In a fieldnote shared by Teresa Cremer on S-AND.org you can meet Salim Ali Mohamed of the Malindi Beach Management Unit in Kenya. To him, sand indexes a healthy ocean. Poetically, Salim considers the ecological work of sand as cleansing respirations. What do receding shorelines, an unwanted effect of urban development, say about ownership, access, and practices of more-than-human care?
Read the full fieldnote here:
https://s-and.org/blog/sand-the-ocean-breather

#research #fieldwork #anthropology
@academicchatter

#refugees
#Rohingya
#Bangladesh

Sand makes up coastal bioinfrastructures in Guyana, as Sarah Vaughn shows in a recent essay, https://roadsides.net/vaughn-010/. Groynes used to prevent erosion "reinforce the shoreline’s existing sandy terrain." These groynes themselves contain sand. The essay is part of a special issue entitled "Bioinfrastructures" co-edited by Raúl Acosta and S.AND team member Lukas Ley. Check out the full open access issue here: https://roadsides.net/collection-no-010/
Through the term "bioinfrastructures," Ley and @raulaco reckon with the surge in projects to (re)create lively urban landscapes: While this shows that "infrastructure is never just a single entity or one discrete thing but rather an evolving set of multispecies and material relations," they also interrogate the ambivalent politics of bioinfrastructures.
What is the significance of bioinfrastructures "for larger political projects, emancipatory movements and Indigenous sovereignty?"

#infrastructures #urbanlife #anthropology
@academicchatter

Did you know that thousand of displaced Rohingya live on an island in the Bengal Delta? Team member Javed Kaisar examines everyday island maintenance activities by Ronigya and the Bangladeshi government in Bhasan Char. A first glimpse of his fieldwork can be found on our website:
https://s-and.org/blog/a-glimpse-of-the-life-and-aspirations-of-a-rohingya-adolescent-living-in-bhasan-char

#anthropology #island
@academicchatter

'Wait, gravel isn't the same as sand.' You're right! But we thought that Franz Krause's work on gravel and solid-fluid grounds in Aklavik is still really interesting. Prof. Krause does research in the Mackenzie Delta, where grounds are more or less solid. Sometimes, they even become fluid! Follow the link to find out why #gravel matters in the lives of Inuvialuit and Ehdiitat Gwich’in people:

https://s-and.org/blog/on-solid-fluid-grounds-in-river-deltas

#anthropology
#research
@academicchatter

Tarini Monga joins one of the Imagination Walks in Panjim, Goa along salt pans and reflects on material interactions within marshy spaces. This short field note from her diary highlights thoughts around shifty matter, changing forms of ownership and systems of land use in Goa. Read more for a glimpse into how new questions emerge during a walk through the city: https://s-and.org/blog/the-city-s-salted-rim-a-walk-through-goan-salt-pans

#anthropology #fieldwork #sand
@academicchatter

This week, Lukas spends time with the Living Ports consortium in the port of Vigo. Divers extract #concrete tiles that PhD student Siff Nejst Lørup from DTU will analyze to determine the level of chloride penetration. Living Ports uses the special concrete designed by ECOncrete which is more hospitable to marine life than conventional products.

#anthropology #research #fieldwork
@academicchatter

Last week, the S.AND team met with Jingru Cheng, Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize Fellow (https://wheelwrightprize.org/2023-winner-jingru-cyan-cheng/), and Chen Zhan to talk about multimodal research on sand. Trained in architecture and anthropology, they work with artists in the Mekong Delta, Miami Beach, and Greenland to understand sand's material and cultural pathways and "what makes a building happen".

Jingru and Chen are also filmmakers. Learn more about their most recent short film project here: https://rrr.network/

#anthropology
@academicchatter

Re:inventing Grassi is the curatorial initiative of Leipzig's anthropological museum aimed at diversifying exhibitions and casting critical perspectives on ethnological collections. We met with director Léontine Meijer-van Mensch and Kevin Breß to discuss S.AND's curatorial concept. More soon!
https://grassi-voelkerkunde.skd.museum/en/exhibitions/reinventing-grassiskd/

#anthropology #museum #sand

Tired of theory and abstract matter? Our website is the place to learn about coastal sand.

