We Make the Gods We Want to Have
What does it mean for a telescope to be showing us the past 13 billion years? What are we looking for out there?
Anthropology in Outerspace
Screen Memory, Social Distancing & Speculative Fiction: The Geek Anthropologist 2021 in Review
2021 gave us new ways to think about virtual presence and digital connection through Minecraft; the role of a mediated and mediatized grief in Wandavision; the Marxist politics underlying GameStop stock; the ongoing importance of centering repatriation in the practice of archaeology; and the bureaucratic magic of Loki.
The Death of Outer Space Dreams: Hard Decisions and a War of Utopian Demands
“What if we found new ways of existing in the harsh places we’ve ruled out on our homeworld, before forcing ourselves into the ecosystems of others? What if we revisited the ways of the ancient sea-faring cultures and the desert nomads? Drawing inspiration not from the speculative but from the real, the here, the now, the pragmatic and the historic.”
Space Races & Special Forces at Smithsonian’s Future Con
In April of 2018, as cosplayers, geeks, and comic vendors descended on the Walter Washington Memorial Convention Center in Washington,…
Moon Monogamy 2: Preliminary Research, Session 1
[This is the second installment of Moon Monogamy (And Other Things That Are Bound to Go Wrong) by Savannah Mandel. The…
The Geek Anthropologist 