Faculty Research

New Piece by Dr. Arditi

From The Voice to House Hunters, Reality Television shows undercut the power of labor. These shows are cheap to produce, partly because they pay their works so little. Dr. Arditi shows that while hosts of The Voice make upwards of $14 million per season, contestants do not earn a dime for their work. As Hollywood writers and actors strike, it is important to remember that TV networks fill the gap with these cheap high-profit shows as a strategy to undermine labor.

Link to Dr. Arditi’s new piece

New Piece by David Arditi

David Arditi continues to cover the Hollywood writers strike with an addition of some big name actors.

Link to Dr. Arditi’s July 2023 Piece

New Piece by David Arditi

Sociologist David Arditi explains how the rise of streaming upended the TV industry – and as the industry change, so did the working conditions for writers, which started to reflect many characteristics of the gig economy. While Hollywood writers might earn a lot more per hour than a DoorDash driver, they now lack the protections, wages and job security once taken for granted in pre-streaming days.

Link to Dr. Arditi's May 2023 Piece

New Book By David Arditi

In his new book, Digital Feudalism: Creators, Credit, Consumption and Capitalism, David Arditi argues we are in a new phase of capitalism, which he calls “digital feudalism.” We find precarious employment via digital platforms, we buy goods and services in perpetuity through subscriptions, and we pay for it all with debt.

Link to Dr. Arditi's Book

New Publication By Shelley Smith

Should museums show visitors more about evolution than fossil evidence and examples of natural selection? In this article, Professor of Anthropology Shelley Smith argues that they should and explains why.

Link to Dr. Smith's Article

New Blog Post by Heather Jacobson (with Virginie Rozée)

In this new post on the Reprotech Collective’s Blog, Heather Jacobson and Virginie Rozée discuss their call for the use of ethnographic and empirical data when examining surrogacy.

Link to Blog Post

New Book Publication by Ashley Lemke

In her new book, Dr. Lemke explores ancient hunting sites, stone constructions from all over the world that were used by peoples in the past to hunt wild animals. The book outlines these structures and how they work and introduces new data from such sites found underwater in the Great Lakes. The book combines history, ethnography, and archaeology to explore these structures through time and how they impacted the cultures that used them. Link to Dr. Lemke's Book

New Publication by Heather Jacobson

In this new article, Heather Jacobson and colleague Virginie Rozée (INED, France (The French Institute for Demographic Studies)) examine assumptions about surrogacy and argue for a more nuanced approach to research on third-party pregnancy using empirical and ethnographic data.

Link to Dr. Jacobson's June 2022 article

New Publication by Heather Jacobson

Interested in the temporal limits of fertility and reproductive timing? Check out this new article by our own Heather Jacobson in which she proposes a new concept: the ART Clock.

Link to Dr. Jacobson's March 2022 article

Christian Zlolniski awarded NSF grant

The National Science Foundation awarded Christian Zlolniski, Professor of Anthropology, a $255,000 grant to study the labor and environmental implications of natural resources being marketed as sustainably sourced products.

Link to news article

New publication by Bob Young

Perceiving morality in everyday life: This research addresses the ways in which morality and immorality are perceived by individuals, not only in the actions of others, but also in the inanimate objects of encountered in everyday life.

Link to Dr. Young's article

Heather Jacobson NPR Interview

Dr. Jacobson was interviewed on the North Carolina NPR show Embodied about her surrogacy research.

Link to Dr. Jacobson's Podcast

New Podcast by David Arditi

The Money 4 Nothing Podcast interviewed Dr. Arditi about his book, Getting Signed.

Link to Dr. Arditi's Podcast

Ashley Lemke Field School in the News

Dr. Lemke's 2021 underwater archaeology field school is featured in this episode of Shipwreck School.

Link to Dr. Lemke's Video

New Publication by Kelly Bergstrand

Recently published in Social Movement Studies "Targeted Appeals: Online Social Movement Frame Packaging and Tactics Customized for Youth" is coauthored with Monica Whitham (Associate Professor of Sociology, Oklahoma State University). It investigates how social movement organizations tailor their frames and tactics to appeal to different age groups, including young children.

Link to article