Acknowledgments.
Notes on Contributors.
Foreword (Cheryl Mwaria).
1. Introduction: The Writer in the Anthropologist (Maria D. Vesperi and Alisse Waterston).
Part I: Conceptions.
2. Speaking Truth to Power with Books (Howard Zinn).
3. Remember When Writing Was Fun? Why Academics Should Go On a Low Syllable, Active Voice Diet (Karen Brodkin).
4. The Bard (Carolyn Nordstrom).
5. Saggin' and Braggin' (Lee D. Baker).
6. Stories for Readers: A Few Observations from Outside the Academy (Andrew Barnes).
Part II: Creations.
7. Writing Poverty, Drawing Readers: Stories in Love, Sorrow and Rage (Alisse Waterston).
8. Write‑ous Indignation: Black Girls, Dilemmas of Cultural Domination and the Struggle to Speak the Skin We Are In (Signithia Fordham).
9. Writing Truth to Power: Racism as Statecraft (Arthur K. Spears).
10. Remembering Octavia (Sharon Ball).
11. Believing in Anthropology as Literature (Ruth Behar).
Part III: Receptions.
12. Walking in Zora's Shoes or "Seek[ing] Out de Inside Meanin' of Words": The Intersections of Anthropology, Ethnography, Identity, and Writing (Irma McClaurin).
13. Off the Shelf and Into Oblivion? (Catherine Kingfisher).
14. "Don't Use Your Data as a Pillow" (S. Eben Kirksey).
15. The Trope of the Pith Helmet: America's Anthropology, Anthropology's America (Micaela di Leonardo).
16. The Book that Wrote Me (Roger Sanjek).
17. Fighting Words (Paul Farmer).
18. Taking Chances (Maria D. Vesperi).
Index.
Alisse Waterston is Professor of Anthropology at John JayCollege of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Author of Love, Sorrow and Rage: Destitute Women in a ManhattanResidence (1999), she is currently working on two intimateethnographies: Out of the Shadows of History and Memory: WritingMy Father s Life and Narrating Poland. Maria D. Vesperi is Professor of Anthropology at NewCollege of Florida and a trustee of the Poynter Institute. Authorof City of Green Benches: Growing Old in a New Downtown(1986), she is currently completing a book on the relationshipbetween ethnographic narrative and narrative journalism anddeveloping a 150-year social history of a utopian community turnedcompany town.
The essays are both provocative and provoking, compellingand edgy. Whether this thrust in anthropology or in academia ingeneral will continue, books like this are required to keep theintellectual energy within the academy vital and engaged.Indispensible reading across disciplines. Summing Up:Essential. ( CHOICE, October 2009) "This wonderful collection of essays explores an essentialquestion: how do we tell an untold story? The answers willinspire any anthropologist-writer with the nerve to take ashot." David Kushner, author of Levittown and Masters of Doom "This book should be on many of our must read lists! Itsprovocative contents should inspire anthropologists and othersocial scientists to think more courageously about what it canmean both for us and our potentially expanded and diversifiedaudiences if more of us come out assertingidentities as writers. This collection makes a compellingargument that anthropological writing needn't be confined toconventional "academese," which seriously limits our public reachand social impact." Faye V. Harrison, Professor of Anthropology and Director ofAfrican American Studies, University of Florida, Author ofOutsider Within: Reworking Anthropology in the GlobalAge "Turning research into stories that matter to all of us is anart scholars too rarely aspire to, let alone master. Theanthropologists in this collection tell the tale of thatchallenge with inspiring passion, showing in the telling whatgifted writers they have become." Trevor Brown, Professor Emeritus, Indiana UniversityBloomington "It's inspiring to see behind the curtain of anthropologists,some of the world's most influential storytellers, read of theirinsecurities, passion, and a sense of mission one essayist says isthe human responsibility "to creatively offer something to theworld." Keith Woods, Dean, The Poynter Institute
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
