The Familiar Strange

In this episode Familiar Stranger Emma Quilty sat down with Associate Professor Oneka LaBennett to talk about her most recent book, Global Guyana: Shaping Race, Gender, and Environment in the Caribbean and Beyond

In this episode Familiar Stranger sat down with Fijian author and political analyst Edward Narain and Associate Professor Tarryn Philips from La Trobe University. Together Edward and Tarryn published Sugar: An Ethnographic Novel which reveals the extent to which the lives, health, and opportunities of Fijians are still dramatically affected by the country's colonial past and entrenched inequality. Set in Suva, with a tropical cyclone looming, Sugar follows three strangers from different cultural backgrounds as they find themselves entwined in a brutal murder: revealing inconvenient truths about the darker side of global development in Fiji. The story follows a naïve but well-intentioned Australian health volunteer, a jaded Indo-Fijian amateur historian, and a troubled Fijian (iTaukei) teen caring for his diabetic grandmother. The reader is immersed in each character's world and slowly comes to understand the historical and structural reasons behind Fiji's diabetes epidemic, exploitative labour and trade practices, and the role Australia and other nations play in both. Head over to our website for a full list of Links and Citations!

Producer's note: Hi everyone, Executive Producer Matt here, just wanted to slide in here quickly and say that we recorded this panel a while ago, so you might hear some familiar voices! Just wanted to say a quick thank you to Irina, Andrew, Ruonan and Alex for all their effort in recording this panel! We hope you like it. We've gone digging and we struck some gold! We recorded this panel a little while ago at the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science's podcast studio with some of the PhD candidates based at the ANU. In this panel, Familiar Stranger Ruonan opens the floor up to familiar Stranger Alex to talk about some of the differences he noticed around when it comes to “bushwalking”/hiking versus, you know, walking. The Strangers dive into the differences between the two and the interesting societal structures which determines if you're a hiker or a walker. Familiar Stranger Irina then poses a question around identity as individuals as well as anthropologists. It launches the Strangers into pensive thoughts around who they are, the communities they are interacting with and what makes us, us and them, them. There were some really interesting topics broached on this panel and we hope you enjoy!

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.

Welcome back to the Familiar Strange! This week is Familiar Stranger Ruonan's first panel as a host! We think she did pretty well! Ruonan is joined this week by Familiar Strangers Alex, Andy and Irina! Alex starts us off by telling us he is leaving us! But one thing he'll miss (aside from the other familiar strangers of course) is the numerous bushwalking or hiking tracks that are around the ANU. He reflects on how bushwalking or hiking has become a new marker for the middle class and the other strangers reflect on what hiking represents. What do you think? When does a walk become a hike? Is it just semantics? Then, Irina raises the big question of “who are you? Who decides who you are?” A big question for a short podcast! The strangers dive into what that question means for them and their respective field sites, as well as anthropology as a whole. What do you think defines someone? Why do you define yourself the way you do? It was a really thought provoking conversation this week and we had a lot of fun recording in person again. We hope you enjoy!

Welcome back to the Familiar Strange. We're back with a special panel episode with familiar stranger Alex sitting down with some of the First year PhD students doing Anthropology at ANU. Mamta, Maddy and Andy were kind enough to take some time out of their busy schedules and discuss all things PhD. From life pre-PhD to where they could go next, we had a blast making this episode in person! We hope you enjoy!

Welcome back to the Familiar Strange! This week Familiar Stranger Alex sits down with Dr Eric Hirsch. Dr Eric Hirch is currently an assistant professor at Franklin & Marshall College in the department of Environmental Studies. Eric's research interests center around local understandings of what it means to be wealthy; the impacts of mineral extraction; cultural branding; and outsiders trying to improve things for people that may or may not want them there. In this interview, Alex queries Eric about his time living in Peru, living in the cities within the beautiful Colca valley. They dive into what defines wealth, how people can measure growth and artificial insemination of all things. It was an absolute pleasure to interview Dr Eric Hirsch and we hope you enjoy! Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS. Welcome back for another Panel! This week we're joined by familiar strangers Carolyn West, Matt Phung, Ruonan Chen and Alex D'Aloia. Carolyn starts us off this week by sharing her recent experiences at a Hen's night she had recently. She shares her experience entering into different spaces and navigating the emotions that come with each space. Do you have any spaces like that? How do you think “queer” space is created? Next Alex asks the strangers about the current invasion of the Ukraine by the Russian Military. He poses the question around truth, what is being seen, what isn't being seen and how truth can vary from person to person. What do you think? What kinds of things have you been seeing on your news feeds about the current conflict in Ukraine? Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations.

