Fall 2015 Applicants

[FaultyPowers]

Oo! Clever you! I wish I'd been able to go this year. I'm going to the SAAs (since I, y'know. Live there) but I feel like they have less potential to do me much good since they're after decisions are announced! I guess they might be good if I have to apply again next year.

Oh god.

"Next year"...ohhhh...

[smg]

Guys, AAA is insane. I mean, it is awesome! I keep seeing POIs and not having real reasons to talk to them (though I have fabricated a few reasons in the name of introducing myself) and also there are just anthropologists everywhere. It is like your bookshelf came to life. It's Night at the Museum: That Weird Part of Your Library Where The Monographs Are. Of course, the presence of 'real' (with PhDs) anthropologists is just making my imposter syndrome worse! I feel like everyone knows I'm not REALLY an anthropologist (yet).

 

BIZARRE

The good news is that a very fancy POI and I are now planning a session for another conference so hay hay hay

 

This post has been brought to you by the bar at the Marriott at AAA.

 

Awesome!

 

Are you going to see Latour?

[museum_geek]

What are everyone's feelings on the "letting you know I've submitted my app" emails? Polite and neutral or pushy and off-putting?

 

Seems like it might come off as pushy.  Then again, I'm only applying for MA programs so my conversations with potential advisors haven't been super in-depth or formal.  Maybe it's different for PhD programs?

Edited December 6, 2014 by museum_geek

[AKCarlton]

What are everyone's feelings on the "letting you know I've submitted my app" emails? Polite and neutral or pushy and off-putting?

 

Pushy. Don't do it. They get numerous applicants and if you've already maintained contact with your POI(s) they'll definitely remember you when the bring up your application during their selection process.

 

Edited December 6, 2014 by AKCarlton

[FaultyPowers]

Excellent. Gmail draft deleted.

[NOWAYNOHOW]

Oo! Clever you! I wish I'd been able to go this year. I'm going to the SAAs (since I, y'know. Live there) but I feel like they have less potential to do me much good since they're after decisions are announced! I guess they might be good if I have to apply again next year.

Oh god.

"Next year"...ohhhh...

 

I didn't connect with that many POIs, and not in a super useful way (or it doesn't feel useful, since everyone is so busy), so you didn't miss much. The biggest connection I made was with a POI I had already met with and who is leaving their university anyway, so not really even a POI? Liminal POI? Sitting duck POI?

 

I will say that the difficult part was thinking about next year. A lot of AAA seems to be committing to things to plan or do for the next meeting. I am not going to apply a third time, so if I strike out this year, my time in the academy will be over.  I did commit to planning a panel for a summer conference, but I keep thinking how dumb/risky/wasteful that task will be if I end up not getting in anywhere.

 

Awesome!

 

Are you going to see Latour?

 

Nope, had to leave before Latour to get back home.  Not really sore about it though. Just as happy with @latourbot.

[smg]

I didn't connect with that many POIs, and not in a super useful way (or it doesn't feel useful, since everyone is so busy), so you didn't miss much. The biggest connection I made was with a POI I had already met with and who is leaving their university anyway, so not really even a POI? Liminal POI? Sitting duck POI?

 

I will say that the difficult part was thinking about next year. A lot of AAA seems to be committing to things to plan or do for the next meeting. I am not going to apply a third time, so if I strike out this year, my time in the academy will be over.  I did commit to planning a panel for a summer conference, but I keep thinking how dumb/risky/wasteful that task will be if I end up not getting in anywhere.

 

 

Nope, had to leave before Latour to get back home.  Not really sore about it though. Just as happy with @latourbot.

 

Any AAA hi-lights?  Whats hot and whats not?

[FaultyPowers]

I'm just going to assume that the AAAs are the reason that ALL of my recent emails to professors have gone unanswered.

... starting to feel like I'm shouting into a cave over here.

[NOWAYNOHOW]

Any AAA hi-lights?  Whats hot and whats not?

 

My favorite panel was on security. Lots of multifocal takes on security. Setha Low and Joe Masco were especially awesome, and respondent Katherine Verdery was also great.

 

My interests are fairly specific, so looking over the program (or searching it by keyword) is likely to be more help for a lot of people, but STS seems to be a huge topic in cultural anthropology right now. STS methods and theory sort of flooding new research. A big STS panel was so crowded that they had spillover into the hallway. But then again, CASTAC and other more 'traditional' STS scholars were sort of joking about the STS-lite that gets thrown around nowadays.  

