Comments on: Toward Living with (not Under) Anthropology, Pt. 1

By: Toward Living with (not Under) Anthropology, Pt. 2 | Savage Minds

Toward Living with (not Under) Anthropology, Pt. 2 | Savage Minds — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 19:37:21 +0000

[…] Savage Minds welcomes guest blogger Takami Delisle. Tak currently works as a medical interpreter for Japanese patients and helps run an organization for anthropology students of color. You can read the first installment of this piece here. […]

By: Sydney

Sydney — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 22:34:02 +0000

Takami, you have reminded me of the medical anthropology literature on the therapeutic value of “writing it out.” Perhaps, writing short anonymous auto-ethnographies could also be therapeutic for the grad students. If the project was designed this way, it could utilize a website built for collecting these short anonymous auto-ethnographies from current grad students at all stages of the grad school process as well as recent PhD and MA graduates. But then how to control the participant selection process …. I am definitely looking forward to Part 2.

By: Takami

Takami — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 00:37:00 +0000

Thank you all for the encouraging comments. Sydney, I agree that such an ethnographic project would be very productive, and wonder if collections of short anonymous auto-ethnographies from grad students could possibly work. Part 2 will get deeper into the critiques of authoritative anthropologists, so stay tuned!

By: [BLOG] Some Friday links | A Bit More Detail

[BLOG] Some Friday links | A Bit More Detail — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 19:16:46 +0000

[…] Minds notes the difficulties of life as an […]

By: Mike Agar

Mike Agar — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 19:04:56 +0000

Thanks John. I’m slated for two weeks in the sun early Nov. Working on it now. Calling it “Rewind and Fast Forward.” Free copy of Lively Science to the first five readers (:

By: Sydney

Sydney — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 18:57:30 +0000

Takami thank you so much for sharing your story and standing up against the misuse of authoritative privilege, especially by the people we expect to know better. I expect that there is actually a fruitful ethnographic project in compararive analyzsis of the long-term well-being and success of grad students of programs but I’m afraid, or hope rather, that you’d end up influencing your participants and their environment by studying them.

By: johnmccreery

johnmccreery — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 04:09:28 +0000

Hi, Mike. Still hoping that you will contribute a blog to Savage Minds. I keep telling people that they ought to read The Lively Science. Would love to see a taste of that argument here.

By: Mike Agar

Mike Agar — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:14:57 +0000

Hi Tak. You catch the bipolar nature of the field really well, the power and the liberating nature of the perspective and the way it can be and often is corrupted with ego and ambition. A former student in the Maryland program, where I used to teach, went to med school and now concerns himself with the massive importance and subtlety of medical translation. Incredibly important work and in need of good work. Drop me an email if you want me to introduce you two. He works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

By: Skypuppy

Skypuppy — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:04:34 +0000

Thanks so much. I just had a dreadful experience with a research institute and the ‘hierarchy’ in academia and how academics we look up too can completely fail us. My faith and love of anthropology has been tainted as a consequence. You have helped me perhaps see some light.