Before we dive into today's episode we'd just like to add a content warning for this episode for sexual assault and drug use. This week, Familiar Stranger Carolyn sits down with Adrian Watts, a PhD Candidate from the University of Melbourne. Adrian spent his fieldwork in a London squat called The Black Stag. Throughout this conversation, Carolyn asks questions around the lifestyle of a squatter, and Alex helps to paint a vivid picture of the lives that the people living in the Black Stag lived. It was a great chat with some thought provoking ideas. Head over to our website for a list of links and citations.

Welcome back to The Familiar Strange! We're joined this week by our newest Familiar Stranger, Kathryn! You might have heard her on Episode 84 last season but we've convinced her to stick around! Welcome Kathryn. We start this month's episode by discussing the recent protests that have been occurring in Australia's capital. Kathryn and the rest of the strangers dive into their experiences with protesting and how we are seeing a shift in the motives and types of people that are starting to participate. What do you guys think? Have you been to any protests recently? We then jump on the NFT bandwagon, with Alex giving us a crash course into what an NFT is, how it works and why they exist. Carolyn, as a photographer and image maker has some interesting things to say on the topics of creation, scarcity and clout. What do you guys think about NFT's? Revolutionary new way to sell art or just another ponzi scheme? Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

The team at TFS would like to say thank you to all our listeners this year and to everyone who has listened in to our podcasts and read the blog this year! We are taking a short season break and we will return in February 2021 Let's keep in touch. Feel free to submit something to the blog, we're always looking for content, and are keen to hear new voices. The submission guidelines are on our website at www.thefamiliarstrange.com/writeforus And if you haven't already, join our Facebook Chats Group, ‘The Familiar Strange Chats'. Thank you again to all our listeners and readers who have enjoyed our content through out 2021. We hope you have a restful holidays, and we will see you in February. Until then, keep Talking Strange…

This week Carolyn sits down with Jason De León, anthropologist, photographer and author. He is currently the director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) and his research interests revolve around violence, materiality, Latin American migration, photoethnography, forensic science, and archaeology of the contemporary. Throughout this conversation, Carolyn asks questions around photography, doing ethnography and photography together and how cameras can be used in ethnographic settings. Jason then discusses his work “The Land of Open Graves Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail” and the various processes and decisions he made in collaboration with his co-creator, Michael Wells. It was an enlightening and very honest conversation about what goes into doing photography for fieldwork and we hope you enjoy! head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

This week the strangers are joined by Kathryn Allan! Kathryn is currently completing her PhD at the school of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on stateless persons, refugees, and asylum seekers. She is also regional president of Amnesty international of NSW and ACT. Welcome Kathryn! In this episode, Kathryn kicks us off by asking the Strangers about activism and anthropology. She poses questions around the issues that arise from the interplay between being an advocate and activist and being an anthropologist. Kathryn, asks questions around representation and amplification of the voices that matter and what we as anthropologists can do to participate in activism in a way that does minimal harm. What do you think? Is there a place for activism in anthropology? Next, Joe discusses the COP26 Conference held in Glasgow recently. He asks questions about activism and specifically addresses the foreign minister of Tuvalu's address to the summit. Joe breaks down how it is that people become “humanitarian victims” which leads to discussions around refugees and worthiness. What do you think? How do you think people should respond to crises such as climate change or asylum seeking? Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

Matt's back this week with an interview with one of the original Familiar Strangers Dr Ian Pollock. Ian discusses the origins of the Familiar Strange, why it started and whether it helped or hindered his PhD. Matt discusses his involvement in the early days of TFS and what it contributed to his education as a communicator. Ian and Matt then discuss the future of public anthropology and how we can best engage with anthropological knowledge and thought.

This month we dive into the recent political scandals in Australian politics. Familiar Stranger Alex gives us a brief overview of the current scandal involving former New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian. He asks the strangers to consider what the relationship is between the states and their respective constituents. What do you think? Is pork barreling that big of a deal? Next Matt shares a funny interaction that he had recently and reflects on how social distancing and lockdown measures have changed his social interactions with the people around him. He asks the Strangers if they've had any changes in their social interactions and the answers are quite enlightening. What do you think? Has social distancing changed how you interact with the wider world? Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations.

