Terese Gagnon | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (original) (raw)
Papers by Terese Gagnon
Culturico, 2021
In the protracted struggle following the Myanmar coup, Thailand has an important role to play by ... more In the protracted struggle following the Myanmar coup, Thailand has an important role to play by continuing its legacy of accepting refugees. Will the Thai government show benevolence to refugees by welcoming them and scaling back its support for the Myanmar junta? The ongoing humanitarian crisis at Thailand’s border throws this decision into sharp relief.
Al Jazeera, 2021
In the face of military violence, solidarity between minority ethnic groups and Bamar- majority p... more In the face of military violence, solidarity between minority ethnic groups and Bamar- majority political forces is growing
Movable Gardens: Iteneraries and Sanctuaries of Memory, 2021
Say tomorrow doesn't come. Say the moon becomes an icy pit. Say the sweet-gum tree is petri ed. S... more Say tomorrow doesn't come. Say the moon becomes an icy pit. Say the sweet-gum tree is petri ed. Say the sun's a foul black tire re. Say the owl's eyes are pinpricks. Say the raccoon's a hot tar stain. Say the shirt's plastic ditch-litter. Say the kitchen's a cow's corpse. Say we never get to see it: bright future, stuck like a bum star, never coming close, never dazzling. Say we never meet her. Never him. Say we spend our last moments staring at each other, hands knotted together, clutching the dog, watching the sky burn. Say, it doesn't matter. Say, that would be enough. Say you'd still want this: us alive, right here, feeling lucky.
Ethnography, 2017
In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnograph... more In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnography in the world and ethnography of the world. He seemed to anticipate that with increasing globalization, technological advances, and new economic conditions, multi-sited methods would become the hallmark of ethnography for the nascent age. More than two decades later, I reflect on Marcus’s forecast. Anna Tsing has written perhaps the first monograph to fulfill Marcus’s ‘follow the thing’ model, as a style of ethnography of the world, while June Nash exemplifies his description of ethnography in the world system. Here I compare the merits and challenges of the two ethnographic styles through their works. I consider whether Marcus’s prediction has proven true. I conclude that both approaches are still relevant and, in fact, necessary complements to one another, just as post-capitalist and classic Marxist theories, far from being mutually exclusive, are vital tools for describing and unders...
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 2020
Movable Gardens: Iteneraries and Sanctuaires of Memory, 2021
lants can serve as portals to create new connections or to reopen connections to different places... more lants can serve as portals to create new connections or to reopen connections to different places, times, and socialities, both personal and collective. Scholars have shown this through ethnographic descriptions spanning multiple continents (
Anthropology and Humanism, 2014
If you want to learn about the world Stop. And look around Go for a walk on a drizzly Saturday Wh... more If you want to learn about the world Stop. And look around Go for a walk on a drizzly Saturday When the streets are quiet And the dads are home from work Go buy prune juice from the Dollar General In the wrong neighborhood Meet the eyes of everyone
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 2020
This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in ... more This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in the context of Karen refugees in Thailand. The authors used ethnographic methods of in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation with over 250 residents of Mae La refugee camp. Our conceptual framework draws on theories of pedagogy for liberation and grassroots development. We found that, due to overlapping sources of authority with divergent visions of the future for refugee learners, the existential crisis of being members of a stateless nation is the most pressing issue for education to address. We suggest that a top-down approach to refugee education relying on technical solutions, while ignoring issues of history, power, and meaning-making, will ultimately fall short of being fundamentally transformative.
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 2020
This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in ... more This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in the context of Karen refugees in Thailand. The authors used ethnographic methods of in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation with over 250 residents of Mae La refugee camp. Our conceptual framework draws on theories of pedagogy for liberation and grassroots development. We found that, due to overlapping sources of authority with divergent visions of the future for refugee learners, the existential crisis of being members of a stateless nation is the most pressing issue for education to address. We suggest that a top-down approach to refugee education relying on technical solutions, while ignoring issues of history, power, and meaning-making, will ultimately fall short of being fundamentally transformative.
The Flood, 2019
Short piece on how Karen gardeners cultivate individual and collective memory in fraught homeland... more Short piece on how Karen gardeners cultivate individual and collective memory in fraught homelands and spaces of exile.
