Autor: Stefan Barjaktarevic

Researcher and blogger on anthropology and archaeology, currently focusing mainly on the study of religion, identity and nationalism.
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Postcolonialism, 2Pac, and the borders in our head

I had an interesting conversation last night with my former teacher in Iranian studies. We were sitting at the bank of the river Main, listening to 2pac and talking about colonialism in history and politics in the Middle West (aka Europe).

In that context, he led me read his newest article. It wasn’t edited or refined in any way but as soon as it is published, I see there is potential to write a review of that article here.

And just so you don’t set your expectations too high:
2Pac wasn’t mentioned there.

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“Academia vs the public”? – Part 2 of X

An amazing essay I just finished reading tackling the issue at hand in great detail. I’ll just leave it here and let it speak for itself. My next post might be a review, adding my own experience and take on it.

I actually like this series kind of thing I am doing here. Excited for the next part myself.

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Beautiful comic I want to share with you

I learned that in Japanese, there is the word “go-en”, meaning a fateful encounter. I guess there is no better way to describe the story Mr. Sato from “Visual Anthropology of Japan” found on twitter. It is so wholesome, it actually made me tear up. I appreciate every time I see someone effectively using their medium to ewoke deep emotions and convey a meaningful message. I highly recommend reading Mr. Sato’s Translation.
(In case you understand Japanese, here is the original Tweet)

Take care

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“Academia vs the public”? – Part 1 of X

In our hours-long discussions, my friend Alex and I often bring up the importance of the relationship between academia and the public and how bad it is currently.

The discussions get somehow heated because there is no one to blame it on really. Is it “the mob” who are ignorant, unwilling to listen and learn something meaningful? Or is it the scientists in the notorious “ivory tower” who are not able to communicate their knowledge and make their work accessible – or meaningful at all?

As soon as we determine one factor, we see immediately that it is more complicated than that and more often than not we argue against our own statement (We are just two dudes high on maté, but we are good at steelmanning).

It’s an Hen Egg Problem, I guess. I will keep you up to date on this one.

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Emil Nasritdinov

I found this blogpost about Professor Emil Nasritdinov, written by Ali Reza Yasa . I had the privilege to be a student of Mr Nasritdinov myself and the blogpost perfectly reflects my own experience with him and his teaching style.

He has an authentic and down-to-earth way of teaching. As students we felt nothing but mutual respect in our classes and the discussions were always at eye level. He is one of the academics that inspire me to follow the path of educating and sharing knowledge in a way that captures the attention and sparks interest in the topic.

I hope to meet him again and wish him all the best for the future.