week of July 27

Happy Monday, dear readers. (Yes, there is such a thing.) As I mentioned, I’m in the midst of an interstate relocation, so thank you for being patient while I take extra time to round-up what I can for the digest. I’ve been getting a lot of good suggestions and feedback on links to share. Please keep them coming, and I’ll start giving you hat-tips. Just email me an article at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis.

Let’s see what we have…  Continue reading →

Around the Web Digest: Week of July 20

The anthroblogosphere is still a pretty quiet this week, but some (like Merrill Singer and Agustín Fuentes) have seemingly picked up some of the slack. Definitely give their articles a read, as they have some pretty important messages to impart. If you have an important messages to impart, preferably in the form of blogs or news articles, send them my way for next week’s digest at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis.

Right this way. Continue reading →