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Society for the Anthropology of Work
Welcome
The Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) is a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Our goal is to advance the study of work, in the broadest sense, and to communicate that knowledge to the world.
SAW is committed to centering the contributions of scholars of color and to advancing an antiracist, decolonial anthropology of work. Stay tuned for the relaunch of our website, as well as other events and activities, in 2025.
Announcements
Published: Nov 20, 2024
A regularly updated list of books for review in Exertions.
Published: Nov 19, 2024
The meeting will take place on Zoom at 11:45am Eastern on Wednesday, November 20.
Published: Nov 16, 2024
SAW will offer informal hybrid access to the in-person sessions the section is sponsoring at the AAA annual meeting.
Published: Mar 25, 2024
Following consultation with our members, the SAW Executive Board has released the following statement.
Original Exertions
Published: Aug 08, 2024
Published: Apr 26, 2023
Reflections on the special issue of Anthropology of Work Review, "Immunocapital and Capitalist Immunities"
Published: Apr 04, 2023
A videoessay on AI labor, authored by Dayna McLeod, drawing upon labor from an AI writer and AI voice actor. Additional commentary by Lisa Messeri.
Published: Jan 18, 2023
Brie Berry reflects on the emotional burdens of reuse economies and the problem of waste.
Book Reviews
JE
Published: Dec 01, 2024
Book review of Viola Thimm's Shopping with Allah: Muslim Pilgrimage in a Globalised World (2023)
SK
Published: Oct 22, 2024
Book review of Malcolm Ferdinand's Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World (2022 English, 2019 French)
HE
Published: Oct 13, 2024
Book review of Helen Sampson's Sea-Time: An Ethnographic Adventure (2024)
RS
Published: Oct 02, 2024
Book review of Margaret Jack's Media Ruins: Cambodian Postwar Media Reconstruction and the Geopolitics of Technology (2023)
Teaching Tools
MB
LP
Published: Sep 04, 2024
This module prompts students to analyze how working-class struggles have been shaped by gender norms and in turn how feminist critics have questioned the boundaries of “work.”
SI
RP
Published: Mar 25, 2024
Rebecca Prentice reflects on the value of peer facilitation as a teaching tool in the anthropology of work, and how it helps students learn about the labor of teaching anthropology itself.
SI
JF
ZS
Published: May 28, 2022
A reflection on teaching time and labor in the classroom, building Marx's insights on class struggles over the working day.