For this episode, Joe sits down with Susanna Trnka from the Anthropology department at the University of Auckland. Susanna is an associate professor in the anthropology department at the University of Auckland. Susanna received her PhD from Princeton before moving to Aotearoa/New Zealand in 2003. Her research has been undertaken in Fiji, the Czech Republic, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Susanna is the author of three books: ‘State of Suffering: Political Violence and Community Survival in Fiji', ‘One Blue Child: Asthma, Responsibility and the Politics of Global Health,' and her 2020 book ‘Traversing: Embodied Lifeworlds in the Czech Republic.' She is the co-author of ‘Young Women of Prague' with Alena Heltlinger and has edited five other books. Her many articles and chapters cover topics such as embodiment, state-citizen relations, subjectivity, responsibility, states of emergencies, Covid-19 responses, and the politics of medicine. Joe begins by discussing Susanna's upcoming role as editor-in-chief of American Ethnologist and her plans for the journal. They then talk about Susanna's book ‘Traversing' and how anthropologists might think about the idea of lifeworlds and conclude with a discussion regarding Susanna's work on the current pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Head over to our Website for a full list of links and citations!

This week we're diving into the world of Reborn dolls and celebrating Social Sciences week! Familiar Stranger Carolyn kicks us off by giving us an introduction into the world of reborn dolls, or dolls that have been “reborn” to mimic human babies. The familiar strangers ask about the uncanny valley, the various uses for treatment and where the judgement of these reborn dolls comes from. What do you think? Are these dolls a bit too life-like? Or just another hobby? Familiar Stranger Alex then turns the discussion to the purpose of anthropology in honour of social sciences week. The Strangers discuss their personal experiences with reciprocity and what the “true” value of social sciences are. What do you think? Do we still need anthropology? Are we a social science? Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

This week is familiar stranger Jarrod's first interview! For this episode, Jarrod sits down with Dr Nicholas Ng, from the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture, and Institute for Culture and Society (Western Sydney University). Jarrod and Nicholas start by defining the term of ethnomusicology and where it sits in relation to anthropological practises of the past. They then explore Nicholas's musical journey and how he ends up in a community centre filled with old men in Western Sydney. Also, tune in this week for a special musical break! Head over to our website for a full list of links and citations!

This week we'd like to introduce you to our newest Familiar Stranger, Ruonan Chen! Ruonan is currently doing her fieldwork around hospitals and healing practises in the Tibet autonomous region. In this episode, the strangers dive into Ruonan's work and learn more about how “healing” can take on many different forms. Ruonan describes her work and details a run in with a particularly insightful fortune teller. Next, familiar stranger Joe brings up the topic of shopping malls, and how certain elements are signifiers of class and social status. Alex regales us with tales of being a listless teenager heading to “Chaddy” and Carolyn describes the in-depth instagram stalking she has been doing on various shopping centres around Melbourne. Just a note on sound quality: We are still conducting our panels over Zoom so the internet and audio quality might not be as clear in some places. The podcast editing team is working on a solution! Head to our website for a full list of links and citations mentioned in this weeks episode!

Before we dive into today's episode we'd just like to add a content warning for this episode for mentions of slavery and sexual assault This week, we're bringing you an extra special interview/panel. Familiar stranger Alex Zoomed in with Dr Caroline Schuster, Dr Sarah Abel and Dr Catherine Frieman to take a deeper dive into the dark side of genetic testing and what it means for people today that are trying to interact with the past. With research interests around race, genetic testing and ancient communities, it was a great conversation which “unearthed” some interesting resonances between our panel members. The panelists ask questions like “Who or what decides how you are in society?” and “What kind of power does data have?” What do you think? Reach out and let us know on our socials! Head over to our website for a full list of books and papers mentioned in today's episode

And we're back! This week we'd like to introduce our newest Familiar Stranger, Joe Clifford. Joe has just completed his Masters in Development Studies from the University of Auckland! To kick off his first panel, Joe discusses his research into the concept of Gotong Royong or mutual assistance in Indonesia. The rest of the Strangers weigh in on the place of these mutual assistance programs and how “mutual” is “mutual assistance”? How much responsibility do you think individuals should have? How much responsibility should the government take when it comes to mutual assistance? Clair then raises the topic of the “value” of the Olympics and what it means to the host nation. The Strangers compare the Olympics of the past and how things have changed over time, especially regarding sponsorship and national pride. What do you think about the Olympics? Will you be watching? Our Facebook page and Facebook group are back up and running so don't forget to head over to our Facebook group The Familiar Strange Chats. Let's keep talking strange, together! If you like what we do and are in a position to do so, you can help us to keep making content by supporting us through Patreon. Our Patreon can be found at www.patreon.com/thefamiliarstrange This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Simon Theobald and Matthew Phung

