NSF – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

(Re)Imperializing Anthropology and Decolonizing Knowledge Production

I presented the paper below, “(Re)Imperializing Anthropology and Decolonizing Knowledge Production,” at the 8th Annual Critical Race and Anti-colonial Studies Conference of Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equality (R.A.C.E.), held at Ryerson University in Toronto, 14-16 November, 2008. Almost a year has passed since I promised to post it here, and I suspect that […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Hugh Gusterson: “Minerva Controversy,” and the SSRC

The U.S. Social Science Research Council has launched a series of articles in a special section of its website devoted to what it calls the Minerva Controversy. Among them is Hugh Gusterson’s “Unveiling Minerva.” This is a list of some of the key points he makes in his article: (1) Gusterson persuasively likens Pentagon funding […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Minerva: Risks, Opportunities, Boycotts, and Mentally Handicapped Informants?

In the Washington Post article for which I was interviewed (I am the “but”, appropriately at the end), there was a suggestion that a project critical of U.S. foreign policy should be submitted to test the openness of the Minerva Research Initiative and its Pentagon-funded counterpart at the National Science Foundation. I do not recall […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

National Security Research and the Geopolitical Context of Knowledge Production

Thinking about Hugh Gusterson’s “The U.S. Military’s Quest to Weaponize Culture” prompted me to consider some current developments, as reported by various news agencies and one think tank, as indications of new conditions of knowledge production and the kinds of pressures and constraints orienting social science research toward specific ends. For some these are “constraints,” […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Latest Minerva and National Science Foundation News

Thanks to David Glenn of The Chronicle of Higher Education for writing to indicate that what some hoped for would be leeway in undertaking funded research free of constraints and conditions imposed by the Department of Defense, has been significantly minimized. As David Glenn explained, the National Science Foundation released its Minerva-related solicitation on Wednesday, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

More Minerva News and Discussion (2.1)

David Glenn, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 30, 2008 Minerva Takes Flesh: Pentagon and Science Foundation Sign Social-Science Deal In a memorandum of understanding that was signed today, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation agreed to work cooperatively to support social-science research on topics of interest to the Pentagon. As widely expected, […]