 

Not surprisingly, ontology is still hot (my paper was on ontology, so I'm guilty of following this trend) and environmental and multi-species or animal studies stuff is also pretty hip. Lots of work on microbes and the microbiome, etc.

Edited December 7, 2014 by NOWAYNOHOW

[smg]

My favorite panel was on security. Lots of multifocal takes on security. Setha Low and Joe Masco were especially awesome, and respondent Katherine Verdery was also great.

 

My interests are fairly specific, so looking over the program (or searching it by keyword) is likely to be more help for a lot of people, but STS seems to be a huge topic in cultural anthropology right now. STS methods and theory sort of flooding new research. A big STS panel was so crowded that they had spillover into the hallway. But then again, CASTAC and other more 'traditional' STS scholars were sort of joking about the STS-lite that gets thrown around nowadays.  

 

Not surprisingly, ontology is still hot (my paper was on ontology, so I'm guilty of following this trend) and environmental and multi-species or animal studies stuff is also pretty hip. Lots of work on microbes and the microbiome, etc.

 

Masco's work is very cool. 

 

Can you elaborate on what they mean by "STS-lite"? 

 

Did anyone talk about "biocapital"?

 

I've neglected my microbes. I should eat more sauerkraut.

[jmu]

I'm just going to assume that the AAAs are the reason that ALL of my recent emails to professors have gone unanswered.

... starting to feel like I'm shouting into a cave over here.

 

I know our department is empty and it's only really 1/3rd anthropologists. I think this is a pretty good bet in addition to professors just generally not being very good with responding to emails. Don't read into it.

[AKCarlton]

I know our department is empty and it's only really 1/3rd anthropologists. I think this is a pretty good bet in addition to professors just generally not being very good with responding to emails. Don't read into it.

 

I'll add that...it's also finals time...at least in my program. My professors are making themselves available to me, but they might not be making themselves too available to inquiry emails at the moment.

[NOWAYNOHOW]

 

 

Can you elaborate on what they mean by "STS-lite"? 

 

I think it's just the way some people take up certain scholars (say, Latour, Mol, Fleck, Kuhn) and sort of declare their work to fall into STS. I know I am especially conscious of this now, because I rely on Mol a lot. Obviously there is a lot more to STS - Helmreich, Popper, Merton, Pinch, Hacking, Clark, Wajcman etc etc. I think it is also the idea that STS in anthropology right now can sometimes neglect the hardware of technology (the material, conditions of production and development, values in design) in favor of digitality or media effects, etc. That's just how I interpreted the STS-lite criticism.

[smg]

I think it's just the way some people take up certain scholars (say, Latour, Mol, Fleck, Kuhn) and sort of declare their work to fall into STS. I know I am especially conscious of this now, because I rely on Mol a lot. Obviously there is a lot more to STS - Helmreich, Popper, Merton, Pinch, Hacking, Clark, Wajcman etc etc. I think it is also the idea that STS in anthropology right now can sometimes neglect the hardware of technology (the material, conditions of production and development, values in design) in favor of digitality or media effects, etc. That's just how I interpreted the STS-lite criticism.

 

I see.  I was worried for a second I had fallen into the STS-lite camp without knowing it.  I don't know how folks forget about materiality.  Maybe they need more Madonna.

 

Do you have any fave STS texts?  Who should I be reading once I finish Haraway?  I need to play catch up since I've been out of the game for a few years.  I didnt even know STS existed during my undergrad. 

[NOWAYNOHOW]

I see.  I was worried for a second I had fallen into the STS-lite camp without knowing it.  I don't know how folks forget about materiality.  Maybe they need more Madonna.

 

Do you have any fave STS texts?  Who should I be reading once I finish Haraway?  I need to play catch up since I've been out of the game for a few years.  I didnt even know STS existed during my undergrad. 

 

Really good Madonna joke. This whole process needs more jokes. We should put together a PhD application joke book. I got the Zizek joke book as a gift and it is A++.

 

What do dolphins write for their PhD applications?

A STATEMENT OF PORPOISE

 

My favorite STS texts are probably Langdon Winner (Whale and the Reactor), Annemarie Mol (The Body Multiple), Emily Martin (Bipolar Expeditions) and Natasha Schull (Addiction by Design).  But you should check out http://www.4sonline.org/resources/syllabi.

