Conference Details: Anthropology and Global Counter-Insurgency

I’ve just posted information at Savage Minds about the conference I will be presenting at later this month. Rather than repost the whole post, I’m going to direct you there to have a look. Update: The website for the Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency conference is now live, with a schedule, attendee listing, and abstracts of both the panels and the papers to be presented. [Continue reading]

Upcoming Conference on Anthropology and Counter-Insurgency

I’ve been invited to speak at a conference next month of anthropology and counter-insurgency. Details are still sketchy; all I know so far is that the conference will be held at the University of Chicago on April 25-26. That means I have just over a month to write something new and meaningful. I’m thinking of surveying the history of anthropological involvement with the military, and closing with a list of fundamental incompatibilities between military practice and anthropological practice. More info to come… [Continue reading]

A Defense of Used Books at the Text and Academic Authors Association

Last August, I wrote about the high price of textbooks and what I feel is an exploitative relationship between authors and publishers on one hand and the students we serve on the other. An officer of the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA), to which I belong, came across the post and asked me to write up my argument for the TAA Newsletter. The piece is coming out in print next month, but is already up on the TAA website. The post itself is in the member’s only section of the site, but I’ll post it to my portfolio once it’s out in hard copy. [Continue reading]