Patricia G. Lange, California College of the Arts   Mary Douglas, a key figure in the field of anthropology, once famously asserted that in small-scale societies, “the cycling gift system is the society” (Douglas 1990). She was speaking about cultural groups that depended on elaborate systems of reciprocity—or mutual exchangeContinue Reading

Yunchang Yang, PhD Candidate, UCL Anthropology On 3rd July 2019, I caught up with UCL Anthropology’s ASSA (Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Aging) team at a local pub behind Euston Station. Most of the researchers had just returned from fieldwork and started data-sorting and writing. They shared some great stories fromContinue Reading

3- 4 June, 2019, Utrecht University  Digitization and the use of social media has dramatically changed most aspects of our everyday practices, perceptions and cause severe changes in Human Mobility (Innes, 2016, Gray, 2018). While the importance and effects of technological innovations in social science research has been increasingly recognized,Continue Reading

Jennifer Fu and Gemma Tortella-Procter, MSc. Digital Anthropology at UCL “What exactly constitutes ‘digital anthropology’?” While the practical projects we worked on may not provide a comprehensive answer to this question (perhaps a ‘comprehensive’ answer doesn’t exist), it provides an idea of the things we care about as digital anthropologistsContinue Reading

Like many other London institutions seeking to shore up against an ever-rising digital tide, the Serpentine Galleries have announced a new annual “Digital Seasons” initiative that will recognize the works of artists working across digital media. Inaugurating this are acclaimed American artists Sondra Perry, whose work occupies the intersection betweenContinue Reading

Joseph Cook -MPhil/PhD UCL Anthropology    @josephmcook The following is the transcript from a talk given on Monday 26th February as part of a range of student-led teach-ins and debates at UCL Anthropology. The teach-ins were held in support of the ongoing industrial action by the University and College UnionContinue Reading

The UCL Department of Anthropology has a new position, a lectureship in Digital Anthropology. Open to anyone with a strong ethnographic foundation to their research into the digital. Research areas can include robotics, artificial intelligence, the anthropology of data, social media, consumption, or other emerging topics within the field. For furtherContinue Reading

Jamie Cross, University of Edinburgh Call for Contributions (max 300 words) In: Cultural Anthropology / Theorizing the Contemporary Our lives with electric things are positively charged with meaning. Our bodies are electric, our hearts and minds pulsing with electrical activity. Electric things have hope and anxiety, possibility and danger. OurContinue Reading