Anthropology, Musings

The (Non)Convivial LMS

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This is a draft paper, based in part on some of my older blog posts and continuing and building on those ideas in conversation with the work of Ivan Illich and others. I’m presenting this today–momentarilly–at the 2021 4S conference. Abstract The last two decades have seen an increase in the number of online university classes operating under any of several commercial Learning Management Systems (LMS). Online classes expanded dramatically in the US during 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students, faculty, and administrators frequently assume that LMSs …

Anthropology, Musings

Online classes and the Unbirth of A.I.

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Happy Late Halloween! This could be a horror story. It isn’t, not in the Stephen King sense, but it is an idea that someone could take and develop further. Last year, I wrote a post about online education, in which I argued that all classes–online or in-person–can be looked at as intentional projects in culture-building. I believed then, and now, that online classes can’t be primarily about delivering information to students, and that college classes in particular are about creating learning communities.  Along the way, I wandered into some thoughts …

Thinking about tacos
Anthropology, Musings

Now All Restaurants are Taco Bell

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[This post will soon be published in the class Zine from my Fall 2018 ANTH4417, Hidden Worlds of Food, class.] Cyril:  …I can quite understand your objection to art being treated as a mirror.  You think it would reduce genius to the position of a cracked looking-glass.  But you don’t mean to say that you seriously believe that Life imitates Art, that Life in fact is the mirror, and Art the reality? Vivian:  Certainly I do.  Paradox though it may seem—and paradoxes are always dangerous things—it is none the less …

The author, holding a bokken (wooden sword).
Musings

The Weapon as Mere Object

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  This is an edited version of an article that I wrote for the Aikido World Alliance newsletter in the Fall of 2013. As far as I know, Malala Yousafzai has never studied Aikido. Ms. Yousafzai is the Pakistani teenager who, while advocating for the education of girls in the Swat valley, was shot in an attempted assassination. After being shot in the head and recovering, she has gone on to become a global advocate for the rights of women and girls. In doing so, she is directly challenging the …

Anthropology, Musings

Online Education

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Starting this summer I have been developing some online classes for both International Studies and Anthropology at the University of Memphis. I’m excited by the prospect, and at the same time I am facing what I hope will become a productive tension between the technology of learning and the technology of the Internet. In this blog post I want to unravel that tension and jot down some fragments of ideas for the future. For any students who might be reading this, when I use the term “technology” here I am talking …

Musings

Knitting, Materialism, and Spirituality

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The hardest part is maintaining just the right amount of tension. Too little and the yarn doesn’t maintain its shape. Too much and you can’t fit the needle through on your next pass. I don’t normally knit during meeting: I worry that the clicking of the needles will be a distraction to others. But, one day in the spring I brought my knitting in with me to work on a project. As I sat in the meeting house I started to reflect on spirituality and materiality. My key point in …

Musings

FYI: My Erdős-Bacon Number: 9

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For those who enjoy such things, a quick calculation of my Erdős-Bacon number.  One’s Erdős number is the number of links, via co-authorships in scholarly publications, it takes to reach mathmetician Paul Erdős. Similarly, the Bacon Number is the number of links to reach actor Kevin Bacon via screen appearances. The Erdős-Bacon number is the sum of those two, for people who have finite numbers for each. Carl Sagan has an Erdős-Bacon number of no more than 6, and Steven Hawking has an Erdős-Bacon number of no more than 7. We use the …