ISSN 2562-9948
The political economic conditions of academic knowledge production; academic hierarchies of prestige and authority; differential rewards; exploitation; quantification
According to the latest issue of the CAUT Almanac (2010-2011, see p. 31), published by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the following are the available nationwide statistics on the number of anthropology students (full time equivalents) in Canada, and the percentage that is female: Bachelor’s and Other Undergraduate Degree: 4,005.4 students, 73.9% of which […]
Read More…Published yesterday in Dissident Voice, Michael Barker‘s article “Foundations and Anthropology in the United States,” could be very useful reading for students, those who may not be too familiar with the role of elites in shaping and founding key pillars of American anthropology, and members of the broader public. Speaking of the latter, this article […]
Read More…Military-controlled Information Access, Academic Imperialism, and the Cultural Cleansing of Iraq On three previous occasions I raised the issue of the illegality of seizing Iraqi documents, relocating them to the U.S., and then controlling access to them for the purpose especially of Pentagon-funded academic researchers–see: “Minerva Research Initiative Violates International Law and Iraqi Sovereignty,” and […]
Read More……CONTINUED FROM PART 1 We continue the discussion of the American Anthropological Association’s Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the U.S. Security and Intelligence Communities (CEAUSSIC) which released its “Final Report on the Army’s Human Terrain System Proof of Concept Program,” in early December of 2009. Though not a comprehensive summary, nor a thorough […]
Read More…When the American Anthropological Association’s Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the U.S. Security and Intelligence Communities (CEAUSSIC) released its “Final Report on the Army’s Human Terrain System Proof of Concept Program,” in early December of 2009, there was a fair bit of media coverage that zeroed in on one paragraph in particular: When […]
Read More…From the Homeland Security Act of 2002: “The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, shall designate a university-based center or several university-based centers for homeland security. The purpose of the center or these centers shall be to establish a coordinated, university-based system to enhance the nation’s homeland security.” Uniform “Research” We […]
Read More…The intellectual heritage of European expansion that we inherit as anthropologists – certainly not without modification and criticism – is again the subject in this series. If Immanuel Wallerstein explained which agendas became dominant with the institutionalization of the social sciences, with some notes on why they became dominant, Pierre Bourdieu provides some explanation as […]
Read More…Cultural imperialism rests on the power to universalize particularisms linked to a singular historical tradition by causing them to be misrecognized as such. (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 41) If the social sciences are Eurocentric, does this also mean that they are imperialist? Where Immanuel Wallerstein finds liberalism as the underpinning of the geoculture of […]
Read More…Professional Knowledge Creation in the World-System Building an anti-imperialist “anthropology,” plus an anthropology that studies imperialism, and that studies itself as a received invention of imperialism, means much more than just analyzing and questioning how anthropologists served this or that colonial venture. It means totally unthinking anthropology as a social science; more than that, it […]
Read More…I recommend this excellent commentary from Marc Tyrell about the meaning of the judgment against Ward Churchill by Judge Larry Naves, along with a video concerning the verdict. Readers will know that Marc is certainly tolerant of radical leftists, but no great admirer of their positions, and he has been a steady advocate for applied […]
Read More…For those who do not already know, on Tuesday, 07 July 2009, the judge in Ward Churchill’s case (which we followed closely in the months of April and May) finally delivered his ruling on whether Churchill should be reinstated in his position or awarded a lump sum. Judge Larry Naves decided against both — Ward […]
Read More…There is nothing that is intentionally “alarmist” about this headline, as much as some Canadians would want to reassure themselves that only with reference to a corrupt and dictatorial African state would such a headline have any relevance. However, the fact remains, and it is documented and abundantly public, that the Minister of State for […]
Read More…(This post comes thanks to some leads on the James Petras website and Petras’ own essay on the Minerva Research Initiative, “Procuring Academics for Empire: The Pentagon Minerva Research Initiative“.) In late December of 2008 I posted about the news of the first recipients of the Pentagon’s Minerva Research Initiative, but until I saw the […]
Read More…The political economy of academia is one of the long-standing, if often muted, interests of this project. An event of direct relevance to that took place in my Department with the presentation of Dr. Gilles Gagné, a Professor in Sociology at Université Laval in Québec City. Dr. Gagné’s recent publications include: Le Canada français. Son […]
Read More…The top 10 posts for April 2009 and the pattern of visits in many ways continued what was observed for March 2009, concerning in some cases stories that will of course continue to be relevant. The top post overall was “Sex Beats Money, Hitler Beats Gandhi: More Google Insights” (11 April), with 960 views. The […]
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ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY 