Through long-term fieldwork within the prisons of Rio de Janeiro, Where the Sun Rises Square by David Thompson investigates the legal and moral impulse to "resocialize" as it animates the prison system of Brazil. https://ow.ly/lR0950Xxheo #ReadUP #anthropology

30% discount on my book (and many others!) until December 25 with the code S25AAA 📖📚 www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Sadly, I'm not at the AAAs this year, but my book is! Come find it at the Stanford University Press stall. #AAA2025

Where the Sun Rises Square: Mass Incarceration and the Binds of Reform in Brazil, by David Thompson @anthrodave.bsky.social, an anthropologist and previous fellow of the DPDF and IDRF, will be published by Stanford University Press on November 25. Learn more: www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Wow apparently there IS a better political strategy than throwing trans and Palestinian people under the bus to appease centrists.

Happy to share the news that Wenner-Gren grant recipient, David C. Thompson has a new book available for pre-order! www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Today, common people from Penha entered the woods on one side of the mountain. The region is called Pedreira, as it is an inactive quarry. They found 60+ dead bodies. Some with clear marks of torture. A beheaded young male. Most shot in the back and in the head. The total count is between 121-128+

There's still a few weeks before my book 📚 is officially out, but you can read the intro for free right now! www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Here's me with an op-ed in Offrange about the tendency to value undocumented immigrants only for their labor ambrook.com/offrange/per...

Today!

If you missed my talks this week, I'm giving another one next Friday (17/10) hosted by ANU Anthropology and via Zoom: archanth.cass.anu.edu.au/events/if-i-...

Private consultants are taking control of how public universities are evaluated and run. My submission to the Senate university governance inquiry raises concerns about the impact of Nous Group and their dodgy UniForum data on our universities. www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStor... A thread

If you missed my talks this week, I'm giving another one next Friday (17/10) hosted by ANU Anthropology and via Zoom: archanth.cass.anu.edu.au/events/if-i-...

Starting soon! (5pm Sydney)

It’s real!

I've created a calculator that gives you the right answer 80% of the time and I believe it will change the world

Tomorrow!

I'm giving two talks next week about gender, race and redemption in Brazil's prisons. First up, 08/10 at the University Newcastle:

This is a remarkable moment.

“A country in denial. Anyway, I was born…” — Assata Shakur 🤎

Job: Assistant Professor of Latin American Literary & Cultural Studies, University of Notre Dame. Specialism in Afro Latin America (includes Brazil ). NB "Specialists of Brazil will teach in Spanish, English & Portuguese as needed." Closes 1 November 2025. Full info: joblist.mla.org/job/2000392/...

My book is almost out! This is an ethnography of incarceration, it's my attempt to tell a different story about Brazil's prisons and to understand the relationship between punishment and hope. It's out November 25, but available to preorder now. www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Some of this stuff is just white pundits begging: "please don't shoot me too?"

Depressing news. Meanjin hardly posed a significant call on the University of Melbourne's finances: its annual budget was no more than a third of the VC's salary. To shut it down diminishes the University of Melbourne and leaves a large hole in Australia's already threadbare cultural landscape

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

Assistant Professor - Knowledge Systems, Infrastructures, Communities, and Cultures. Another job at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information. www.ischools.org/post/assista...

Five travel awards for scholars from low & middle income countries are available for this years ASAA/NZ #anthropology Conference in Whāingaroa, Raglan! www.asaanz.org/conference Priority will be given to applicants from #Oceania and #SoutheastAsia

I wrote a book! Coming soon… www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Rümeysa Öztürk describes the library in the prison where she was held for 45 days for co-authoring an op-ed

New Special Issue: Anthropologies of Capture. Guest edited by Ana Chiritoiu and @chakadojani.bsky.social, with contributions by Judith Scheele, Sinan Jappan, Qing Shen, Sam Rumé, and @acorsin.bsky.social out with @socialanalysis.bsky.social www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journal...

Corte Interamericana aceita denúncia contra Brasil por desaparecimento durante os Crimes de Maio Caso de Paulo Alexandre Gomes, desaparecido em 2006, será analisado por instância internacional após acusação de omissão e tortura Por: Catarina Duarte ponte.org/corte-intera...

I'm in a catalog!

São Paulo::

The index is not indexing, I fear.

People in Germany were having their visas and funding cancelled for calling for this; they were having their doors kicked in and being deported; they were being accused of sympathising with terrorists and war criminals. They still are, in fact. It’s absolutely shameful.

Trump just revoked the ability for foreign students to enroll at Harvard. Every foreign student, which is in the thousands, enrolled for next year at Harvard will not be able to continue studying if this isn't challenged in court. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

Do I know anyone who's made their own index for a book? Any advice/resources?

So therefore the court finds that she does not pose danger to community or present risk of flight. THE COURT ORDERS THE GOVERNMENT TO RELEASE OZTURK FROM CUSTODY IMMEDIATELY. "Ms. Ozturk is free to return to her home in Massachusetts."

This Rümeysa Öztürk hearing is radicalizing. I've been a court reporter for many years, and I've never covered anything like this: A student deeply committed to her studies, imprisoned solely over writing an op-ed, being made to testify under oath for her own freedom. Dark, dark stuff.

I don’t understand how news outlets keep credulously writing this same article every year. Gates made the same promise to give away all his wealth in 2010 when he was worth $53 billion. He’s currently worth $108 billion.

I just realized my book is online! Introducing: Where the Sun Rises Square - out in November. It's great, you should read it. www.sup.org/books/anthro...

Outrage that 75% of the Venezuelan men rendered to El Salvador have no criminal record implies approval that 25% of those Venezuelan men deserved to be rendered to El Salvador. Where do you draw the line? Is an illegal u-turn deportable behavior? Stealing a candy bar? Growing weed?

Trying to improve my mood by reminding myself of recent victories that will be hard for them to undo. California shut down its entire juvenile prison network in 2023. Abolition is possible.

Israeli forces have killed Palestinian journalists Mohammed Mansour and Hossam Shabat in Gaza. In 2024, Palestinians accounted for nearly 2/3rds of all journalists killed worldwide, some of them deliberately killed by Israeli forces, per the Committee to Protect Journalists. This is no accident.

Coming soon!

The latest figures on in-custody deaths in El Salvador since Bukele declared a state of exception in 2022: 374 registered deaths; >1,000 suspected dead. El Salvador’s prisons are black holes where inmates are systematically tortured and starved. No one really knows how many people have died inside.

I dunno man, if the WH can point to people from Latin America and say "gang member," and point to people from the Arab world and say "terrorist" or "antisemite," and those designations lead directly to detention or worse, I think we have to acknowledge we're in a pretty bad place.

Next week! Join a virtual conversation with myself and and Prof. Tarini Bedi about our work on March 21.

“It remains largely unimaginable in English that a Palestinian knows and has known what they are talking about.” An interview with poet Fady Joudah: