AnthroCurrents–November 29, 2016

Practicing Anthropology
The Wall Street Journal gives passing mention to ethnography as a marketing research tool, in an article about how election polling that missed Middle America’s votes for Trump may indicate similar advertising research has similar limitations. Seeking Alpha goes further, proclaiming that “[e]thnography is probably the only way to gather accurate data” for marketing and advertising.

The Evansville Courier & Press profiles doula and medical anthropologist Hillary Melichors (The Doula Group of Evansville).

The designers of SafariSeat, an all-terrain wheelchair to aid mobility in developing countries used ethnography as one component of a multi-disciplinary approach, according to The Huffington Post.

Anthropology from Evansville to the [United Arab] Emirates

In mid-November the Winston-Salem Journal covered the opening of Visions of Home: Celebrations of Gullah Art and Culture at the Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology (open through April 22, 2017.)

A local newspaper in Minneapolis-St. Paul profiles Kamela Heyward-Rotimi (Duke U.) and Rachel Watkins (American U.) who will be visiting a community center in the city during the American Anthropological Association meetings there in November. Their talk is about outreach to grade school students under the title, Anthropologists Go Back to School.

Marzia Balzani (New York U—Abu Dhabi) and Ayisha Khansaheb (Zayed U, Dubai) discuss their research into four decades of changes in women’s roles in upwardly mobile United Arab Emirate families, using cooking and recipes as their starting point.

In the Adelaide Review: “Each month, illustrator Leo Greenfield sketches and profiles an Adelaide character who makes this city tick. This month: Professor John Carty [South Australian Museum], the anthropologist.”

The Times Higher Education discusses a panel presentation on Conducting Ethnographic Research on Higher Education across International Borders, including in conflict zones. Borders crossed include Turkey, Afghanistan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

Fast Company excerpts a portion of The Geography of Genius: Lessons from the World’s Most Create Places by Eric Weiner, in which he interviews Chuck Darrah (San Jose State U.) about the culture of Silicon Valley, which Darrah describes as about fluidity and deal-making more than technology or microhips.

The Latin American Herald-Tribune describes research by Leticia Mayer (National Autonomous U. of Mexico) documenting Spanish cross-navigation of the Pacific Ocean before English navigators, such as James Cook, circumnavigated the globe. Mayer’s goal is to describe the sixteenth century precursor to “globalization” and its roots in Hispanic, not Anglo, exploration and trade.

Ethnography as a survival strategy. Homar Hoodfar (most recently, Concordia U.) describes her imprisonment in Iran and her coping strategy—ethnography. In a written version of her presentation at the recent American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Hoodfar expands her comments to include the recent American presidential election.

In The Baltimore Sun Samuel Collins and Matthew Durington (both at Towson U.) discuss “networked anthropology,” a social-media-based approach, to study an 800-mile “place,” the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

The Morning Star finds a new exhibit at The British Museum, South Africa: The Art of a Nation, offers a “cultural conundrum” of how art is read and expressed differently by different cultures and sub-cultures in South Africa’s multi-racial and multi-ethnic history.

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