In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnograph... more In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnography in the world and ethnography of the world. He seemed to anticipate that with increasing globalization, technological advances, and new economic conditions, multi-sited methods would become the hallmark of ethnography for the nascent age. More than two decades later, I reflect on Marcus’s forecast. Anna Tsing has written perhaps the first monograph to fulfill Marcus’s ‘follow the thing’ model, as a style of ethnography of the world, while June Nash exemplifies his description of ethnography in the world system. Here I compare the merits and challenges of the two ethnographic styles through their works. I consider whether Marcus’s prediction has proven true. I conclude that both approaches are still relevant and, in fact, necessary complements to one another, just as post-capitalist and classic Marxist theories, far from being mutually exclusive, are vital tools for describing and understanding the world.
Poems on the themes of environmental/bodily language, literacy and story
2013 Society for Humanistic Anthropology Poetry Awards, Third Place
Book Reviews by Terese Gagnon
Drafts by Terese Gagnon
Remarks for American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 2017, Late Breaking Session on "M... more Remarks for American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 2017, Late Breaking Session on "Migration and Politics In (and out of) Burma/Myanmar", Ariane Belanger-Vincent and Terese Gagnon, organizers.
Thesis Chapters by Terese Gagnon
University of Georgia, Undergraduate Honors Thesis, 2013
Forced by ongoing government persecution to leave their homeland in Burma, Karen refugees residin... more Forced by ongoing government persecution to leave their homeland in Burma, Karen refugees residing in Georgia (U.S.A.) continue each day the process of remembering and reaffirming their cultural traditions while seeking meaning and belonging in their new environment. Through engaging in interviews and gardening practices with Karen friends turned research consultants, this project examines the anthropological phenomenon of the “landscape of the interior”, particularly as experienced from a transnational perspective. Recognizing the value of preserving plant genetic biodiversity alongside culturally situated knowledge, it aims to record—through the process of memory banking—ethnobotanical traditions of Karen communities and their cultural relationship to the natural environment. One important product of this research is a compendium of plant species grown by Karen gardeners in Georgia. This compendium includes plant characteristics, methods of cultivation, uses, religious/cultural significance and photo documentation. Additionally, this project explores the role of "interior landscapes" in shaping relationships with a newly inhabited environment. This investigation seeks to benefit Karen people and the community at large by encouraging the continuation of traditions—creating senses of rootedness and preserving ethnobotanical knowledge and biodiversity. This research is approached with the belief that practices of remembrance and resilience are often the strongest means of combating forces of hegemony and oppression.
Books by Terese Gagnon
Edited Volume, University of Arizona Press, 2021
Moveable Gardens explores how biodiversity and food can counter the alienation caused by displace... more Moveable Gardens explores how biodiversity and food can counter the alienation caused by displacement. By offering in-depth studies on a variety of regions, this volume carefully considers various forms of sanctuary-making within communities. This book seeks to address how carrying seeds, plants, and other travelling companions is an ongoing response to the grave conditions of displacement in today’s world. The destruction of homelands, fragmentation of habitats, and post-capitalist conditions of modernity are countered by the individuals in this volume through thoughtful remembrance of tradition and the migration of seeds, which are embodied in gardening, cooking, and community-building.
Moveable Gardens includes research located in distant yet connected places, where the authors examine how biodiversity fares in food, memory, and commensality. In highlighting itineraries and sanctuaries in an era of massive dislocation, this volume addresses concerns about finding comforting and familiar refuges in the Anthropocene. The worlds of marginalized individuals who live in impoverished rural communities, many Indigenous peoples, and refugees are constantly under threat of fracturing. Yet, in every case, there is resilience and regeneration as these individuals recreate their worlds through the foods, traditions, and plants they carry with them into their new realities.
This volume offers a new understanding of the performances and routines of sociality in the face of daunting market forces and perilous climate transformations. These traditions sustained our ancestors, and they may suffice to secure a more meaningful, diverse future. By delving into the nature of nostalgia, burrowing into memory and knowledge, and embracing the specific wonders of each deeply-rooted or newly displaced community, endlessly valuable ways of being and understanding can be preserved.