Edited December 8, 2014 by NOWAYNOHOW

[jmu]

My favorite STS texts are probably Langdon Winner (Whale and the Reactor), Annemarie Mol (The Body Multiple), Emily Martin (Bipolar Expeditions) and Natasha Schull (Addiction by Design).  But you should check out http://www.4sonline.org/resources/syllabi.

 

To add to these: The Social Construction of Technological Systems edited by Bijker, Pinch, and Hughes; Evocative Objects edited by Sherry Turkle;  and if you're interested in environmental history and STS Confluence by Sara Pritchard.

[Mypeace4life]

Hi All  

 

I know I'm jumping in  a bit late here, but I'd love an opinion on my SOP for Stanford's Ph.D program in Socio Cultural Anthro. I've had it reviewed several times already, but I'm always looking to make it better. I'm also up for switching SOP's. 

 

Any takers? 

 

Thanks and good luck to everyone ! 

[smg]

Hi All

 

I know I'm jumping in  a bit late here, but I'd love an opinion on my SOP for Stanford's Ph.D program in Socio Cultural Anthro. I've had it reviewed several times already, but I'm always looking to make it better. I'm also up for switching SOP's. 

 

Any takers? 

 

Thanks and good luck to everyone ! 

 

PM it my way.  I'll read and review. 

[Ajtz'ihb]

Anybody interested in materiality should take a peek at the literature archaeologists have been producing on the subject over the past 20 years. Ian Hodder's Entangled is a good starting point, but there are many others. This is a literature that's developed largely separate from parallel developments in cultural anthropology, so you may find some valuable points of comparison and different analytic angles. 

[AKCarlton]

 Ian Hodder's Entangled is a good starting point ...

 

more like ending point lol... bane of your existence ... used to be a required reading last year, students didn't like it at all and the professor took it off his syllabus...

 

but good luck to anyone who succeeds with it.

[smg]

more like ending point lol... bane of your existence ... used to be a required reading last year, students didn't like it at all and the professor took it off his syllabus...

 

but good luck to anyone who succeeds with it.

 

Why dont you like Hodder?

[AKCarlton]

Why dont you like Hodder?

 

I never said I don't like him...I'm saying his Entangled book is not liked very much at my school for some reason. If you even mention it you get ::sighs:: and huge ::eye rolls::, but I didn't have to read it.

 

I had to personify Binford in a debate in one my courses this semester, and one of the guys in my cohort personified Hodder...so he decided to read that and is now actually using that theory as the "worst concept" for our final paper on the "best/worst concept" in theory.

 

Anyway, I had to defend "myself" as Binford by attacks from the kid who personified Hodder, and it just seems like Hodder and his post-processualism includes theoretical viewpoints that just don't make a lot of sense...but so does processualism.

 

Anyway, I should clarify that I'm don't NOT like him, but I don't love him either.

[Ajtz'ihb]

I hope you did your impression of Binford entirely in third person passive voice.

 

I'm curious, what's your "worst concept?" Nazis notwithstanding, I would have to pick Darwinian archaeology. Nothing like flogging a metaphor to up the ol' publication count...

[jmu]

I didn't have strong feelings about Hodder one way or another but did find that, in trying to separate himself so much from a lot of the neo-materialist literature in other fields, he made his argument unnecessarily complicated. I much prefer the writing of, say, Jane Bennett and some of the other Deleuzoguattarian approaches in anthropology and geography. I figured it was just an archaeology thing that I didn't understand (we don't have any archaeologists here for me to ask.)

 

 

 

 

 

Also, if anyone is curious, it appears Columbia will be having their graduate student recruitment day March 6.

Edited December 10, 2014 by jmu

[AKCarlton]

I hope you did your impression of Binford entirely in third person passive voice.

 

I'm curious, what's your "worst concept?" Nazis notwithstanding, I would have to pick Darwinian archaeology. Nothing like flogging a metaphor to up the ol' publication count...

 

I actually did pretty well, but did not go so far as to refer to myself in the third-person passive voice. I'll let the lucky first-year next Fall know that he/she should do so...

 

My worst concept will be structuralism. We get to write the paper from the standpoint of how it would or would not work well in the research we would like to see ourselves conducting one day.

 

I would have to admit though, it's peculiar to see Darwinism slowly finding its way into Historical Archaeology.