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Research paper thumbnail of Conclusion. Feminisms and the NGO Form

Research paper thumbnail of Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs

Anthropological field studies of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their unique cultural an... more Anthropological field studies of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their unique cultural and political contexts.Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs serves as a foundational text to advance a growing subfield of social science inquiry: the anthropology of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Thorough introductory chapters provide a short history of NGO anthropology, address how the study of NGOs contributes to anthropology more broadly, and examine ways that anthropological studies of NGOs expand research agendas spawned by other disciplines. In addition, the theoretical concepts and debates that have anchored the analysis of NGOs since they entered scholarly discourse after World War II are explained. The wide-ranging volume is organized into thematic parts: “Changing Landscapes of Power,” “Doing Good Work,” and “Methodological Challenges of NGO Anthropology.” Each part is introduced by an original, reflective essay that contextualizes and links the themes of each chapter to broader bodies of research and to theoretical and methodological debates. A concluding chapter synthesizes how current lines of inquiry consolidate and advance the first generation of anthropological NGO studies, highlighting new and promising directions in this field.In contrast to studies about surveys of NGOs that cover a single issue or region, this book offers a survey of NGO dynamics in varied cultural and political settings. The chapters herein cover NGO life in Tanzania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Peru, the United States, and India. The diverse institutional worlds and networks include feminist activism, international aid donors, USAID democracy experts, Romani housing activism, academic gender studies, volunteer tourism, Jewish philanthropy, Islamic faith-based development, child welfare, women’s legal arbitration, and environmental conservation.The collection explores issues such as normative democratic civic engagement, elitism and professionalization, the governance of feminist advocacy, disciplining religion, the politics of philanthropic neutrality, NGO tourism and consumption, blurred boundaries between anthropologists as researchers and activists, and barriers to producing critical NGO ethnographies

Research paper thumbnail of O’Kane, David, and Tricia Redeker Hepner (eds.): Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development. Eritrea in the Twenty-First Century

Research paper thumbnail of Deadly serious: Pandemic humour, media and critical perspectives

Journal of African Media Studies

COVID-19 is the most mediated pandemic in history thus far. COVID-19 humour, much of it circulate... more COVID-19 is the most mediated pandemic in history thus far. COVID-19 humour, much of it circulated online, is a global phenomenon, but it takes different forms in different settings. This Special Issue brings together articles that add to our understanding of how Africans have experienced corona pandemic conditions, as well as contributing to the scholarship on media in African contexts, while focusing on humour. I suggest that we understand humorous responses to the COVID-19 crisis as discourses on contemporary conditions, and a means of highlighting the ongoing crises that precede the pandemic and contribute to the impact of the virus. In that sense, humour can be quite serious.

Research paper thumbnail of 1. The Aesthetics of Cyber Insecurity: Displaying the Digital in Three American Museum Exhibits

Research paper thumbnail of The Aesthetics of Cyber Insecurity

Research paper thumbnail of Diasporas and cyberspace

Research paper thumbnail of The Cultural Construction of Cybersecurity: Digital Threats and Dangerous Rhetoric

Anthropological Quarterly, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: The NGO Form: Feminist Struggles, States, and Neoliberalism

Research paper thumbnail of Conclusion: Feminisms and the NGO Form

Research paper thumbnail of Diaspora and the Afterlife of Violence: Eritrean National Narratives and What Goes Without Saying

American Anthropologist, 2017

This article explores the legacies of political violence, the workings of state power in mobilizi... more This article explores the legacies of political violence, the workings of state power in mobilizing identities around collective suffering, and the effects of political culture that reside in people even after they have left the time and space of war. I interrogate the silence on Eritrean diaspora websites regarding personal suffering related to the war that produced Eritrea as an independent nation, elevated its current president and ruling party to government leadership, and established the Eritrean diaspora. I argue that national narratives of the Eritrean state that celebrate sacrifice for the nation operate on Eritreans as a secondary form of violence that renders their personal losses unspeakable. Eritrean websites reveal complex communicative terrains where power is constructed and contested in ways that cannot be captured by the opposition between the diaspora and the homeland, between online and offline, or between silence and speech. [political violence, suffering, diaspora, internet, war, Eritrea]

Research paper thumbnail of From Warriors to Wives: Contradictions of Liberation and Development in Eritrea

Northeast African Studies, 2001

Any "peace" involves a reworking of power relations, not just between nations or parts of nations... more Any "peace" involves a reworking of power relations, not just between nations or parts of nations, but between women and men.

Research paper thumbnail of Migration, Modernity and Islam in Rural Sudan

Research paper thumbnail of Eritrea Goes Global: Reflections on Nationalism in a Transnational Era

Cultural Anthropology, 2004

Research paper thumbnail of Gender, Culture, and Capitalism: Women and the Remaking of Islamic “Tradition” in a Sudanese Village

Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1994

Have women in third-world societies been made second-class citizens by colonialism, incorporation... more Have women in third-world societies been made second-class citizens by colonialism, incorporation into the capitalist world economy, and class formation? Or are women relegated to less prestigious and less economically rewarding roles by patriarchal ideologies and practices the origins of which lie in indigenous cultures? Much of the anthropological scholarship on women can be divided between those who emphasize the relative importance of capitalism (for example, Leacock 1981; Nash and Fernandez-Kelly 1983; Boserup 1970) and those who emphasize culture (for example, Ortner and Whitehead 1981; Schlegel 1990; Rosaldo 1974) as determinants of gender roles and relations.

