Presentation to Skyline International for Human Rights

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Andrew Gardner

Hi all,

Thanks to an invitation from Dr. Daniel Rivera and Tal Shergill, I was asked to provide their audience with a brief lecture and interview on their Facebook channel. While focused foremost on human rights, Skyline International for Human Rights places particular emphasis on the freedom of speech and all the rights that underpin it. Migrants and migration to the Arabian Peninsula is one theater of concern for the group. The lecture I provided — The Migrant Journey to Arabia — seeks to provide a very basic overview of migration to the Arabian Peninsula, and this still shot is linked to the interview on Skyline’s Facebook page.

Proletarian Enclaves, Photo Exhibit

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Andrew Gardner

Hi all,

Although we remain mostly locked down by the pandemic, a variety of scholarly and academic organizations are hosting virtual conferences this academic year. I’m happy to announce that my photo exhibit — Proletarian Enclaves in the Urban Landscape of Doha, Qatar — was accepted by The Nature of Cities (TNOC) 2021 Festival, and is showing there all this week!

This particular set of images has an interesting backstory. The images included in this exhibit are part of a larger collection that I put together early this summer, thanks to the generous offer of Kevin McGlocklin, the owner of Tacoma’s Bluebeard Coffee Roasters and Cafe. Culling a thematic set of images from my time and work in Qatar, I was able to carry some of the elements from the Bluebeard show to the TNOC exhibit. Here’s the short blurb from the new exhibit, along with several of the included images:

“These images explore the peripheral urban enclaves where much of the foreign workforce dwells in Doha, Qatar. These transnational migrants, most of whom come from South Asia, both build and service the modern city. Although a few stragglers still dwell in the urban core of Doha, most migrant workers now occupy enclaves constructed at the periphery of the city. In the lifeworlds of these men and women, these migrations are, for most, an economic necessity for the households behind them. But these migrations also serve as a right of passage, and comprise a great and difficult adventure that is sometimes rewarding. The cities they inhabit upon arrival, like the one portrayed here, are far from home for millions of migrant men and women who dwell there, and is simultaneously the setting for this social drama.”

Special thanks to Dharmendra and Deependra for their help with several of the sojourns from which these photographs come.

Andrew

SoAn Antiracism Initiative: Fall Discussion Series

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Sociology & Anthropology

As part of these efforts and to support our students, colleagues, and communities, we are undertaking a series of discussions in the Fall, 2020 semester, to explore anthropological and sociological perspectives on race and ethnicity, constructions and experiences of race and racism, and efforts to confront structural formulations of white supremacy. The series will also explore the ways these categories intersect with other social cleavages and dimensions of inequality, including gender, sexuality, citizenship, education, health, and social class.

Discussions will be led by department faculty members in collaboration with SoAn majors and minors and the new Sociology & Anthropology Student Association (SASA) to build conversation within and beyond the Department. Each discussion will center on an accessible text, podcast, or other media that explores issues of race from disciplinary perspectives; these materials will be made available on the series webpage in advance of each event.

The series is open to all in the Puget Sound community, including family members and alums, and will be held on Zoom semi-weekly on Thursdays at 4pm PST beginning September 17, 2020. RSVP links will be posted to the SoAn Blog and series webpage a week before each event, and emailed to majors, minors, and community members.

You can find a tentative schedule as well as the discussion materials and RSVP link for the first discussion, “Out From the Shadows of Racist Anthropology,” here.

We hope you’ll join us for these important conversations.

SoAn Antiracism Initiative: Sociology Resources

Posted on July 13, 2020 by garethbarkin

The study of race and ethnicity is integral to the discipline of sociology. Sociology connects these mutually reinforcing, overlapping symbolic categories to the idea of majority and minority groups and social structures of inequality, power, and stratification. Race is socially constructed, yet influences how we see the world around us, how we view ourselves, and how we divide “us” from “them.”

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology is committed to promoting the values of diversity, equity, and human rights and to confronting racism in our fields of research, our university, and our classrooms. To support these efforts, we have compiled and will continue to share resources for thinking sociologically and drawing upon a sociological perspective for confronting racism in everyday life and in our social institutions. A central component of this program is a site of collected resources for confronting racism, which reflects the perspectives of scholars, authors, and other creators who are rooted in the anthropological and sociological traditions.

Today we are announcing the next piece in this site and initiative: Confronting Racism: Sociology Resources. The new page includes readings and recommendations from our department’s sociologists, as well as resources for understanding sociological perspectives on race, anti-racism, activism, policing, citizenship, and more. It will be updated regularly to reflect our conversations with students, colleagues, and the SoAn community, as well as current events and partner contributions.

