Grey in Gateshead

My JRAI paper (with Paolo Heywood) On the Problem of Continuity is out online first -- an attempt to theorise culture beyond the logic of invention: rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Marking work post-AI feels like a very different thing

At my current rate of reading, would conservatively estimate the stack of books beside my bed will take about 10 years to clear.

Enjoyed this lovely piece, even more so when I found it was based on my old friend @tomyarrow.bsky.social's anthropological potterings (Tom & I once spent 2 days running across Eryri's mountains and our silences were prob more than long enough to make @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social deeply uncomfortable).

Me on Sky News waffling nervously about friendship and intimacy: news.sky.com/video/mental...

I'm hiring 2 postdocs on my Wellcome project "How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild?: Plague, Yellow Fever, and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)" Department of Global Health and Social Medicine King's College 3 years 01/10/26- 30/09/29 Deadline: 01/02/26 shorturl.at/KZ6Vh

Working in a Winter Wonderland! #EarlyBronzeAge #FlagFenBasin #Fenland (not Finland)

Male bonds develop one way, female friendships another. Should we stop trying to make men more like women? | Gaby Hinsliff

My department is hiring! Open rank faculty position in Helsinki Anthropology jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Very weird and troubling to see my ethnographic research on male intimacy morph into right wing click bait.

Very unexpectedly, my forthcoming @amanthro.bsky.social paper on male friendship and emotional reticence was featured in the Sunday Times yesterday:

Great to be on @skynewsrss.bsky.social this morning, talking about my forthcoming @amanthro.bsky.social paper on male friendship and intimacy.

My @uk.theconversation.com piece on male friendship and intimacy beyond words is out today:

Really pleased my paper (with Paolo Heywood) 'On the problem of continuity' just got accepted by JRAI. It proposes a theory of culture beyond the inventive assumptions that often dominate analyses and over-determine ethnography. DM or email if you're interested to see the accepted draft.

I seem to buy books in inverse proportion to my time for reading

Absolutely loved archaeologist Rose Ferraby's R3 programme Earthworks -- a lovely, lyrical exploration of materials with thoughtful reflections on time, craft and the traces people leave, and told with so much humanity.

Adam Reed's new book just arrived and looks terrific -- an ethnography of animal protection, which opens out new ways of thinking about human-animal relations, activism, expert knowledge and imperatives of moral action.

Admittedly hot take but IMO Sycamore Gap is a more interesting place without the sycamore. And the social significance of its absence seems on balance to be greater than the presence of the tree itself (not that I condone those who cut it down and with all sympathies to those who grieve its loss!)

Our final editorial for #MedicalAnthropology - reflecting on the state of the sub discipline - is now out, with free imprints for the first 50 takers: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8KVSQ... #anthropology

proofs! 💥🔥

Durham Anthropology would like to invite you to this years Layton Dialogue! This year’s theme is ‘Multispecies ethnography as a forum for dialogue in anthropology’ and will feature Prof Marianne Lien and Dr Kerry Dore with Dr Simona Capisani as discussant! 📚🎓

Lunch and a walk along the Tyne with @chikaw.bsky.social , Hannah Knox and Adam Reed a lovely way to mark the end of our JRAI editorship. Thanks to all who submitted, reviewed and helped to make it all happen!

Once more with feeling!....House Beautiful 1999 starring @beccyscottuk.bsky.social & Dave Hall

Really happy to be in such wonderful company in Environmental Humanities #envhum! Huge thanks to @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social and Franklin Ginn for their guidance and patience throughout the editorial process. Thread on the full issue below

Just out! Why are anthropologists interested in microbes? Are we witnessing a turn to a new object of study for #anthropology? Find out what I think in this long review of three recent books on the topic in the JRAI rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Colin Renfrew passing on is a major moment in archaeology; time to revisit his contributions. www.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Welcoming our Professor of Digital Heritage, Prof Stuart Jeffrey to BlueSky! @stuartjeffrey.bsky.social sit.gsa.ac.uk/author/stuar... #DigitalHumanities #HeritageVisualisation #Archaeology #CoDesign

Sycamore gap, gap

Seems like a fitting title for our times… I’ve got a chapter in here on death anxiety and fossil fuels

Out today, and open access, 'The melody that's sweetly played in tune', my photo essay with @alexanderboyd.bsky.social in @landscaperesearch.bsky.social journal! Ardeer, and an archaeology of photography, they're important!! doi.org/10.1080/0142...

Putting this out there again with some more detail: this is really an article about the futility of trying to construct total archives and histories, and the question of what a useful analytical frame for the history of fields like Egyptology and archaeology might be.

Thanks @mw-m.bsky.social for this useful resource!

Holding something you’ve lived with and worked toward for 14 years is a surreal experience. Grateful to the folks at UChicago Press, to friends and mentors who helped shape me, and to dear ones in Baltimore who taught me everything. Happy 📚🎉 day everyone!