History of Anthropology Interest Group: Inaugural Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Prize Winner
This past fall, the History of Anthropology Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association awarded its inaugural Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Prize to Nala K. Williams, doctoral…
History of Anthropology Review (HAR) Info Session, February 11, 2026
An invitation for all working on the history of anthropology, broadly construed: Are you reading and writing about classic anthropology texts in courses or research? Do you use primary sources created by anthropologists in your…
‘The Reeducation of Race’ by Sonali Thakkar
Sonali Thakkar The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought Stanford University Press 288 pages, notes, bibliography, index As a title, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Racism in…
Call for Abstracts: “Goffmanian Political Economy” Panel at the Social Science History Association (SSHA), November 19-22, 2026
There are signs of a Goffmanian turn in political economy, alongside renewed interest in the biographical trajectory of Goffman himself. What are, or could be, the…
Extended Deadline: CFP: Uses and abuses of the Murdock Atlas in social science research, April 13, 2026
This workshop, timed to follow the Economic History Society conference, aims to bring together scholars who have engaged with the Murdock Atlas in their research, and who are interested in an…
CFP EASA 2026: Beyond Polarised Histories of Anthropologies: Female Ethnographers and Folklorists between the Mid-19th and Early 20th Centuries [History of Anthropology Network (HOAN)]
Panel P083 "Beyond Polarised Histories of Anthropologies: Female Ethnographers and Folklorists between the…
Antônio Bakairi as Indigenous Ethnographer, by Erik Petschelies
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie: an article (in English) on a fundamental Indigenous figure in the history of European ethnographic expeditions in late…
Slavery and Its Legacies in Cuban Museums, by Maxime Toutain
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie: an article (in French) on how Cuban museums represent slavery and African cultural legacies. BEROSE reference:…
Günter Tessmann and the Politics of Colonial Collecting, by Fürniss, Grotz and Rahemipour
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie: an article (in English) on the ambiguous collecting practices of the German ethnographer Günter…
Rediscovering Afro-Religious Practitioners and “Converted” Anthropologists, by Mariana Morais
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie: an article (in English) presenting the history of Afro-Brazilian religious studies from a…
Latest Addition to Bibliography, December 2025
Twenty four new bibliographic references relevant for research into the history of anthropology have been added to HAR's bibliography page. Authors appearing here for the first time include Gwyneira Isaac, David Nugent, and Norman E. Witten, Jr. Two…
FAIRly Obscure (The Trilogy): An Anthropology Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, January 9, 2026
Presented by The University of Maryland Center for Archival Futures; The Bentley Historical Library and University of Michigan School of Information; the University of Missouri’s iSchool; and the Council for the…
CFP: Tenth Annual Conference on the History of Recent Social Science (HISRESS)
Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland, Thursday, 11 June & Friday,12 June 2026 This two-day conference of the Society for the History of Recent Social Science (HISRESS), at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland,…
CFP: History of Anthropology Working Group at the CHSTM, Winter/Spring 2026
The History of Anthropology Working Group at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine invites proposals for our Winter/Spring 2026 sessions (January–June). Our meetings provide a collegial space for…
History of Anthropology Panels at AAA, 2025
The annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association will be held in-person in New Orleans, LA from November 19-23, 2025. The HAR News editors are pleased to share a selection of panels that may be of interest to our readers. Other panels and…
History of Anthropology Panels at HSS, 2025
The annual meeting of the History of Science Society will be held in-person in New Orleans, LA from November 13-16, 2025. The HAR News editors are pleased to share a selection of panels that may be of interest to our readers. Other panels and additional…
NEW BOOK TALK: Franz Boas: In Praise of Open Minds by Noga Arikha, November 11, London
At the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London. Tuesday, November 11, 6:00-7:30 p.m. Join us for a conversation with Noga Arikha about her new biography of Franz Boas: In Praise of Open Minds. This event aims…
CFP: Uses and abuses of the Murdock Atlas in social science research, April 13, 2026, LSE
This workshop, timed to follow the Economic History Society conference, aims to bring together scholars who have engaged with the Murdock Atlas in their research, and who are interested in an open,…
Erving Goffman as Social Anthropologist
Richard Handler (2012, 179) once called Erving Goffman “the most anthropological of all the great sociologists.” This trenchant remark draws attention to Goffman’s distinctive relationship with anthropology and, more broadly, to the close—yet often…
‘A Maverick Boasian’ by Sergei Kan
Sergei Kan A Maverick Boasian: The Life and Work of Alexander A. Goldenweiser University of Nebraska Press, 2023 268 pages, 16 photographs, notes, references, index. A Maverick Boasian is a biography of a distinctive and exasperating figure in early American…
Latest Addition to Bibliography, September 2025
HAR’s Bibliography Editors are pleased to post our latest additions to the bibliography of works on the history of anthropology. In our effort to highlight recently published works, please note that we have included Prakash Shah's 2025 article on…
New from BEROSE: Historicizing Anthropology under and beyond Bolsonaro, by A.C. Souza Lima et al.
HAR is pleased to announce two complementary articles (in English) on recent and crucial chapters in the history of Brazilian Anthropology in the (newly renamed) Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de…
Revisiting Van Gennep’s Life and Work, by Christine Laurière
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Bérose: an article (in English) on a lesser-known facet of Van Gennep’s anthropology. This is one of a series of 11 articles dedicated to Van Gennep in the (newly renamed)…
WORKSHOP: Transnational Entanglements of Racial Anthropology: History and Legacy, Sept 11-13, 2025
HAR is happy to share information about an exciting upcoming international workshop from our friends at HOAN-EASA. Transnational Entanglements of Racial Anthropology: History and Legacy, will take…
Announcement: History of Language Sciences Working Group at CHSTM
We are pleased to announce continuation of the working group on the History of the Language Sciences, hosted by the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Meetings will take place via Zoom on the second Tuesday…
Environmental Anthropology– Pasts and Futures
Participant Observation (Conference Report), History of Anthropology Review Yale University, March 31-April 1, 2025 In the face of palpable climate change, contemporary anthropologists increasingly explore how social forms, subsistence technologies,…
Alfred Lyall as Anthropologist of Popular Hinduism, by Chris Fuller
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from BEROSE International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology: an article (in English) on Alfred Lyall’s colonial ethnography and anthropology in India. Fuller,…
Signe Howell’s Anthropological Memoir(s), edited by Desmond McNeill
In partnership with BEROSE International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology, HAR is honored to announce the release of a previously unpublished manuscript by Signe Howell, who passed away on January 26, 2025. Howell,…
Margaret Mead’s Ethnography Revisited, by Paul Shankman
HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from BEROSE International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology: two articles (in English) on Margaret Mead’s fieldwork experience and its ethnographic outcomes. Shankman, Paul,…
History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group Engagement Award 2025
The History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group (HPGRG) of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) has launched a new initiative. Every two years, HPGRG will offer a small…
Announcement: 2025 HOAIG Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Prize
The History of Anthropology Interest Group (HOAIG) of the American Anthropological Association is pleased to announce the inaugural competition for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper in the History of Anthropology. HOAIG is an…
The Disappearance of Zora Neale Hurston
In the anthropological canon, Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) has emerged in recent decades as one of the most important—and overlooked—ethnographers of her time. She was a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance, but poor health and financial troubles…
HAR Editorial Update, Summer 2025
There’s a lot happening at the History of Anthropology Review. First, this spring’s Environmental Anthropologies: Pasts, Presents, Futures conference, co-hosted by HAR and the Yale History of Science and Medicine Program, was a great success. Across two days of…
Afterward
It is overwhelming to comment on the panel of a brilliant group of women—towering figures in the field—whose work I have long admired and whose personal friendship and mentoring I have benefited from since arriving in Australia five years ago as a newly minted PhD. I of course can’t do…
Gender as a Dimension in Changing Hegemonies
We are here for a conversation about gender as an analytical lens on the relationship between theory and fieldwork in anthropology. It has been suggested that we talk about this through personal narratives from those of us who have been involved in…
The Creation of the International Institute for Afro-American Studies: Power Dynamics and Ortiz’s Postcolonial Vision
Re: Creation of the International Institute for Afro-American Studies For years there has been the intention of founding a center devoted especially to the problems of the Black…
‘The Life of Herod the Great: A Novel’ by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston The Life of Herod the Great: A Novel Edited and with commentary by Deborah G. Plant Amistad, 2025 xxvii + 334 pages Review followed by an editor Q&A. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), an African American novelist,…
A Feminist Postcolonial Journey: Moving Between Countries, Academic Disciplines and Institutions
All memorializing practices afford new forms of synthesis. Writing now in my late sixties about myself as a feminist anthropologist foregrounds for me the importance of the habitus we acquire in our…
Latest Additions to Bibliography, June 2025
HAR’s Bibliography Editors are pleased to post our latest additions to the bibliography of works on the history of anthropology. We have been working to identify and add newer works, and you will find many 2024 and 2025 references here.
Problems and Possibilities of Being a Feminist Anthropologist
I have chosen to present a selection of statements made to me by senior anthropologists, which highlight ideas about the relationship between feminism and anthropology in the 1980s. For me, feminism expanded the scope of anthropology by…
A Lone Woman in the Jungle
I have two stories to tell, each of which narrates a larger story about feminism and anthropology. My first story relates to my period as a newly-arrived pre-fieldwork PhD student at the Australian National University (ANU) in the early 1980s. I had come to ANU to…
Syllabus Attack!: Dwelling on the History of Anthropology
Editors’ note: This reflection was written in conjunction with the author’s course, “History of Anthropology,” taught most recently in the 2025 spring semester at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. You can read the course syllabus…
New HAR Initiative: Teaching Resources
For the better part of a decade, the HAR editorial collective has imagined an online collection of syllabi in the history of anthropology and allied fields to complement our existing work. Our vision is to create a free online repository of syllabi relevant…
Anthropology as a Feminist Project of Collective Practice
Second wave feminism, or women's liberation, grew out of the new political energy that emerged in the USA in the 1960s. Movements for women’s liberation were a product of the social disquiet and dissent associated with US war in Vietnam…
The “F” Word: Anthropology, Positionality, and Intersecting Lives in Oz
The organisers have invited us to reflect on the history of feminist anthropology in Australia through a key episode in our ethnographic experience. I have been delinquent in my response to that invitation by broadening the…
Theory as Reproduction: Histories of Doing Feminist Anthropology in Australia
The relationship between feminism and anthropology has never been straightforward. The launch in 2020 of Feminist Anthropology, the journal of the Association for Feminist Anthropology section at the American…
Special Focus: Feminist Anthropology in Australia
HAR editors are pleased to bring you this Special Focus Section, guest edited by Benjamin Heagarty, Shiori Shakuto, and Caroline Schuster. The pieces in this collection will be published on a rolling basis, and the table of contents will be updated…
