The California Series in Public Anthropology is a groundbreaking collection of books that share a common goal: to emphasize the anthropologist’s role as an engaged intellectual. Books in the series affirm anthropology’s commitment to bearing ethnographic witness, to describing, through stories, how life is lived beyond the borders of many readers’ experiences. But it also adds a commitment through ethnography to reframing the terms of public debate—transforming received, accepted understandings of social issues with new insights and frameworks. Launched in 2001 by Robert Borofsky, the series includes seminal books by anthropologists Paul Farmer, Philippe Bourgois, Aihwa Ong, Arthur Kleinman, Margaret Lock, Seth Holmes, Carolyn Nordstrom, Didier Fassin, Jason De León, and David Vine.
Series editor Ieva Jusionyte partnered with Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs to host the New Books in Public Anthropology Virtual Café, an event to discuss the exciting releases in the series. This year’s event featured comments from:
- Nicole Fabricant, Professor of Anthropology at Towson University, co–executive editor of NACLA Report on the Americas, and author of Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore
- Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, and author of Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima’s Gray Zone
- Victoria Sanford, Professor of Anthropology at City University of New York, and author of Textures of Terror: The Murder of Claudina Isabel Velasquez and Her Father’s Quest for Justice.
Learn more about the series
