Ghost Twitter in Australia: Sentience, Agency and Ontological Difference
Seminar
In this paper, I argue that distinguishing between attributions of sentience and agency is a crucial analytical step to take when considering ontological and cosmological differences between groups. Scholars in 'New Animist' and Actor-Network Theory camps sometimes fail to make this distinction…
Biomechanics of the primate mandible in health and post fracture fixation
Seminar
Mandible (lower jaw) fractures account for approximately 30-40% of skull trauma and are multifactorial, including congenital disorders, cancer, assault, and sporting accidents. In Australia, the major cause of mandible fractures is intrapersonal violence, also known as assault or the cowards punch…
In search of social protection: The government of poverty and the evolution of entitlements on Indonesia’s rural periphery
Seminar
In response to enduring problems of poverty across the global south, social protection policies (SPPs) have emerged as the main policy approach, with over 60 countries now implementing Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) programs. A large literature has emerged to discuss the benefits of SPPs, the…
Working with the Carpenters’ Cord: Stories in the Shaping of Ethnography
Seminar
The process of making ethnographic texts is sometimes described in terms of “crafting” with particular “tools". Might insights gained from actual craftspeople help us? Drawing on fieldwork among hereditary carpenters in Western India, I explore a key tool: the sutra, that refers both to an…