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LRCCS Noon Lecture Series | The Role of More than Humans in Making Chinese Society and History: Thinking With Elephants and Mushrooms

Michael Hathaway, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
12:00-1:00 PM
Off Campus Location
Over the last few decades, scholars from several disciplines have shown increasing interest in moving beyond anthropocentric studies to explore how animals have played a role in their own right in shaping larger social and historical outcomes. At present, China studies scholars have just begun this work. Dr. Hathaway’s talk describes some of these efforts and introduces his own studies on how wild elephants motivate and challenge international conservation efforts, as well as how a wild mushroom is shaping an important part of the rural economy in Southwest China, thus expanding attention beyond our animal kin.

Michael Hathaway received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2007, and shortly thereafter began teaching at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. He is currently an Associate Professor, director of SFU's David Lam Centre for the Asia-Pacific, and the editor-in-chief of American Ethnologist (with Stacy Pigg). His award-winning first book, "Environmental Winds: Making the Global in Southwest China," was published in 2013 by the University of California Press. One of the three core members of the anthropological collaborative, the Matsutake Worlds Research Group, he has led research in China on the social worlds made through the creation of the wild matsutake mushroom economy. Anna Tsing's book, "The Mushroom at the End of the World" was the first book in the trilogy, and Michael has just completed the second volume.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

Zoom webinar; attendance requires registration: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9X1xRzcxSkaywiAFMwwKtg
Building: Off Campus Location
Location: Virtual
Event Type: Livestream / Virtual
Tags: Anthropology, Asia, China
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, International Institute, Science, Technology & Society, Asian Languages and Cultures