The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) is currently accepting applications for a third Graduate Representative to the section’s Board of Directors. The successful applicant will…
Author: randiirwin
2019 APLA Book Prize
The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) is pleased to invite nominations for the 2019 APLA Book Prize competition. The association will recognize work that best exemplifies creativity and rigor in the ethnographic…
AAA/CASCA 2019 Annual Meeting CFPs
Abstracts for the AAA Annual Meeting must be submitted by 3 p.m. EST on April 10th. If you are looking for panelists for your session or looking for a panel for your paper, we want to help you connect with colleagues…
New PoLAR Editors and Editorial Board
The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology is pleased to welcome the new co-editors of Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR), Jessica Greenberg and Jessica Winegar.
On Not Teaching Fast Enough, Far Enough
This summer I was asked by the United Steelworkers to give a talk on Central American migration to union leaders gathered from across the country for ongoing education in Pittsburgh…
On the Politics of Reflection
On the afternoon of 30 October 2018 I left my office—late—to attend what had been described to me as a “rally” or a “protest” to coincide with President Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh in connection…
Response to the Tree of Life Shootings
Since Columbine, Americans have grown unsettlingly accustomed to mass shootings. We know what to expect from politicians, the media, and gun-control and gun rights advocates. More recently, especially since…
Editorial Introduction: Living in Pittsburgh in the Aftermath of the Tree of Life Shootings
The shooting that took place on October 27, 2018 in Pittsburgh, at the Tree of Life Synagogue, (home to three congregations), leaving…
New Issue of PoLAR: Volume 41, Issue 2
The latest issue of PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review marks the end of Heath Cabot and William Garriott’s tenure as the editors of PoLAR. In their introduction, “In Good Faith …
A Pregnant Kid in a Cage: Jane Doe’s Fight for Reproductive Rights
The Obama administration’s carefully calibrated immigration revisions increased penalties against undocumented border crossers and returned people immediately to their countries…
“Donde lo tienen?” Working in an archive of the disappeared in Guatemala
“But sirs, people do not vanish, ¿Would it be possible that the Earth had swallowed him?, or as the rumors about secret prisons go…
Prison and Coup d’État
About ten years ago I was strolling along Avenida Paulista, Brazil’s most well-known commercial thoroughfare when a person handed me a pamphlet. Without breaking stride, I started to read: “come learn more about this new type of investment.” It was an invitation…
Monitored Confinement and Rule by Philanthropy in Rio de Janeiro and Baltimore
A 2009 classified cable from the US Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, later declassified by the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks, outlined the…
APLA at AAA 2018: No Small Change
Co-Sponsored by the Society for Economic Anthropology and APLA
Since 2011, anthropologists have been researching cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and the blockchain technologies on which they are based. As…
APLA at AAA 2018: Magical Thinking and Tinkering
In a global context of forced mobility, growing inequality, and economic restructuring and austerity, actors in the social domain face an expanding sphere of intervention and, often, shrinking material…
APLA at AAA 2018: The Uses of Trust
The English legal historian Frederic Maitland argued (around 1900) that the trust was one of the great innovations of his country’s legal development: a flexible legal mechanism that protected property, fostered common purposes…
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