Culturico, 2021
In the protracted struggle following the Myanmar coup, Thailand has an important role to play by ... more In the protracted struggle following the Myanmar coup, Thailand has an important role to play by continuing its legacy of accepting refugees. Will the Thai government show benevolence to refugees by welcoming them and scaling back its support for the Myanmar junta? The ongoing humanitarian crisis at Thailand’s border throws this decision into sharp relief.
Al Jazeera, 2021
In the face of military violence, solidarity between minority ethnic groups and Bamar- majority p... more In the face of military violence, solidarity between minority ethnic groups and Bamar- majority political forces is growing
Movable Gardens: Iteneraries and Sanctuaries of Memory, 2021
Say tomorrow doesn't come. Say the moon becomes an icy pit. Say the sweet-gum tree is petri ed. S... more Say tomorrow doesn't come. Say the moon becomes an icy pit. Say the sweet-gum tree is petri ed. Say the sun's a foul black tire re. Say the owl's eyes are pinpricks. Say the raccoon's a hot tar stain. Say the shirt's plastic ditch-litter. Say the kitchen's a cow's corpse. Say we never get to see it: bright future, stuck like a bum star, never coming close, never dazzling. Say we never meet her. Never him. Say we spend our last moments staring at each other, hands knotted together, clutching the dog, watching the sky burn. Say, it doesn't matter. Say, that would be enough. Say you'd still want this: us alive, right here, feeling lucky.
Ethnography, 2017
In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnograph... more In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnography in the world and ethnography of the world. He seemed to anticipate that with increasing globalization, technological advances, and new economic conditions, multi-sited methods would become the hallmark of ethnography for the nascent age. More than two decades later, I reflect on Marcus’s forecast. Anna Tsing has written perhaps the first monograph to fulfill Marcus’s ‘follow the thing’ model, as a style of ethnography of the world, while June Nash exemplifies his description of ethnography in the world system. Here I compare the merits and challenges of the two ethnographic styles through their works. I consider whether Marcus’s prediction has proven true. I conclude that both approaches are still relevant and, in fact, necessary complements to one another, just as post-capitalist and classic Marxist theories, far from being mutually exclusive, are vital tools for describing and unders...
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 2020
Movable Gardens: Iteneraries and Sanctuaires of Memory, 2021
lants can serve as portals to create new connections or to reopen connections to different places... more lants can serve as portals to create new connections or to reopen connections to different places, times, and socialities, both personal and collective. Scholars have shown this through ethnographic descriptions spanning multiple continents (
Anthropology and Humanism, 2014
If you want to learn about the world Stop. And look around Go for a walk on a drizzly Saturday Wh... more If you want to learn about the world Stop. And look around Go for a walk on a drizzly Saturday When the streets are quiet And the dads are home from work Go buy prune juice from the Dollar General In the wrong neighborhood Meet the eyes of everyone
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 2020
This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in ... more This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in the context of Karen refugees in Thailand. The authors used ethnographic methods of in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation with over 250 residents of Mae La refugee camp. Our conceptual framework draws on theories of pedagogy for liberation and grassroots development. We found that, due to overlapping sources of authority with divergent visions of the future for refugee learners, the existential crisis of being members of a stateless nation is the most pressing issue for education to address. We suggest that a top-down approach to refugee education relying on technical solutions, while ignoring issues of history, power, and meaning-making, will ultimately fall short of being fundamentally transformative.
Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 2020
This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in ... more This article addresses the issue of schooling for refugees, as members of a stateless nation, in the context of Karen refugees in Thailand. The authors used ethnographic methods of in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation with over 250 residents of Mae La refugee camp. Our conceptual framework draws on theories of pedagogy for liberation and grassroots development. We found that, due to overlapping sources of authority with divergent visions of the future for refugee learners, the existential crisis of being members of a stateless nation is the most pressing issue for education to address. We suggest that a top-down approach to refugee education relying on technical solutions, while ignoring issues of history, power, and meaning-making, will ultimately fall short of being fundamentally transformative.
The Flood, 2019
Short piece on how Karen gardeners cultivate individual and collective memory in fraught homeland... more Short piece on how Karen gardeners cultivate individual and collective memory in fraught homelands and spaces of exile.
