Space, Place, Knowledge and Power

Research by faculty working within this theme attends to political economy, global connections and assemblages, flows, and governmentality.  Our work attends to power and its manifestations through examination of land rights, human rights, finance, formal and informal economies, science and technology, migration and mobility, the legacies of colonialism, conservation and development.  We are concerned with the situatedness and positionality of knowledge, and the ethics and politics of knowledge production and circulation.  The broad conceptual terrain of ‘space’ -- which is inclusive of notions of ‘place’, belonging, cultural landscapes, displacement, borders, land tenure, and built environments -- grounds much of research executed within the theme. Our research engages with a wide range of ethnographic, historic, and archaeological contexts, from collaborative partnerships with indigenous communities and disenfranchised populations to critical engagement with political and economic elites in diverse global contexts.

Take a look at the ongoing research page for more information on current research projects related to this theme.

Recent publications

  • 2020 - Thom, Brian. Encountering Indigenous Legal Orders in Canada. Invited contribution to Oxford Handbook of Law and Anthropology. Marie-Claire Foblets, editor. London: Oxford University Press. [URL coming soon]
  • 2019 - Thom, Brian. Leveraging International Power: Private Property and the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Pp. 184-203 in Scales of Governance and Indigenous Peoples' Rights, edited by Jennifer Hays and Irène Bellier. Law and the Postcolonial: Ethics, Politics, and Economy Series, Routledge, London. ISBN 9781138944480 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315671888
  • 2019 - Rudnyckyj, Daromir.  Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 
  • 2018 -Colombi, Benedict, Brian Thom and Tatiana Degai. Googling Indigenous Kamchatka: Mapping New Collaborations.  Pp. 195-203 in Indigenous Justice: New Tools, Approaches, and Spaces. Edited by Hendry, J., Tatum, M.L., Jorgensen, M., and Howard-Wagner, D. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. ISBN 978-1-137-60644-0. https://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60645-7_13
  • 2018 - Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa, Deanna Daniels, Tim Kulchyski, Andy Paul, Brian Thom, S. Marlo Twance & Suzanne Urbanczyk. Consultation, Relationship and Results in Community-Based Language Research. Bischoff, S. & C. Jany (eds.) Pp. 66-93. Perspectives on Language and Linguistics: Community-Based Research. Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/New York. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110527018-004
  • 2018 - Gonlin, N. and Nowell, A (eds.) 2018.  Archaeology of the Night.  Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.   
  • 2018 - Nowell, A. Paleolithic Soundscapes and the Emotional Resonance of Nighttime.  In Archaeology of the Night, edited by Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell.  Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. Pp. 27-44.

  • 2018 - Ann Stahl, Market Thinking: Perspectives from Saharan and Atlantic West Africa. In Market as Place and Space of Economic Exchange: Perspectives from Archaeology and Anthropology, edited by Hans Peter Hahn and Geraldine Schmitz, pp. 152-179. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

  • 2017 - Rudnyckyj, Daromir. “Subjects of Debt: Financial Subjectification and Collaborative Risk in Malaysian Islamic Finance.” American Anthropologist. 119(2): 269-283

  • 2017 - Thom, Brian. Entanglements in Coast Salish Ancestral Territories. In Entangled Territorialities: Indigenous Peoples from Canada and Australia in the 21st Century, edited by Françoise Dussart & Sylvie Poirier. Pp. 140-162. Anthropological Horizons Series, University of Toronto Press, Toronto. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1502297&site=ehost-live&scope=site&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_140