Rachel Smith
@valuequestion.bsky.social
Scotland-based Lecturer in Anthropology & Museum Studies. Vanuatu/Pacific; economic anthro, value, labour migration. Co-Editor, Anthropology of Work Review @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Many university presses - Incl Oxford Cambridge and Liverpool - have not-for-profit status AND run multiple well regarded journals. Consciously prioritising NFP publishers is a small thing, but wholly achievable.
“Reclaiming academic publishing as a public good requires a return to not-for-profit models & sustainable open-access systems. Quality, accessibility & integrity need to be put ahead of profit. Change is needed to protect the purpose of academic research: to advance knowledge in the public interest”
The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.
theconversation.com
January 11, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Many university presses - Incl Oxford Cambridge and Liverpool - have not-for-profit status AND run multiple well regarded journals. Consciously prioritising NFP publishers is a small thing, but wholly achievable.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Are you working on the anthropology of labour and work? Then this may be the panel at EASA2026 for you! Submit your abstracts until January 26 2026.
Tag us in your announcements so that we may repost them.
We look forward to seeing you in Poznań
#conference #easaanthro #anthropology #EASA2026
Tag us in your announcements so that we may repost them.
We look forward to seeing you in Poznań
#conference #easaanthro #anthropology #EASA2026
The editorial collective of @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social and the #Anthropology_of_Labour network invite contributions exploring how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and giving rise to new forms of resistance and solidarity #EASA2026
@easainfo.bsky.social
@easainfo.bsky.social
P159: The Work of Resistance: Possibilities for Labour in Polarising Worlds [Anthropology of Labour (AoL)]
This panel sponsored by the Anthropology of Labour Network and the journal Anthropology of Work Review will explore how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and givin...
nomadit.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Are you working on the anthropology of labour and work? Then this may be the panel at EASA2026 for you! Submit your abstracts until January 26 2026.
Tag us in your announcements so that we may repost them.
We look forward to seeing you in Poznań
#conference #easaanthro #anthropology #EASA2026
Tag us in your announcements so that we may repost them.
We look forward to seeing you in Poznań
#conference #easaanthro #anthropology #EASA2026
Reposted by Rachel Smith
@anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
Editorial Collective invites contributions to P 159 “The work of resistance: possibilities of labour in polarizing worlds” at #EASA2026
CfP closes on 26 Jan 26
See you in Poznan!
#anthropology
@saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social
Editorial Collective invites contributions to P 159 “The work of resistance: possibilities of labour in polarizing worlds” at #EASA2026
CfP closes on 26 Jan 26
See you in Poznan!
#anthropology
@saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social
The editorial collective of @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social and the #Anthropology_of_Labour network invite contributions exploring how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and giving rise to new forms of resistance and solidarity #EASA2026
@easainfo.bsky.social
@easainfo.bsky.social
P159: The Work of Resistance: Possibilities for Labour in Polarising Worlds [Anthropology of Labour (AoL)]
This panel sponsored by the Anthropology of Labour Network and the journal Anthropology of Work Review will explore how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and givin...
nomadit.co.uk
January 6, 2026 at 5:49 PM
@anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
Editorial Collective invites contributions to P 159 “The work of resistance: possibilities of labour in polarizing worlds” at #EASA2026
CfP closes on 26 Jan 26
See you in Poznan!
#anthropology
@saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social
Editorial Collective invites contributions to P 159 “The work of resistance: possibilities of labour in polarizing worlds” at #EASA2026
CfP closes on 26 Jan 26
See you in Poznan!
#anthropology
@saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Want a heritage job? In beautiful usually-there’s-not-this-much-snow #Orkney?
As part of our community project to reopen the Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles to visitors, we now have three paid positions advertised for 2026.
For more info follow the link. Applications close 5pm, 18 January.
🏺
As part of our community project to reopen the Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles to visitors, we now have three paid positions advertised for 2026.
For more info follow the link. Applications close 5pm, 18 January.
