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Anthropological Airwaves, the official podcast of the journal American Anthropologist, has already produced thirteen episodes and continues to publish discussions pertaining to a wide variety of topics. The programs are built off of the journal’s commitment to four-field, multimodal research. The primary structure for the podcast involves a series of hosted conversations about anthropological projects, including fieldwork and publishing, but also wider topics such as the discipline’s role in public debates. As their description states, the main point is to “ask a series of fundamental questions about past, present, and future disciplinary practice, and to learn from those who chart new paths for a more broadly engaged anthropology.”
A three part special feature was recently published titled “Decolonizing Museums in Practice with the Museum Ethnographers Group,” which included talks with multiple disparate practitioners from the field. Part one deals with practitioner-focused decolonization initiatives and what they might look like, as well as the about the anxieties, ambivalences, and dissonances of decolonizing work. Part two has a special focus on objects and stories as well as indigenous perspectives on exhibition and return. Part three is centered around a conversation with Wayne Modest, Director of the Research Center for Material Culture at the consortium of four ethnographic museums in the Netherlands, including the Tropenmuseum, the African Museum, and the Museum Volkekunde. Transcripts of every episode are also available.
To listen, visit the podcast’s web page.
