Messy Human

 

Most professional websites don’t show what anthropologists like to call “messy humans”. This page leans into the messiness and the work in progress of my research, thinking, and writing. I use this page to keep a running list of what I am reading, listening to, and thinking about. The plan is to update it haphazardly, share first drafts and half-baked thoughts.

I will expand beyond my stomping ground of tech and human rights to include other interests, including anthropology et al., grant-making & philanthropy, parenting & childrens’ books, poetry & graphic novels. Like any good geriatric millennial, I do not own a tv, but I am a fan of podcasts and mailinglist and will include my favorites here (see below).

Thank you for making it to this page, and feel free to drop me a line if you have any recommendations, thoughts, comments, or concerns about being human or this messy page.

 

Tech Anthropology & STS

This section gives an overview of anthropological & other academic work that I am reading.

A Prehistory of the Cloud–Tung-Hui Hu
Hu tells a beautiful, sometimes meandering, prescient story about the cloud. In it, he demonstrates how the cloud is both physical infrastructure and cultural, a metaphor (or even a cultural phantasy) for modern computing. In the process, his work also questions the efficacy of hactivists and OSINT, by asking whether such tactics (often underpinned by cloud computing) can resist power or just recreate it.

Countering the Cloud–Luke Munn
Media theorist takes on cloud computing by way of datacenters, to look at what the materiality of clouds know. Interesting book, learned a lot from the south east Asian cases but felt the book fell a little flat in terms of its power analysis and theoretical coupling of data centers to the political economy of cloud computing.

This is how they tell me the world ends: the cyberweapons arms race—Nicole Perlroth
Original book on the murky world of government zero-day trading and targeted spyware. Broad-ranging and engaging, a bit hyperbolic in some parts and steeped in American exceptionalism, which makes it painful at times for non-American readers. But still a good intro text.

 

Parenting & Children’s Books

As a newbie parent, I am constantly worried about all the ways in which I can mess up. I deal with that anxiety by reading lots of books, about babies, to my baby, about parents, and to myself.

The Crayon Book of Feelings–Drew Daywalt & Oliver Teffers
The crayons have a lot of color feelings, sometimes all at the same time. A super cute book to help small kids understand, name, and express their emotions.

Tango Makes Three–Justin Richardson, Peter Parneff and Henry Cole
A cute and true story about two male penguins at the New York Zoo who (*spoiler alert*) fall in love and raise a baby penguin named Tango.

The Enormous Crocodile–Roald Dahl, illustration by Quentin Blake
Very large crocodile tries to eat bunch of kids in creative ways, but largely fails.

I’d Really Want to eat a Child–Sylviane Donnio
Small crocodile wants to eat a human, fails because he is too tiny and resorts to eating bananas instead.

The Unicorn that Said No–Marc Uwe Kling
A rule breaking Unicorn who loves to say “No” goes on an adventure that rhymes with a bunch of other contrarians.

A Mother is a House–Aurore Petit
Bright colored drawings that show the many roles of mothers in a way that will make the most sturdy parents tear-up.

 

Poetry, Graphic Novels & other

The Master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house–Audre Lorde
Reread the short collection of personal essays and talks by Audre Lorde, in which she addresses how the predominantly white academic-led feminist movement of 1980’s will never dismantle the patriarchy, without including the voices of queer women of color.  She calls on the movement to build solidarity that is cognizant of difference, and aware of the power of emotions and the erotic.

The Fortune Men—Nadifa Mohamed
A beautiful novel about the trial and unwarranted execution of Mahmood Mattan, the last man to be hanged in Cardiff. Tells the story of Mattan’s life through the lens of 1950s Britain. Amazing ethnographic story-telling as well as a commentary on the whitewashing of institutional racism in British history.

 

Podcasts

I listen to the BBC’s daily news podcast, FT daily podcast, as well as to NPR News Now. When it comes to tech and politics, I listen to LawFare podcast, The Economist podcast, No Network is Neutral, Planet Money, Dadocracia, 99% Invisible, Tech Won’t Save Us, Babbage from the Economist, Radio Rechtstaat, Response-ability podcast, The Anti-Dystopians, The Sunday Show by Tech Policy Press, Reply Guys, and Reply All. I also like Esther Perel’s Where Should we Begin, Good Inside with Dr. Becky, NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, No Such Thing as A Fish, and true crime podcasts about The Netherlands (don’t @ me).

Mailinglists and other things that show up in my inbox

As an anthropologist of the Internet, I am subscribed to (too) many mailinglists + weekly/daily digests. My current favorites include: Rest of the World, DataSyn by IT for change, I*: Navigating Internet Governance and Standards by the Center for Democracy and Tech, the digest by Protocol, Otherwise Mag, Logic Magazine,  EPIC people, The Counterbalance, Data & Society’s newsletter, the Stanford Digital Civil Society (PACS) newsletter, Ada Lovelace Institute newsletter, Considerati newsletter, Racism & Tech Center newsletter, Superrrrrr network, EDRi, DFF, SIDN, Stichting Democratie & Media, CIS India, Algorithm Watch, Citizen Lab, EU AI Fund, CENTR newsletters,  IRTF HRPC, GAIA and PEARG mailinglists, Unfinished, New_Public, The Relay by Alix Dunn,  I also follow a number of newsletters from industry players in the content delivery and cloud space.

There is space to learn more about organizations outside of the US/EU–read Dutch, English, Portuguese and French, so hmu with your recommendations to expand my perspective!