🏺
Work with us
We are happy to announce that we are now advertising three (3) paid positions at the Tomb of the Eagles for 2026. The positions are a Heritage Manager who will oversee day-to-day running of the site…
tomboftheeagles.co.uk
January 5, 2026 at 12:34 PM
Want a heritage job? In beautiful usually-there’s-not-this-much-snow #Orkney?
As part of our community project to reopen the Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles to visitors, we now have three paid positions advertised for 2026.
For more info follow the link. Applications close 5pm, 18 January.
🏺
As part of our community project to reopen the Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles to visitors, we now have three paid positions advertised for 2026.
For more info follow the link. Applications close 5pm, 18 January.
🏺
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Sciences like anthropology are so valuable because they provide refutations to "this is the way it always was, and thus the way it has to be" type assertions. Its very different to the science I do, but perhaps even more valuable.
honestly something i'm noticing is that whenever a midwit hack wants to make an empirical claim about "the way humanity is" without reading any social science they always just go to primatology
December 26, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Sciences like anthropology are so valuable because they provide refutations to "this is the way it always was, and thus the way it has to be" type assertions. Its very different to the science I do, but perhaps even more valuable.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
‘The conflict in West Papua may be the world’s most unequal war: raids on military bases have improved the TPNPB’s fighting capacity, but they still often face Indonesian jets and missiles armed only with bows and arrows.’
Douglas Gerrard:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Douglas Gerrard:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Douglas Gerrard | Escalation in West Papua
The conflict in West Papua may be the world’s most unequal war: raids on military bases have improved the West Papua...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 8:21 AM
‘The conflict in West Papua may be the world’s most unequal war: raids on military bases have improved the TPNPB’s fighting capacity, but they still often face Indonesian jets and missiles armed only with bows and arrows.’
Douglas Gerrard:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Douglas Gerrard:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
It will surprise nobody that the cataloguing system that is slopwashing like this turns out to be Primo.
(If you're not sure what system your university library uses: have you ever searched for a book and been offered three pages of links to reviews instead? That was Primo too.)
(If you're not sure what system your university library uses: have you ever searched for a book and been offered three pages of links to reviews instead? That was Primo too.)
When viewing the fake article in Google scholar on my university network, there is a link to access the article via my uni's library. That link sends me to a library page that makes fake article appear real... Turns out library page is made programmatically from info on Google scholar 🤦
December 21, 2025 at 8:31 AM
It will surprise nobody that the cataloguing system that is slopwashing like this turns out to be Primo.
(If you're not sure what system your university library uses: have you ever searched for a book and been offered three pages of links to reviews instead? That was Primo too.)
(If you're not sure what system your university library uses: have you ever searched for a book and been offered three pages of links to reviews instead? That was Primo too.)
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Reposted by Rachel Smith
The editorial collective of @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social and the #Anthropology_of_Labour network invite contributions exploring how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and giving rise to new forms of resistance and solidarity #EASA2026
@easainfo.bsky.social
@easainfo.bsky.social
P159: The Work of Resistance: Possibilities for Labour in Polarising Worlds [Anthropology of Labour (AoL)]
This panel sponsored by the Anthropology of Labour Network and the journal Anthropology of Work Review will explore how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and givin...
nomadit.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The editorial collective of @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social and the #Anthropology_of_Labour network invite contributions exploring how different polarisations in the world today are both reconfiguring work and giving rise to new forms of resistance and solidarity #EASA2026
@easainfo.bsky.social
@easainfo.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Smith
And I had the immense privilege to illustrate the book cover 🍉🍉🍉
#OpenAccess! MIGRATION AS ANCHORAGE: Ethnography of a Palestinian Family in London by Michelle Obeid has now been published!
Find out more here: bit.ly/3KaYESJ
#MigrationStudies #Anthropology #ConflictStudies
Find out more here: bit.ly/3KaYESJ
#MigrationStudies #Anthropology #ConflictStudies
December 16, 2025 at 5:17 PM
And I had the immense privilege to illustrate the book cover 🍉🍉🍉
Mohammed has received an unconditional offer to study a postgraduate degree in Data Science at University of Aberdeen. Please donate if you can, and share www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/gaza-to-ab...