In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnograph... more In 1995 George Marcus wrote on the ‘emergence of multi-sited ethnography’, contrasting ethnography in the world and ethnography of the world. He seemed to anticipate that with increasing globalization, technological advances, and new economic conditions, multi-sited methods would become the hallmark of ethnography for the nascent age. More than two decades later, I reflect on Marcus’s forecast. Anna Tsing has written perhaps the first monograph to fulfill Marcus’s ‘follow the thing’ model, as a style of ethnography of the world, while June Nash exemplifies his description of ethnography in the world system. Here I compare the merits and challenges of the two ethnographic styles through their works. I consider whether Marcus’s prediction has proven true. I conclude that both approaches are still relevant and, in fact, necessary complements to one another, just as post-capitalist and classic Marxist theories, far from being mutually exclusive, are vital tools for describing and understanding the world.
Poems on the themes of environmental/bodily language, literacy and story
2013 Society for Humanistic Anthropology Poetry Awards, Third Place
Remarks for American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 2017, Late Breaking Session on "M... more Remarks for American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 2017, Late Breaking Session on "Migration and Politics In (and out of) Burma/Myanmar", Ariane Belanger-Vincent and Terese Gagnon, organizers.
University of Georgia, Undergraduate Honors Thesis, 2013
Forced by ongoing government persecution to leave their homeland in Burma, Karen refugees residin... more Forced by ongoing government persecution to leave their homeland in Burma, Karen refugees residing in Georgia (U.S.A.) continue each day the process of remembering and reaffirming their cultural traditions while seeking meaning and belonging in their new environment. Through engaging in interviews and gardening practices with Karen friends turned research consultants, this project examines the anthropological phenomenon of the “landscape of the interior”, particularly as experienced from a transnational perspective. Recognizing the value of preserving plant genetic biodiversity alongside culturally situated knowledge, it aims to record—through the process of memory banking—ethnobotanical traditions of Karen communities and their cultural relationship to the natural environment. One important product of this research is a compendium of plant species grown by Karen gardeners in Georgia. This compendium includes plant characteristics, methods of cultivation, uses, religious/cultural significance and photo documentation. Additionally, this project explores the role of "interior landscapes" in shaping relationships with a newly inhabited environment. This investigation seeks to benefit Karen people and the community at large by encouraging the continuation of traditions—creating senses of rootedness and preserving ethnobotanical knowledge and biodiversity. This research is approached with the belief that practices of remembrance and resilience are often the strongest means of combating forces of hegemony and oppression.
Edited Volume, University of Arizona Press, 2021
Moveable Gardens explores how biodiversity and food can counter the alienation caused by displace... more Moveable Gardens explores how biodiversity and food can counter the alienation caused by displacement. By offering in-depth studies on a variety of regions, this volume carefully considers various forms of sanctuary-making within communities. This book seeks to address how carrying seeds, plants, and other travelling companions is an ongoing response to the grave conditions of displacement in today’s world. The destruction of homelands, fragmentation of habitats, and post-capitalist conditions of modernity are countered by the individuals in this volume through thoughtful remembrance of tradition and the migration of seeds, which are embodied in gardening, cooking, and community-building.
Moveable Gardens includes research located in distant yet connected places, where the authors examine how biodiversity fares in food, memory, and commensality. In highlighting itineraries and sanctuaries in an era of massive dislocation, this volume addresses concerns about finding comforting and familiar refuges in the Anthropocene. The worlds of marginalized individuals who live in impoverished rural communities, many Indigenous peoples, and refugees are constantly under threat of fracturing. Yet, in every case, there is resilience and regeneration as these individuals recreate their worlds through the foods, traditions, and plants they carry with them into their new realities.
This volume offers a new understanding of the performances and routines of sociality in the face of daunting market forces and perilous climate transformations. These traditions sustained our ancestors, and they may suffice to secure a more meaningful, diverse future. By delving into the nature of nostalgia, burrowing into memory and knowledge, and embracing the specific wonders of each deeply-rooted or newly displaced community, endlessly valuable ways of being and understanding can be preserved.