Anthropology Off the Shelf - by Alisse Waterston & Maria D Vesperi (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Anthropology off the Shelf, leading anthropologists reflect on the craft of writing and the passions that fuel their desire to write books.

• First of its kind volume in anthropology in which prominent anthropologists and 3 respected professionals outside the discipline follow the tradition of the "writers on writing" genre to reflect on all aspects of the writing process
• Contributors are high-profile in anthropology and many have a strong presence outside the field, in popular culture
• Unique in its format: short essays, revealing and straightforward in content and writing style

From the Back Cover

In Anthropology off the Shelf, leading anthropologists reflect on the craft of writing and the passions that fuel their desire to write books. At the core is a critical analysis of the ways in which anthropologists routinely frame, illustrate and contextualize new ideas about culture, and whether their methods facilitate or hinder engagement with the well-informed general reader. The eighteen contributors reveal their inspirations, their concerns about the writing process, their narrative strategies and their imagined audiences, as well as their habits and how they motivate people to read what they write. Each author reflects on the successes and failures of their strategic choices in writing and communicating anthropological subjects in the public sphere.

The reader will find rich but rarely tapped insights into the essential components and commitments of writing public anthropology, and how these writers steer through the difficult issues of racism, sexism, real and imagined critics, and ethical quandaries.

Review Quotes

"The essays are both provocative and provoking, compelling and edgy. Whether this thrust in anthropology or in academia in general will continue, books like this are required to keep the intellectual energy within the academy vital and engaged. Indispensible reading across disciplines. Summing Up: Essential." (CHOICE, October 2009)

"This wonderful collection of essays explores an essential question: how do we tell an untold story? The answers will inspire any anthropologist-writer with the nerve to take a shot."
-David Kushner, author of Levittown and Masters of Doom

"This book should be on many of our must read lists! Its provocative contents should inspire anthropologists and other social scientists to think more courageously about what it can mean--both for us and our potentially expanded and diversified audiences--if more of us "come out" asserting identities as writers. This collection makes a compelling argument that anthropological writing needn't be confined to conventional "academese," which seriously limits our public reach and social impact."
-Faye V. Harrison, Professor of Anthropology and Director of African American Studies, University of Florida, Author of Outsider Within: Reworking Anthropology in the Global Age

"Turning research into stories that matter to all of us is an art scholars too rarely aspire to, let alone master. The anthropologists in this collection tell the tale of that challenge with inspiring passion, showing in the telling what gifted writers they have become."
-Trevor Brown, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University Bloomington

"It's inspiring to see behind the curtain of anthropologists, some of the world's most influential storytellers, read of their insecurities, passion, and a sense of mission one essayist says is the human responsibility "to creatively offer something to the world.""
-Keith Woods, Dean, The Poynter Institute

About the Author

Alisse Waterston is Professor of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Author of Love, Sorrow and Rage: Destitute Women in a Manhattan Residence (1999), she is currently working on two intimate ethnographies: Out of the Shadows of History and Memory: Writing My Father's Life and Narrating Poland.

Maria D. Vesperi is Professor of Anthropology at New College of Florida and a trustee of the Poynter Institute. Author of City of Green Benches: Growing Old in a New Downtown (1986), she is currently completing a book on the relationship between ethnographic narrative and narrative journalism and developing a 150-year social history of a utopian community turned company town.