The team at TFS would like to say thank you to all our listeners this season and to everyone who has listened in to our podcasts and read the blog! We are taking a short season break and we will return with some new and improved content in July! But keep an ear out for some special content we recorded last year at the AAS! Let's keep in touch. Feel free to submit something to the blog, we're always looking for content, and are keen to hear new voices. The submission guidelines are on our website at www.thefamiliarstrange.com/writeforus And if you haven't already, join our Facebook Chats Group, ‘The Familiar Strange Chats'. Whether you're an anthropologist, a student, or just anthro-interested, we'd love for you to join the conversation. Thank you again to all our listeners and readers who have enjoyed our content throughout this season. We hope you have a restful winter break, and we will see you in July. Until then, keep Talking Strange…

This week we'd like to introduce a new Familiar Stranger, Jarrod Sim! Jarrod is a PhD student at the school of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. His current research is an anthropologically-led study of how landscape has shaped the auditory cultures of a Paiwanese community in Taiwan. He investigates and comprehends sound as layered and is interested in its role in contemporary understandings of culture. Welcome Jarrod! This week's panel centres around the various sounds of fieldwork. Jarrod's work with the Paiwanese community got us thinking about how our respective field sites sounded and how sound is a really integral part of fieldwork. We also dive into the difficulties of conducting ethnomusicology online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We then discuss a question sent in by a listener! They wanted to know what kind of considerations the strangers made when choosing a field site and what were some of the practical constraints that had to be considered. Our Facebook page and Facebook group are back up and running so don't forget to head over to our Facebook group The Familiar Strange Chats. Let's keep talking strange, together! If you like what we do and are in a position to do so, you can help us to keep making content by supporting us through Patreon. Our Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/thefamiliarstrange This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Alex D'Aloia and Matthew Phung

This week we bring you a special collaboration between The Familiar Strange and the Australian Network of Student Anthropologists or ANSA. In this special collaboration, Familiar Stranger Alex sits down with Hanne Worsoe and Dr Romy Listo to discuss some of the difficulties that arise from working in particularly intense or distressing field sites. Throughout the conversation they model some of the methods that can benefit new PhD students who are potentially entering into their field work. It was a really interesting conversation and thank you again the ANSA for collaborating with us on this project! Just a note on sound quality: We conducted this chat over Zoom so the internet and audio quality might vary in some spots. The podcast editing team is working on a solution! Quotes “It was very effective in helping and supporting people who were about to go into fieldwork or who had just come back from fieldwork” “You feel very supported by one person, because you are being listened to and someone's bearing witness to your experience” “I think using these kind of things was really very helpful for me in being able to process some of distress that I felt while I was in the field” “It is tough and you really need that capacity to be able to share with someone when you are going through those things it really does help” “I think there's a fear in academia of being able to express vulnerability and difficulty” “Everyone had some kind of “war story” so to speak” “Everyone had stories from the field that they would often shrug off and minimize” “There wasn't this space or the words to be able to talk about that in the context of research” “I think academia needs to acknowledge its vulnerability at a number of different levels, but certainly at a fieldwork level and being affected by fieldwork”

This month familiar stranger Tim kicks us off by pondering the ethnographic and anthropological nature of the award winning film Nomadland directed by Chloé Zhao. The strangers discuss the almost anthropological origins of the film and other similar works that deal with the precariat or nomads the movie is based around. The strangers then dive into the origins of Mother's Day and the subsequent commodification of the day itself. They discuss some of the positives and contrast it with a similar “Mother's day” celebrated on the 27th of May in Bolivia. Just a note on sound quality: We are still conducting our panels over Zoom so the internet and audio quality might not be as clear in some places. The podcast editing team is working on a solution! Head to our website for a full list of links and citations! This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Timothy Johnson and Matthew Phung