Research paper thumbnail of Please forget democracy and justice: Eritrean politics and the powers of humor

American Ethnologist, 2013

Parody possesses a kind of power that realist critique sometimes lacks. I explore why humor is so... more Parody possesses a kind of power that realist critique sometimes lacks. I explore why humor is sometimes used as a medium for addressing tragic circumstances and why parody in particular may be especially suited to communicating about dictatorship. The research presented here draws on a long-term project on Eritrean politics and on websites devoted to Eritrean politics created by Eritreans in diaspora. The core of the analysis dissects an online political parody of conditions under the regime of President Isaias Afewerki. So much of what is known and written about Eritrean history and current realities, whether by scholars, journalists, international organizations, or Eritreans online, is earnest, serious, and even heartbreaking. The uses of humor in this context seem to call for an explanation, and the analysis presented here sheds light on the mechanisms through which humor accomplishes important political work and fosters the development of new subjectivities.

Research paper thumbnail of The Politics of Research on Agricultural Development: An Instructive Example from the Sudan

American Anthropologist, 1990

Research paper thumbnail of Diaspora, Digital Media, and Death Counts: Eritreans and the Politics of Memorialisation

Research paper thumbnail of Civil Society and Cyberspace: Reflections on Dehai, Asmarino, and Awate

Research paper thumbnail of Colonial Moral Economy and the Discipline of Development: The Gezira Scheme and "Modern" Sudan

Cultural Anthropology, 1997

Research paper thumbnail of Conclusion. Feminisms and the NGO Form

Research paper thumbnail of Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs

Anthropological field studies of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their unique cultural an... more Anthropological field studies of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their unique cultural and political contexts.Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs serves as a foundational text to advance a growing subfield of social science inquiry: the anthropology of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Thorough introductory chapters provide a short history of NGO anthropology, address how the study of NGOs contributes to anthropology more broadly, and examine ways that anthropological studies of NGOs expand research agendas spawned by other disciplines. In addition, the theoretical concepts and debates that have anchored the analysis of NGOs since they entered scholarly discourse after World War II are explained. The wide-ranging volume is organized into thematic parts: “Changing Landscapes of Power,” “Doing Good Work,” and “Methodological Challenges of NGO Anthropology.” Each part is introduced by an original, reflective essay that contextualizes and links the themes of each chapter to broader bodies of research and to theoretical and methodological debates. A concluding chapter synthesizes how current lines of inquiry consolidate and advance the first generation of anthropological NGO studies, highlighting new and promising directions in this field.In contrast to studies about surveys of NGOs that cover a single issue or region, this book offers a survey of NGO dynamics in varied cultural and political settings. The chapters herein cover NGO life in Tanzania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Peru, the United States, and India. The diverse institutional worlds and networks include feminist activism, international aid donors, USAID democracy experts, Romani housing activism, academic gender studies, volunteer tourism, Jewish philanthropy, Islamic faith-based development, child welfare, women’s legal arbitration, and environmental conservation.The collection explores issues such as normative democratic civic engagement, elitism and professionalization, the governance of feminist advocacy, disciplining religion, the politics of philanthropic neutrality, NGO tourism and consumption, blurred boundaries between anthropologists as researchers and activists, and barriers to producing critical NGO ethnographies

Research paper thumbnail of O’Kane, David, and Tricia Redeker Hepner (eds.): Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development. Eritrea in the Twenty-First Century

Research paper thumbnail of Deadly serious: Pandemic humour, media and critical perspectives

Journal of African Media Studies

COVID-19 is the most mediated pandemic in history thus far. COVID-19 humour, much of it circulate... more COVID-19 is the most mediated pandemic in history thus far. COVID-19 humour, much of it circulated online, is a global phenomenon, but it takes different forms in different settings. This Special Issue brings together articles that add to our understanding of how Africans have experienced corona pandemic conditions, as well as contributing to the scholarship on media in African contexts, while focusing on humour. I suggest that we understand humorous responses to the COVID-19 crisis as discourses on contemporary conditions, and a means of highlighting the ongoing crises that precede the pandemic and contribute to the impact of the virus. In that sense, humour can be quite serious.