This page complements our previously announced Anthropology Resources page, and both can be accessed through this link for the site.

In the fall semester, and we plan to work with SoAn students on a discussion and speaker series, which will draw on the sources collected on these pages as well as student and partner suggestions.

If you are interested in contributing to these resources or participating in the organization of the fall series, please contact Gareth Barkin and/or Jason Struna.

SoAn Antiracism Initiative: Anthropology Resources

Posted on June 26, 2020 by garethbarkin

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology is committed to promoting the values of diversity, equity, and human rights and to confronting racism in our fields of research, our institution, and our classrooms. The study of race and ethnicity, as well as social movements, advocacy, and justice, are central to both of our disciplines. In support of these goals, we are launching a collaborative antiracism initiative over the coming academic year.

A central component of this program will be a site of collected resources for confronting racism, which will reflect the perspectives of scholars, authors, and other creators who are rooted in the anthropological and sociological traditions.

The first resource collection: CONFRONTING RACISM: ANTHROPOLOGY RESOURCES launches today, and can be accessed here. The site includes readings and recommendations from our department’s anthropology faculty, as well as resources for understanding anthropological perspectives on race, antiracism, activism, and more. It will be updated regularly to reflect our conversations with the SoAn community, current events, and partner contributions.

In the coming weeks, we will launch a collection of sociological resources, and we plan to work with SoAn students on a discussion and speaker series this fall, which will draw on the sources collected on these sites, as well as others.

If you are interested in contributing to these resources or participating in the organization of the fall series, please contact Gareth Barkin or Jason Struna.

SoAn Pre-Registration Social on Wednesday 11/6 @5pm

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Sociology & Anthropology

Interested in sociology or anthropology? Considering a SoAn major or minor? Already declared? Then join us for FREE PIZZA and learn about our classes for Spring, 2020, (and other stuff going on in the department) from the SoAn faculty. BRING A FRIEND!

SoAn Pre-Registration Social
5-6PM on Wednesday, November 6
in Trimble Forum

Professor Glover’s Summer Trip to China

Posted on October 5, 2019 by Andrew Gardner

Professor Glover graciously provided this detailed description of her fascinating summer trip to China. Read on!

With students in Professor Sean Wang’s English interpretation class, FNU

Shortly after submitting grades for spring 2019, I headed to China for nearly a month’s worth of professional exchange and study-abroad preparations. Several years ago a faculty exchange program between Puget Sound and Fujian Normal University (FNU), in Fuzhou, was established. The idea with the program is to promote linkages and synergy between our two universities via faculty visits related to teaching and research projects. In addition to participation in this program, I wanted to get a few things set for my short-term study-abroad program to China next spring (more on that below and in a future post).

I sat in on a medicinal plant chemistry class at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

In Fuzhou I gave three lectures during the time I was there. Two of these talks were at Fujian Normal University, in the English interpretation program of the College of Foreign Languages. One talk was on my research on Tibetan medicine, and the other was on teaching my SSi1 117 class (People, Plants, and Animals). I spoke in English while two graduate students took turns interpreting into Mandarin. I must say that their translations were quite impressive. I was asked to share my PowerPoint beforehand, and I know that the students worked hard the days before my talk (looking up terms they were not familiar with, and making notes to themselves for the live translation). But I also know that I spoke spontaneously and entertained questions and the interpreters did a fine job. I speak Mandarin, so I understood what was transpiring. I also have over 20 years of experience in China, and have heard a lot of poor English translations; the accomplished students at FNU are a sign of changing times but also diligent training by the institution.

With the help of FNU, I was able to visit the Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was invited to give a talk about my research on Tibetan Medicine to the teaching faculty, had a round-table with doctor-teachers, attended a class on medicinal plant chemistry, had a private tutorial about medicine preparations, and was given a tour of the teaching medicinal plant garden. I was warmly welcomed, and in fact was so inspired that I altered the itinerary for my short-term study abroad trip next year to include time in Fuzhou so that Puget Sound students can attend classes at the Fujian UTCM, with the help of translation by FNU graduate students.

