Academic
Separation of Powers
Photo by 翔
If you ask most people, democracy is synonymous with elections. But, strangely enough, few people who live in electoral democracies feel that elections result in a government which truly responds to their concerns. At its best, electoral politics seems to solve the problem of succession which plagued previous forms of government. Although it […]
Ivory Tower vs. Real World
[Cross-posted at Savage Minds]
In our discussions about anthropologists in the military the term “ivory tower” has come up again and again, as has its antipode, “the real world.” These terms work rhetorically to oppose academic elitism and detachment against the difficult moral choices one must make in everyday life. A couple of things really bother […]
Job Announcement
Job Announcement
College of Indigenous Studies at National Dong Hwa University [Taiwan]
http://www.ndhu.edu.tw/
POSITION DESCRIPTION AND DUTIES: The Department of Indigenous Cultures and the Graduate Institute of Ethnic Relations and Culture invite applicants for three (3) open-rank faculty positions in the humanities and social sciences, beginning February 1, 2008. We are seeking applicants who do research in […]
East Asian Libraries and Archives Wiki
As someone who has run several wikis, I know all too well that they are only as good as their user-base, so because I would really, really, like to see the East Asian Libraries and Archives Wiki succeed, I urge anyone who cares about research in/on East Asia to get involved!
Here is the official announcement […]
Open Access Anthropology
We’ve been very busy over at Savage Minds - promoting Open Access at the AAA. See our wiki for a general overview of the subject, or here to see what we are planning for the AAA. But what I really wanted to tell you about are the great new T-shirts Rex and CKelty designed for […]
Freshman Chinese
About half of the students at my college are Taiwanese Aborigines. Many of them are able to apply to the school directly, rather than going through the national examination system. This effectively a form of affirmative action, one which I fully endorse. In fact, it is one of the reasons I wanted to come here […]
Sort of …
Like thousands of others, I’m hooked on The Show: a one year experiment in video blogging by Ze Frank, a web deisgner/performance artist who lives in Brooklyn. On The Media interviewed Ze Frank this past week.
While I enjoy the show, it is hard to pin down why. Although he is a very sophisticated writer and […]
Over at Savage Minds
While some of my readers are also regulars over at Savage Minds, I know not everyone is, so I though I should highlight some of my recent writing there in case people want to click over and take a look.
30 Days of Cinétrance
Anthro Classics Online: Body Ritual among the Nacirema
Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
Should You Study […]
Brave New China
In Aldous Huxley’s book Brave New World writers and intellectuals are banished to an island where they have complete freedom to say and do whatever they like - as long as there is no risk of them infecting the rest of society with their ideas.
From what I’ve heard about intellectual freedom in China, it follows […]
Rubber Stamp
Believe it or not, I was actually given a rubber stamp so that I can rubber stamp all the ridiculous paperwork that we have to deal with. Some memos are deemed too important to just e-mail to faculty. Instead, we have to go every day or two to the departmental office and officially stamp a […]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
