Racism at the USDA:

• The Institute for Southern Studies puts the current fiasco surrounding the firing of Shirley Sherrod in perspective with this historical primer, “It’s an astonishing development given the history of race relations at the USDA, an agency whose own Commission on Small Farms admitted in 1998 that ‘the history of discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture … is well-documented’ — not against white farmers, but African-American, Native American and other minorities who were pushed off their land by decades of racially-biased laws and practices.”

Mexico-US Border

• The University of Texas at Austin has developed a web video project, “Border Views,” with weekly updates. The series opens with three brief videos from anthropology professor Cecilia Balli on border politics, violence, and transformations in modern Mexican masculinity. I will be very interested to see how this develops as more faculty get involved in sharing their own disciplinary focus with the public.

“Cyborg Anthropology”

• Register here for a free online lecture by anthropologist and software designer, Amber Case.

Humans, Art, Nature

• Multispecies Salon is organizing an art swarm in New Orleans to coincide with the upcoming AAA conference and is accepting submissions until September 1. This year’s themes are: Life in the age of biotechnology, Edible companions, and Hope in blasted landscapes. The show will be hosted by multiple galleries located in the St Claude Arts District. I and my (non-edible) companions will be there.

Publishing News

• The AAA is pretty proud that the journal Cultural Anthropology has been ranked as the second most cited journal in anthropology. You know what? I hate rankings. But I gotta admit that I’m curious as to which journal is Number 1. Anyone want to take a guess?
• Anthropologi.info just put up a selection of open access journals with a custom Google search line for navigating the content. Go on and give it a try. Hopefully this kind of thing will grow and improve over time. Could it bring a revolution to academic publishing?

Revolution!

• Speaking of revolution… American University is hosting “Revolutions! Building Emancipatory Politics and Action,” October 16-17, with a submission deadline of September 12. From the press release: “Unlike many academic events built around formal papers, this conference will focus on bringing panelists and audience members together to discuss concrete ways social scientists can support, strengthen, and contribute to activist movements striving toward progressive political action.”

Timewaster

• Sex advice columnist Dan Savage gets all anthropological with research psychologist Chris Ryan, author of Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. Finally, an evolutionary explanation for cuckolding fetish!

 
 

Seen something interesting that you’d like to share with the Savage Minds community? Of course you have! Don’t be shy and send an email to mdthomps@odu.edu