The Familiar Strange

This week Emma Quilty sat down with Matthew Archer, Assistant Professor at Maastricht University to discuss his brand new NYU Press book Unsustainable: Measurement, Reporting, and the Limits of Corporate Sustainability. In this brilliant and incisive new book, Matthew Archer weaves together ethnographic fieldwork conducted among a wide array of sustainability professionals, interviews with private bankers, and apocalyptic science fiction—and features analyses of name-brand companies including Volkswagen, Unilever, and Nestlé. Matthew Archer is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist interested in the intersection of technology and sustainability, especially in the context of global supply chain governance. Most recently, this has involved research on metal and mineral supply chains, with a focus on traceability and digitization, building on my previous work studying sustainability standards as a technology of governance in global agricultural supply chains, ESG integration in investment practices, and the way corporate sustainability managers think about their impacts. Head to our website for a full list of links and citations!

This week Sean Heath sat down with Noel B. Salazar, Professor of Anthropology at KU Leuven to discuss the celebration of Anthropology Day(s). Their conversation covered the initiation of world anthropology day by the American Anthropological Association and touched on national celebrations of anthropology day, as well as the potential for a World Anthropologies Days. They also discussed Noel’s latest work on emplaced mobilities and mobile places. Noel B. Salazar is Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Founder of the Cultural Mobilities Research (CuMoRe) cluster at KU Leuven. His research interests include anthropologies of mobility and travel, heritage and tourism, discourses and imaginaries of Otherness, world anthropologies, and endurance locomotion. Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations

A brief update on the state of TFS project and a call for new contributors to the team.

Trigger Warning: Please note that this episode makes mention of Sexual Assault and sexual violence. In this episode we walk about MeToo anthropology from the lens of fieldwork and within the academy itself. Familiar Stranger Emma Quilty sat down with anthropologists Holly Walters and Margaret Czerwienski to talk about the MeToo collective and its incredible array of resources as well as what it means to do activist work within the academy. We also covered the prevalence of the witch hunt trope so often leveraged against those who make accusations against powerful individuals and institutions. Are MeToo accusations modern day witch hunts? Listen to find out.

The podcast is back! This week, we've challenged ourselves to be as meta as possible, with a podcast, about podcasting, released by an academic podcast! Try saying that after a wine or two. Familiar Stranger Tim and Sean sat down with Dr Ian Cook, who has recently released his book "Scholarly Podcasting Why, What, How?", which actually interviewed some Familiar Strange alumni, keep your ears peeled for the name drops! It was a really interesting conversation about the future of podcasting, and how academia is shaping podcasting and vice versa. Make sure you head to our website for a full list of links and citations!

It’s been a while… We’re back, this time with Familiar Strange Emma leading a panel on AI and specifically Chat GPT. This week, Emma is joined by Familiar Strangers Matt and Sean to discuss some of the advancements of ChatGPT and what it means for us as academics and human creativity. Matt dives into how his poetry has been informed by AI and Sean reveals his ultimate AI betrayal. It was a really interesting discussion, with plenty of laughs in between. We hope you enjoy!

Welcome back to the Familiar Strange. We’re kicking off 2023 with an interview with Dr Jasmijn Rana from Leiden University. Dr Jasmijn’s research interests include, gender, race-ethnicity, religion, embodiment and movement. Jasmijn is currently (2022-2023) a Marie-Sklodowska Curie Global Fellow at University of California, Berkeley. This week, Familiar Stranger Sean discusses Dr Rana’s latest ethnographic study “Punching Back - Gender, Religion and Belonging in Women-Only Kickboxing”. Sean and Dr Rana dive into the physical practices of femininity, physicality and how slacking is actually a good thing…kind of. Thank you to Dr Jasmijn Rana for taking time out of their schedule to discuss their ethnography. Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

We are back for 2023! This month we welcome our newest Familiar Stranger Nitya! Nitya has just finished their Master of Anthropology and is current doing some further work into Gender and mining. In this episode we deep dive into Nitya's topic and the stereotypes of mining, and dig into the current gender perceptions of the mining industry. In a belated celebration of World Anthropology day, we also dive into the anthropology origin stories of our Familiar Strangers, how they first got into anthropology, and what it means to them. It was a really insightful episode and we hope you enjoy!

This week we’re back for a really important panel. This week, Familiar Strangers Lachlan, Sean, Kath and Claire gather to discuss casualisation of academic jobs and the effects that strikes can have on workers rights. Some of the strangers are currently participating in a unfair labour practices strike along with other members of the United Auto Workers for fair pay, quality health and family-friendly benefits, and a supportive and respectful work environment. The Strangers talk all things industrial action, politics and the power of industrial actions. It was a really important episode and we hope that this episode can offer you a brief insight into what issues are affecting academia on the ground.

Familiar Stranger Emma sits down with Frank Pasquale from Brooklyn Law School. Frank is also currently co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law! Frank is one of the leaders in relation to AI Law and cross-disciplinary approaches, with his works of The Black Box Society The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information and New Laws of Robotics Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI, incorporates a broad range of insight from an even broader range of disciplines. In this conversation, Emma and Frank touch on authority, Trust and the essays of Clifford Geertz. Briefly dive deep into America’s Anti-Trust laws and eventually discuss ideas of where to next for AI technologies, and how disciplines can work more efficiently to drive new insights and findings.

This week we’re back with a conference extravaganza! With the AAS and AAA’s just passed, listen in to Familiar stranger Alex, Lachie, Sean and Ruonan’s thoughts! Alex and Ruonan attended the AAS while Lachie and Sean attended the AAA in person and virtually. The strangers dive into their past conference experiences, and ask the big questions like “What Tina Turner coverband gets the most anthrpologists to the dancefloor?” The Strangers more seriously ask the question of the function of conferences and what the future of conferences are. It was a great podcast and we’re looking forward to hearing from you about your experiences at the AAS and AAA’s!

