AnthroPod

“(W)Rap On: Race” features anthropologist Shalini Shankar discussing race, social activism, and pedagogy with Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson. Christien Tompkins moderates the conversation.

(W)Rap on Race is the inaugural episode of the new (W)Rap On series at AnthroPod, which brings anthropologists into conversation with artists, activists, and scholars from other disciplines and perspectives. The series is loosely inspired by James Baldwin and Margaret Mead’s 1971 conversation Rap on Race. Yet the format attempts to identify and confront some of the inherent problems that this conversation embodied and only further crystallized, such as white fragility, difficulties with confronting complicity in larger power structures, and struggles to create space for different groups to speak openly (instead of being spoken over or spoken for).

Our goal for this series is to provide a platform for thoughtful and incisive discussions that highlight solidarities and shared commitments but also, and perhaps more importantly, highlight where frictions might emerge between anthropological approaches and those of different disciplines or of work outside the academy.

Maria Frederika Malmstrom on the Sound of Economic Collapse in Egypt

Vijayendra Rao, an economist with the World Bank, talks with anthropologist Ian Pollock about the theory and practice of development, anthropology’s relationship to development, and how ethnography might help the disenfranchised engage with powerful institutions and effect social change.

Graeme Warren explains what we can learn about histories and cultures through Hunter & Gatherer research.

Damien Sojoyner on race, education, imprisonment, and their intersection in the United States.

Teresa Caldeira discusses her recent research on urban practices and forms of cultural production from the peripheries of São Paulo, Brazil that are reshaping public space, including rap music, graffiti, ostentation funk, and pixação

Producer: Liliana Gil

Music: Excerpts from “Soldado Sem Bandeira” by Emicida (00:00, 08:20), “Fim de Semana no Parque” by Racionais MC’s (06:25), a birthday song recorded at the Jardim das Camélias’s Parish Church (14:05), and “Se Identifica” by A’s Trinca (17:20, 23:05). Thanks to the artists for granting permission to use these excerpts in the episode.

Christa Craven discusses feminist anthropology in this episode of AnthroBites, the podcast that makes key concepts in anthropology more digestible.

Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar discuss their recent book, Anthropology's Politics: Disciplining the Middle East (2015). They touch on how political and economic pressures shape how U.S.-based scholars research and teach about the Middle East, how certain topics and regions are embraced or pushed back on, and how those pressures and incentives impact scholars working in the Middle East from graduate school to teaching and public engagement.

Producer: Beth Derderian

Music: Sweeter Vermouth by Kevin MacLeod

Angela Jenks shares her approach to anthropological pedagogy and offers thoughtful insights into how anthropologists might begin thinking about how to incorporate podcasts into their syllabi.

Anthropologists of media and journalism reflect on the current post-truth era in the United States means for research and teaching. This episode features a panel from the the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association with Naomi Schiller, Robert Samet, Natalia Roudakova, Alexandra Juhasz, Amahl Bishara, and Faye Ginsburg.

Music: “Bit Rio” and “Caravan” by Podington Bear