This week Clair brings you an interview with Dr Yasmine Musharbash! Dr. Yasmine Musharbash is a senior lecturer at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. Her fieldwork is based in central Australia, and primarily centred on the Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community about three hours northwest of Alice Springs. Over the years, her research has branched out in an impressive variety of directions, including social relations and personhood of the Warlpiri people, the anthropology of sleep and night, the Anthropology of Emotions, Embodiment, Boredom Studies, death and grieving, and so on. Today, we are talking about Yasmine's research on monster anthropology, which has blossomed into an on-going inter-disciplinary and comparative project that brings together anthropology and monster studies. Her key publications on the subject include two edited volumes Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds Through Monsters (2020 Bloomsbury w/ Dr. Geir Henning Presterudstuen) and Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond (2014 Palgrave Macmillan, w/ Dr. Geir Henning Presterudstuen) In this episode, we explore the different ways in which the Aboriginal people live with the monsters that haunt them, in particular in instances of social change and transformation. We first delve into the elementary instability of the term monster, such as how the monstrous bodies rupture classification, transgressing the otherwise clear-cut boundary between taxonomies and how monsters are contingent on the humans they haunt, combining the temporal and spatial perspectives. Yasmine then compares and contrasts monster studies versus monster anthropology, before drawing on her fieldwork to investigate how one monster, that cannot be named, morphs and changes alongside the settler colonial state that has been inflicting trauma onto the Aboriginal peoples. We then explore how a more well-known monster, “Pankarlangu”, has adapted to the broader processes of climate change and colonialism, and how the Aboriginal people haunted by it perceive such a transformation. We finally discuss the appropriation of Aboriginal monsters, the clash between different ontologies in fieldwork, and how pandemics and apocalypses may impact on monsters in the Aboriginal country. Head to our website for a full list of links and Citations! This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Clair Zhang and Matthew Phung

This week we bring you another panel in our new format! This time, we're diving into the conflict between Amazon and its workers in Alabama trying to form a union. Clair raises the topic of “corporate sassiness” and how we have started to attribute personalities and personhood to the social media presences of these gigantic companies. What do you think about companies “clapping back” at people on their social media platforms? Does it play a role in how you consume certain products? Next, Alex shares his recent experience at a friend's wedding and how it relates to the ideas of tradition and culture. He raises the idea that some traditions can keep replicating themselves, even if the original institution isn't as prevalent anymore and what this means for people living in the modern era. What do you think about traditions? How do you think future generations will see some of the traditions we adhere to? Head to our website for a full list of links and citations!

Before we dive into today's episode we'd just like to add a content warning for this episode for sexual assault. This week, Familiar Stranger Carolyn sits down with Camille Waring from the University of Westminster. Camille is currently doing her PhD on online representations of sex workers and how photography is being used against marginalized communities. Throughout this chat, Carolyn dives into the meanings of photography today, what the actual act of taking a photograph means for people and definitions of “Lens Based Violence” and weaponized photography. Eventually, they ask the questions of “what is a photograph” and “who decides what can go on what platforms?” It was a really interesting conversation with some thought provoking points made. We hope you enjoy it! Just a note on the audio quality, we're still conducting some interviews through Zoom so some parts of the interview might be harder to hear than others. Head to our website for a full list of links and citations! This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Carolyn West and Matthew Phung

This week on TFS, the Strangers continue with our new panel format and dive deeper into the topics of entrepreneurism and ethics. They talk about how universities and by extension academia is becoming more and more business-like with academics having to “build their brands” in order to find success. The conversation then shifts to discuss the current ethical framework of Anthropology. The Strangers share their experiences with fieldwork ethics and how modern anthropology has started to slowly adopt new ethical practises. Head to our Website for a full list of links and citations! Don't forget to head over to our Facebook group The Familiar Strange Chats. Let's keep talking strange, together! If you like what we do and are in a position to do so, you can help us to keep making content by supporting us through Patreon. Our Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/thefamiliarstrange This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Alex D'Aloia and Matthew Phung

This week we bring you an interview with Dr Susan Ellison from Wellesley College. In this interview, Familiar Stranger Alex asks about her experiences working in the city of El Alto and the neighbouring town of La Paz. Alex and Susan discuss Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and how it exists as a second space for conflict resolution for Bolivians and their families. They also discuss how foreign aid adds a layer of complexities to the frameworks already present in Bolivia and potential recommendations for moving forward. Head to our website for a full list of links and citations mentioned! Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Alex D'Aloia and Matthew Phung

Hello and Welcome back to The Familiar Strange! We are so happy to be back and we can't wait to keep talking strange with you all! We're kicking off this new season with a panel with Familiar Strangers, Alex D'aloia, Carolyn West, Timothy Johnston and Simon Theobald. We're trying out a new format for panels this season, so make sure you reach out and tell us what you think. In this panel episode, we dive back into 2020 and the US elections. The Strangers discuss what we as anthropologists can contribute to the conversations around the US. How can the methods, attitudes and values of anthropology be applied? Are anthropologists still relevant in this modern context? What can we as anthropologists bring to the table? Head to our Website for a full list of links and citations. We've been experiencing some difficulties with our Facebook page and Facebook Chats group. We're hoping to get them up and running as soon as we can but for now follow us on Twitter @TFSTweets to stay up to date with our new releases!

This is part 2 of the wonderful roundtable we recorded at 2019's AAS conference! k4g9t9jy