Damien Droney

Reactionary Worldbuilding: From Speculative Imagination to Political Practice The first in-depth study of the dark side of worldbuilding, exploring the connection between speculative imagination and political practice.Speculative imagination brings to life an array of possible ...

It's available for pre-order!

The Heritage Foundation Drove Trump’s 2025 Higher-Ed Agenda. What’s Its Plan for 2026? Accreditation is in the crosshairs. Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow and author of a new Heritage policy blueprint, explains why.

This chilling interview with the Heritage Foundation is necessary reading for anyone concerned about the future of higher ed.

10-11 | 2025 Revolutionary Cinemas Au croisement de l’histoire, de l’anthropologie et des film studies, ce double numéro thématique analyse les généalogies et incarnations multiples des cinémas révolutionnaires africains, du Maghre...

Check out the new issue of Sources: Materials & Fieldwork in African Studies co-edited by Anita Afonu, Dan Hodgkinson, and I. Excited to see these essays and their accompanying sources finally make it out into the world. @kinolaus.bsky.social journals.openedition.org/sources/3100

Jenn and I saw them around then as well. Halloween night, maybe 2006 or 2007. They were great.

If you find yourself needing a little pick-me-up this week, you should know that there's a Devo documentary on Netflix.

This is a Neil Young stan account. New song, Big Crime, is timely.

There is no such thing as western civilisation | Kwame Anthony Appiah The Long Read: The values of liberty, tolerance and rational inquiry are not the birthright of a single culture. In fact, the very notion of something called ‘western culture’ is a modern invention

In light of the NEH grants announced today (focusing heavily on Greeks/Romans, Shakespeare, and papers of politically powerful white men from the 19th century), a counterpoint: Kwame Anthony Appiah 'There is No Such Thing as Western Civilization'

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/n...

A new Annual Review of Anthropology piece on the "Anthropology of Science" (by Langlitz and Dan-Cohen) raises a question I have long wondered about - why is there no dedicated journal for this domain of inquiry? Should there be? What could it look like? Why would it matter?

Lecturer | Princeton Department of Anthropology - Princeton University, Princeton job with Department of Anthropology, Princeton University | 690701 Anthropology lecturer position in environmental anthropology and/or the social studies of science and technology for the 2025-2026 academic year

Princeton is hiring a lecturer in environmental anthropology and STS. The contract is for one year. Lots of opportunities to advise student research.
careercenter.americananthro.org/job/690701/l...

Anthropologists (and others! 🙏): If SAPIENS Magazine has mattered to you—as a reader, writer, teacher, or student—now is the time to speak up. Write to Wenner-Gren today. Tell them why public anthropology matters. #SaveSAPIENS #AnthroSky

Link to petition: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge...

Unsure if Zygmunt Bauman was on right track here: “Unlike homini sacri, the ‘lives unworthy of living’[...] they are not ‘legitimate targets exempted from the protection of law at the sovereign’s behest. They are rather unintended and unplanned ‘collateral casualties’ of economic progress.”

I'm not teaching my biopolitics class anymore, but I'm making a mental note for the week on surplus population.

I understand the default attitude of being annoyed at graduation ceremonies, but attending a commencement for incarcerated students put this in perspective for me. Never take it for granted.

Celebrating Canadian sovereignty by listening to Neil Young.

Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, 83, Dies; African Scholar Challenged the West He deconstructed what he called “the colonial library”: the accounts of Africa by Europeans whose aim, he said, was to further colonialism.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/w...

Describe Oberlin in one sentence challenge.

USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks States have been notified that they will not receive 2025 funding for schools to buy food from nearby farms.

The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending. www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

James Ferguson, professor of anthropology and former department chair, dies at 65 James “Jim” Ferguson played a pivotal roles in the department's history and will be remembered for his remarkable character, kindness and contributions to the field.

“I remember Jim as a beacon of many things,” Kohrman said. “Most importantly, of kindness, creativity, scholarly community and intellectual rigor, as well as an unwavering commitment to building a more just world, in and outside the academy.”
stanforddaily.com/2025/02/19/j...

Impossible to answer because on the one hand you have Neil Young's 1970s solo work, but then you can't really compare that to the raw energy of Neil Young with Crazy Horse. Then of course you have various projects to which Neil Young was a relatively smaller but crucial contributor like Buffalo Spri

cover image of the book "Sex is a Spectrum"

Biology is far more interesting than simple categories and being human entails an astonishingly complex interplay of biology and culture. “Sex is a Spectrum: the biological limits of the binary” @princetonupress.bsky.social publishing May 6th!
Preorder princeton.press/0r0zpeq1

Can you imagine how amazing it would feel if someone asked you your name and you got to say "Steve Guttenberg?"

Out soon: Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives, featuring my chapter "Anthropologists in outer space: Science fiction, infrastructure, comparison." A huge thanks to the editors for making this happen!

My favorite new-to-me older music discovery of 2024 was Neil Young's synth-heavy 80s albums Trans and Landing on Water. I won't say that the people who warned me off of them were totally wrong, but I'm so glad I gave the albums a chance.

Dirty Three: Love Changes Everything Read Grayson Haver Currin’s review of the album.

My favorite album of 2024 was probably Love Changes Everything by Dirty Three.

I liked this review on Pitchfork. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

We now have a cover for Medicine on a Larger Scale: Global Histories of Social Medicine (CUP 2025), eds. @ahlie.bsky.social, Jeremy Greene, and me. Many brilliant contributors give alternative genealogies and futures for social medicine - never so necessary, so urgent as now
#histstm #histsci #STS

I'm already reading a novel not in the fantasy genre, so I feel like I don't need to adopt any resolutions for the new year. I'm fine the way I am, thank you very much.

Do I tell the students I've had a sleeping cat on my lap during all these Zoom meetings?