SSRC – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Canadian Anthropology or US Cultural Imperialism?

Read Part One Read Part Two Download the complete paper Importing Empire, Exporting Capital: Canadian Universities as Retail Outlets for US Anthropology The “Americanist tradition” has been reproduced in Canada in terms of the structuring of the leading anthropology departments according to the US discipline’s four fields of archaeology, linguistic, cultural and biological/physical anthropology. This […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Minerva and the Terrorism Industry: “The rule of experts as a means to covert imperial rule”

First, a video. On 27 August 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense hosted a workshop about the Minerva Research Initiative. Among the speakers was Craig Calhoun, president of the Social Science Research Council, cheerfully calling for enhanced and widened collaboration between academia and the military. Thomas Mahnken of the Pentagon is also presented as he […]

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

Toward a More Public Social Science

By SSRC President Craig Calhoun I want to suggest four crucial ingredients of a more public social science that are not always stressed in such discussions. 1. Engagement with public constituencies must move beyond a dissemination model. It is not enough to say that first scientists will do whatever “pure” research moves them and then, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Toward a Globally Connected, Public Social Science

by SSRC Executive Director Mary Byrne McDonnell BACKGROUND To imagine how we might move toward a globally connected, public social science-and, indeed, why it is critical to do so-we must know something about the context of our work as well as the character of the intellectual issues that require our attention. The Context of Our […]