This week, Familiar Stranger Emma conducts her first interview! Emma sat down with Dr Vaike Fors from Halmstad University. Dr Vaike Fors is a professor in design ethnography, focusing on learning in everyday life. In the past, Vaike has worked with Volvo as part of a number of projects in relation to user experiences with autonomous vehicles and mobility. Her work has expanded into a number of different projects, with a focus on city infrastructure as well as public transport. It was a really interesting conversation and we had such a great time putting this together. Thank you again to Dr Vaike Fors for spending the time.

This week we’re joined by Familiar Strangers Kathy, Lachlan, Alex and Sean to talk all things AI Art and activism. Alex kick’s us off by asking us to consider the recent developments in AI image creation. Alex dives into DALL.E and what it means for people that still consider themselves “artists”. The Strangers explore labour, effort and the “creative” process. What do you think? Should we be using AI art generation? Who owns the art? Kath then explores further the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran and what it means to conduct activism as anthropologist and vice versa. Questions around positionality and utility were raised by the Strangers, especially when it comes to research. What do you think? Is there such a thing as an activist anthropologist? It was a series of really interesting topics this week so we hope you enjoy!

We’re back this week and with a very special collaboration. As part of AAS2019, we had a chance to record an enlightening roundtable on the history of feminist anthropology in Australia. You can find parts 1 and 2 here! The wonderful Dr Benjamin Hegarty, Dr Carly Schuster and Dr Shiori Shakuto are back for part 3 of their roundtable where they dive deeper into the history and great works of feminist anthropology in Australia. It was an absolute pleasure to help record this episode and thank you again to Dr Benjamin Hegarty, Dr Carly Schuster and Dr Shiori Shakuto for their time and effort in putting this episode together. We hope you enjoy!

This month we’re joined by the latest member of The Familiar Strange, Lachlan Summers! Lachlan is currently based in Mexico city and researches the 2017 Earthquake. As part of this panel, we dive a bit deeper into Lachlan’s research and how he has investigated the temporalities and culture changes in Mexico city. We also touch on concepts of sovereignty, who controls what and what people mean when they say “energy sovereignty”. What do you think? Can you even have “sovereignty” over energy sources? It was a really interesting conversation this week and we had a great time recording! We hope you enjoy!

Welcome back to the Familiar Strange! This week we welcome Emma, one of the newest familiar strangers! For this panel, we dive into some of Emma’s work as a “Witchy” Anthropologist and how it plays into her current work in AI. Emma gives us a rundown of her practise of witchcraft here in Australia and the kinds of factors and influences that inform her methods. It was a really interesting conversation touching on a huge variety of methodologies and concepts! We hope you enjoy and Welcome to the Familiar Strange Emma!

This week Familiar Stranger Tim speaks with Dr Letizia Bonanno. Dr Letizia Bonanno is a medical anthropologist working on issues of care and pharmaceuticals. In March 2019 she earned her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester. In their conversation, Tim asks Letizia about her fieldwork in a social clinic of solidarity in Athens and the impact of austerity policies on people seeking healthcare in Greece at that time. They also discuss modes and practices of care during times of crisis. Their conversation also touches on the role of graphic ethnography as a form of ethnographic practice and as a way to make sense of the ironic and paradoxical situations one often finds themselves presented with during fieldwork. Letizia is also a passionate advocate for bringing anthropology to broader audiences outside of academia and speaks about her role as a visual editor for Otherwise Magazine, an initiative dedicated to storytelling through ethnographic research, activism, fiction and non-fiction writing, poetry, and visual essays. As someone who has been following her work for some time it was a real privilege to be able to speak with her.

We’re back! We’re back from our Semester break and keen to get back into creating the content you know and love. This week, we’re joined by Dr Sean Heath! The newest Familiar Stranger. In the first part of this panel, we dive into Sean’s work with competitive swimmers in Canada and the United Kingdom. We dive into what immersion is, and how it interplays with our lives today. It was really interesting to hear about how swimmers interact with their body-sense and their fondness for chlorinated water. Next, Ruonan draws attention to the current political instability around the world, paying particular attention to the conflict in Ukraine, the resignation of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister and President and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. She asks questions of the utility of anthropology in such chaotic times, as well as some of the basis for these crises. It was an enlightening conversation and we hope you enjoy. We’re so happy to be back so keep your ears peeled for some exciting content coming up.

Hey Everyone, From everyone at the TFS team we just wanted to say a quick thank you before we take our season break. Don't worry though, we're not going anywhere and we'll be back around late July. Thank you for all your support this season and we're looking forward to coming back with more of the stuff you love! Thanks again, and as always, Keep Talking Strange.

Today we talked about Lisa’s research on sexual and reproductive health technologies in the United States as well as in the Middle East and North Africa. We focused on emergency contraceptives and unpacked the arguments both for and against making them available over the counter in America. Lisa took a deep dive into how the activism for expanded access to emergency contraceptives has created a hierarchy of deservedness that prioritises specific groups above others, diverting public attention away from the universal human rights discourse. We then turned to Egypt where Lisa has done long-term ethnographic fieldwork on sexuality and dived into a particular sexual technology - hymenoplasty, or hymen-reconstruction procedures. Lisa shared with us a fascinating story of how people used it as a tactic to circumvent or subvert cultural norms and build social respectability. We also touched on the unexpectedly diverging opinions on hymenoplasty from religious authorities, doctors, and laypeople.