Engaging in one of many activities with Professor Alice Liqun Lai

While in Fujian I also participated in other activities with students and faculty. One professor that I spent a fair amount of time with was Professor Alice Liqun Lai; she is a faculty member at both FNU and also at Hwa Nan Women’s College (Puget Sound also has an important connection to Hwa Nan, and a Teaching Fellowship at the college for Puget Sound graduates: https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/undergraduate/asian-studies/scholarships-and-fellowships/fellowships/hwa-nan-teaching-followship/). With Alice, I attended dragon boat races (she asked which I preferred and I chose a festival in a village outside the city, it was great), visited museums (focused on Neolithic hunter-gatherer cultures, tea, and local porcelain technologies), tea shops and restaurants, a music concert at FNU, and a local Buddhist temple. We also hiked together on different days (on a suspended walkway in the city and in the cool hills above the city), and goofed off at an open mic we stumbled upon one day when out exploring. We talked about teaching, about faculty exchange programs,

More of my time with Professor Alice Liqun Lai

about being a female academic, and about parenting. If all goes according to plan, Professor Lai will be visiting Puget Sound at the start of the spring semester, also on the Puget Sound-FNU exchange program. I look forward to sharing my love of our school and the local area with Professor Lai in 2020.

After my time in Fujian, I went to Yunnan Province to secure plans for next year’s short-term study-abroad trip, a new component to my Asian Medical Systems (SOAN 225) class. I will leave information about that trip for another blog entry, and just state here that the focus of the trip will be on immersion into the local cultural and environmental ecologies of Traditional Chinese and Tradition Tibetan medicines in Fujian and Yunnan Provinces. This summer I was able to solidify plans in working with the University

Even more of my activities with Professor Alice Liqun Lai

of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Fuzhou, Yunnan University in Kunming, and the Hospital of Traditional Tibetan Medicine in Rgyalthang/Shangrila. Stay tuned for more information about the course and the study abroad component right here on our SOAN blog!

New Article by Professor Andrew Gardner

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Andrew Gardner

Hi folks,

Our very own Andrew Gardner has just published a thought-provoking, new article in Areo Magazine. It’s a piece of accessible, public scholarship focused on the ideological imperialism of U.S. higher education, and how our particular framings of difference have become exported around the world, to the detriment of diverse, alternative conceptualizations. I asked Andrew if he could summarize the piece, and his response is below, but I highly recommend reading the whole thing. Here’s Andrew’s message:

In this magazine article, I’m trying to think about the implications of the pressing conversations we’re having on campus and in America, and how those conversations are shaping (or reshaping) other cultures and other intellectual traditions in our world. In short, from what I’ve seen in Qatar and elsewhere, I’m concerned that we’re foisting a certain set of ideas on the rest of the world, and that we should at least be aware of that fact.

In a nutshell, here’s the argument I make: all of the ideas that congeal around our American concern with diversity, equity, inclusion, and the many other concepts in that orbit are very American ideas. One could argue about whether those ideas are good for American society — but those conversations are difficult, and currently unwelcome inside our collegiate bubble. Those arguments are also not a part of what I’m discussing in this article.

Instead, I’m trying to point out the fact that we Americans are pushing the rest of the world to think about themselves the way we think about each other in America — in terms of essential identities, grouped together in frictional combat over rights and limited resources. Exporting these ideas to other cultures and other intellectual traditions in our world happens via the last vestiges of American imperialism, I argue: our higher education system. Through that system and its ongoing global dominion, America is reshaping other societies. We’re telling them that they should also understand each other in terms of “identities,” in the same way we now think of ourselves. Imposing these understandings on the rest of the world, I contend, is antithetical to the social and cultural diversity that we anthropologists believe to be the greatest treasure in the human legacy.

You can read the whole of the paper here.

Congratulations on this compelling publication, Andrew, we look forward to many more in the future!

-Gareth

Andrew Gardner Featured in Arches Magazine

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Sociology & Anthropology

Hi folks,

The University of Puget Sound alumni magazine, Arches, has published a Q&A article with our very own anthropology professor, Andrew Gardner! In it, he discusses his research on migrants in the Gulf States, his views of the Qatari justice system, and his recent field course, Migration and the Global City, which brought students to both Qatar and Amsterdam.

Check it out: https://www.pugetsound.edu/stories/detail/andrew-gardner-the-human-connection/

Seattle CSOC/SOAN Alumni Meetup!

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Andrew Gardner

alumni meetup Hi all,

If you’re in the Seattle area, join us for the first-ever CSOC/SOAN alumni meet up on Thursday, August 1. We’d love to see you and catch up. It sounds like numerous alumni from various classes plan to attend, and a few of your former professors also intend to straggle up to Seattle that evening.

We have a room reserved at Fado Irish Pub, located at 801 1st Avenue, Seattle WA 98104. Here are the details:

What: CSOC/SOAN Seattle Alumni Meetup
When: Thursday, August 1, 2019, from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Fado Irish Pub on First Avenue in Seattle

I’m taking the lead in organizing this, so please contact me (Andrew) with any questions or suggestions you might have. We hope to see you there!