The S.AND website is collecting 'tangible' accounts of ongoing ethnographic research in the Afrasian Sea and other oceans. For instance, check out Lukas Ley's fieldnote on diving in the harbour of Marseilles and the formation of "natural concrete": https://s-and.org/blog/touching-calcification. Over the year, there will also be articles, pictures, and other insights from our fieldwork and even the occasional joke.
#sand #anthropology #concrete #fieldwork
@academicchatter

Listen up! The S.AND team just launched its own website. The website will collect notes and impressions from our #Research and publish work by scholars that inspire us. We celebrated the release with drinks and a sand quiz! Happy browsing: www.s-and.org

@academicchatter
#anthropology
#fieldwork

FREE community #fediscience, please boost!

TONIGHT
Tuesday Feb 20, 6:30pm London time
we have #AngusMcnelly (Greenwich) with #MatthewDoyle (UCL) on

'Now We Are in Power: The Politics of Passive Revolution in 21stC Bolivia'

All welcome!
FREE, LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM

http://radicalanthropologygroup.org

Angus will be speaking in the Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd Floor of the Anthro building, with Matthew as discussant.

NB due to building work, you need to use the main entrance of the Archaeology Institute round the corner in Gordon Square. Please plan to arrive between 6:15-6:30 if possible.

#Bolivia #MAS #revolution #anthropology #politicalanthropology

Friendly reminder to submit papers!
CfP closes tomorrow, 23:59 CET, 22 January 2024, See link below for more information.
https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2024/p/14575
#anthropology #easa2024
@academicchatter

Had fun reading and discussing "Allegories of the #Anthropocene" by DeLoughrey with the S.AND team. https://www.dukeupress.edu/allegories-of-the-anthropocene/

#anthropology
@academicchatter

Throughout the holidays, the S.AND group not just enjoyed a few days off, but we also celebrated the acceptance of our panel for the 2024 meetings of the European Association for Social Anthropologists:

"Undoing the shore, undoing anthropology: thinking geosocial transformation with sand"

We invite papers that pay granular attention to the movements and uses of sand and contend with the shore as a space of enduring geosocial transformation.

Interested people are asked to submit papers and less conventional ethnographic engagements with sand. The call for papers is open until 22 January 2024. Submit your abstract here: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2024/panel/14575

Panel convenors: Kate Dawson (LSE) and Lukas Ley (MPI)
Discussant: Franz Krause (U Cologne)

Don't hesitate to reach out to us (k.e.dawson@lse.ac.uk, ley@eth.mpg.de) with questions or feedback on the abstract!

#sand #anthropology
@academicchatter

Structural anthropologies (but about seawalls, not deep structures of the mind). On my personal site: https://rbaanthro.com/blog/2023/12/15/structural-anthropologies #coastalanthropology #anthropology #seawalls #structuralanthropology

@anthropologia thank you for the recommendation!

One of my favorite articles on the anthropology of sand https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160738310000162 cc #sand #anthropology @sandworlds

Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology

"The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology (formerly
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology) is a growing teaching and learning
resource. Its goal is to facilitate access to scholarship in Social Anthropology
for experts and non-experts worldwide. All entries are written and peer-reviewed
by leading academics."

#Anthropology #Religion #Economics #Politics #Open

@anthropology
@religiousstudies
@politicaltheory
@academicchatter
@politicalscience

https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/

Today Javed is sharing some insights from his field trip this summer:

"During my recent fieldwork stay on Bhasan Char, an island in Bangladesh designated for a Rohingya refugee resettlement project, I took some photos. These images offer merely a glimpse of the lives of some Rohingyas and Bangladeshis on the island and do not encompass the entirety of the situation. However, I believe these pictures can provide an idea of the current conditions on the island."

The photo essay can be viewed  here:

http://rottenviews.com/what-my-lens-sees-in-rohingyas-land-bhasan-char-island/