Research paper thumbnail of 1. The Aesthetics of Cyber Insecurity: Displaying the Digital in Three American Museum Exhibits

Research paper thumbnail of The Aesthetics of Cyber Insecurity

Research paper thumbnail of Diasporas and cyberspace

Research paper thumbnail of The Cultural Construction of Cybersecurity: Digital Threats and Dangerous Rhetoric

Anthropological Quarterly, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: The NGO Form: Feminist Struggles, States, and Neoliberalism

Research paper thumbnail of Conclusion: Feminisms and the NGO Form

Research paper thumbnail of Diaspora and the Afterlife of Violence: Eritrean National Narratives and What Goes Without Saying

American Anthropologist, 2017

This article explores the legacies of political violence, the workings of state power in mobilizi... more This article explores the legacies of political violence, the workings of state power in mobilizing identities around collective suffering, and the effects of political culture that reside in people even after they have left the time and space of war. I interrogate the silence on Eritrean diaspora websites regarding personal suffering related to the war that produced Eritrea as an independent nation, elevated its current president and ruling party to government leadership, and established the Eritrean diaspora. I argue that national narratives of the Eritrean state that celebrate sacrifice for the nation operate on Eritreans as a secondary form of violence that renders their personal losses unspeakable. Eritrean websites reveal complex communicative terrains where power is constructed and contested in ways that cannot be captured by the opposition between the diaspora and the homeland, between online and offline, or between silence and speech. [political violence, suffering, diaspora, internet, war, Eritrea]

Research paper thumbnail of From Warriors to Wives: Contradictions of Liberation and Development in Eritrea

Northeast African Studies, 2001

Any "peace" involves a reworking of power relations, not just between nations or parts of nations... more Any "peace" involves a reworking of power relations, not just between nations or parts of nations, but between women and men.

Research paper thumbnail of Migration, Modernity and Islam in Rural Sudan

Research paper thumbnail of Eritrea Goes Global: Reflections on Nationalism in a Transnational Era

Cultural Anthropology, 2004

Research paper thumbnail of Gender, Culture, and Capitalism: Women and the Remaking of Islamic “Tradition” in a Sudanese Village

Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1994

Have women in third-world societies been made second-class citizens by colonialism, incorporation... more Have women in third-world societies been made second-class citizens by colonialism, incorporation into the capitalist world economy, and class formation? Or are women relegated to less prestigious and less economically rewarding roles by patriarchal ideologies and practices the origins of which lie in indigenous cultures? Much of the anthropological scholarship on women can be divided between those who emphasize the relative importance of capitalism (for example, Leacock 1981; Nash and Fernandez-Kelly 1983; Boserup 1970) and those who emphasize culture (for example, Ortner and Whitehead 1981; Schlegel 1990; Rosaldo 1974) as determinants of gender roles and relations.

Research paper thumbnail of Please forget democracy and justice: Eritrean politics and the powers of humor

American Ethnologist, 2013

Parody possesses a kind of power that realist critique sometimes lacks. I explore why humor is so... more Parody possesses a kind of power that realist critique sometimes lacks. I explore why humor is sometimes used as a medium for addressing tragic circumstances and why parody in particular may be especially suited to communicating about dictatorship. The research presented here draws on a long-term project on Eritrean politics and on websites devoted to Eritrean politics created by Eritreans in diaspora. The core of the analysis dissects an online political parody of conditions under the regime of President Isaias Afewerki. So much of what is known and written about Eritrean history and current realities, whether by scholars, journalists, international organizations, or Eritreans online, is earnest, serious, and even heartbreaking. The uses of humor in this context seem to call for an explanation, and the analysis presented here sheds light on the mechanisms through which humor accomplishes important political work and fosters the development of new subjectivities.

Research paper thumbnail of The Politics of Research on Agricultural Development: An Instructive Example from the Sudan

American Anthropologist, 1990

Research paper thumbnail of Diaspora, Digital Media, and Death Counts: Eritreans and the Politics of Memorialisation

Research paper thumbnail of Civil Society and Cyberspace: Reflections on Dehai, Asmarino, and Awate

Research paper thumbnail of Colonial Moral Economy and the Discipline of Development: The Gezira Scheme and "Modern" Sudan

Cultural Anthropology, 1997

Research paper thumbnail of Online Gods Podcast #3 – Digital Diaspora Politics and a Right Wing Twitter Superstar

http://www.fordigitaldignity.com/digital-diaspora-politics-and-a-right-wing-twitter-superstar/ E... more http://www.fordigitaldignity.com/digital-diaspora-politics-and-a-right-wing-twitter-superstar/

Episode 3: Digital Diaspora Politics and a Right Wing Twitter Superstar (October 2017)

In this episode we speak with Victoria Bernal about digital diaspora politics & Rishi Bagree about being a right wing twitter superstar

http://www.fordigitaldignity.com/digital-diaspora-politics-and-a-right-wing-twitter-superstar/

About
Online Gods is part theoretical exploration into some of the key concepts in the anthropology of media, and part research into how increased online interaction is changing the public sphere. Taking India and the India diaspora as its focal point, the podcast continues in the great anthropological tradition of bringing the global and the specific into conversation with one another as it analyses what online discussions do to political participation, displays of faith and feelings of national belonging. We are also intrigued as to whether a podcast can produce ethnographic theory. We believe It is possible to be both sophisticated and yet comprehensible, and that the spoken form can bring forth an accessibility that is sometimes missing from the written form. We even wonder whether academic podcasting might herald a technologically-enabled return to the centrality of oral traditions in intellectual exploration – can podcasting weaken reading’s hegemonic hold on consumption of academic knowledge? Online Gods is a key initiative of the project ONLINERPOL and is cohosted with HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. This podcast is hosted by Ian Cook.