Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India
Rutgers University Press, 2015, 216 pages
An Indian coffee shop franchise advertises their practice of hiring deaf baristas – “silent brewmasters” – to work their espresso machines. A Bangalore tech company boasts that it hires “physically challenged” workers only (118-121). Meanwhile, deaf adults in Bangalore complain that adult education at …
Vakas is a Russian man in his 30s with a traumatic brain injury acquired during childhood. He spends most of his days in his room in his family apartment. Occasionally, he convinces his parents to let him go out. Or, he tricks them and slips away when his mother is at work or his father isn’t paying attention. Vakas is …
A recent USA Today article described a report from a Department of Defense think tank study that suggested that President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has “neurological abnormalities” and, perhaps, an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The report, part of a project entitled “Body Leads,” which claims to use analysis of bodily behavior to suggest underlying neurological states, was originally written …
This month’s Web Round-up gathers reviews of recent works of fiction that engage medical anthropological themes. You’ll also find some links to writings about anthropology and fiction from around the blogosphere. This slant toward literary subject matter is inspired by the recent addition of the Top of the Heap column to the Somatosphere family.
Fiction (or memoir) is often the …
This month’s web roundup highlights two issues that have been in the news this November: Hurricane Sandy relief, and marijuana legalization. Both topics offer resonances with medical anthropology. At the end of the post, you’ll also find a list of articles on broader topics of interest to Somatosphere readers. Happy thanksgiving travel reading, everyone!
Hurricane Sandy relief
The concept …
In the spirit of the web round-up series, this post gathers links to news stories and timely events of interest to the Somatosphere community that have appeared lately in the popular press and in medical anthropology circles. This month, the spotlight falls on two conversations, which will be treated separately: (1) the on-going conversation about ethics and humanitarianism, highlighted by …