Support Mohammed’s journey from Gaza to Aberdeen
Help Mohammed take up his postgraduate studies at Aberdeen University 2026
www.crowdfunder.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Mohammed has received an unconditional offer to study a postgraduate degree in Data Science at University of Aberdeen. Please donate if you can, and share www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/gaza-to-ab...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
December 17, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Check out @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Anthropology of Work Review's most read article of 2025: “Activism Was a Survival Strategy”: Chronic Illness & the Power of Endometriosis Activism as Work @anikakoenig.bsky.social & Caroline Meier zu Biesen anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library
This article is part of the special issue “Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work”, Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksc...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Check out @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Anthropology of Work Review's most read article of 2025: “Activism Was a Survival Strategy”: Chronic Illness & the Power of Endometriosis Activism as Work @anikakoenig.bsky.social & Caroline Meier zu Biesen anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
'As a humanities professor myself, the biggest danger I see to the discipline is the growing perception, fueled by the ubiquity of large language models, that knowledge is cheap—a resource whose procurement ought to be easy and frictionless.' 1/2
Stop Trying to Make the Humanities ‘Relevant’
For humanities departments to continue to matter, they must challenge the modern world rather than accommodate it.
www.theatlantic.com
December 15, 2025 at 12:44 PM
'As a humanities professor myself, the biggest danger I see to the discipline is the growing perception, fueled by the ubiquity of large language models, that knowledge is cheap—a resource whose procurement ought to be easy and frictionless.' 1/2
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Those of us under £100,000 pa keep getting told we have to do more with less because the sector is in crisis. It doesn’t seem in crisis for those n six-figure salaries though? The Principal got yet another £5,000 bump, and the 140-150,000 bracket exploded. www.finance.qmul.ac.uk/media/financ...
December 8, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Those of us under £100,000 pa keep getting told we have to do more with less because the sector is in crisis. It doesn’t seem in crisis for those n six-figure salaries though? The Principal got yet another £5,000 bump, and the 140-150,000 bracket exploded. www.finance.qmul.ac.uk/media/financ...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
If you work on anthropology of labour/organising take a look our #EASA2026 panel P159 co-organised with Anthropology of Labour Network easaonline.org/easa-confere...
December 10, 2025 at 4:55 PM
If you work on anthropology of labour/organising take a look our #EASA2026 panel P159 co-organised with Anthropology of Labour Network easaonline.org/easa-confere...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Lots of amazing looking panels on themes of work and labour...
📣The call for papers and labs for EASA2026 Poznań is now open. Submit your abstracts until 26 January 2026!
More info in the comments.
#easa2026 #anthropology #conference #ApplyNow #anthropologist
More info in the comments.
#easa2026 #anthropology #conference #ApplyNow #anthropologist
December 10, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Lots of amazing looking panels on themes of work and labour...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Spending on consultants.
There is nothing more pointless yet more dangerous than the consultant class—they know nothing about anything yet they proclaim expertise on everything. Their only purpose is eviscerating labor, enabling the right, and destroying academic freedoms.
There is nothing more pointless yet more dangerous than the consultant class—they know nothing about anything yet they proclaim expertise on everything. Their only purpose is eviscerating labor, enabling the right, and destroying academic freedoms.
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2
December 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Spending on consultants.
There is nothing more pointless yet more dangerous than the consultant class—they know nothing about anything yet they proclaim expertise on everything. Their only purpose is eviscerating labor, enabling the right, and destroying academic freedoms.
There is nothing more pointless yet more dangerous than the consultant class—they know nothing about anything yet they proclaim expertise on everything. Their only purpose is eviscerating labor, enabling the right, and destroying academic freedoms.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
We can have AI students take AI classes from AI professors and charge them in crypto bucks and maybe we can keep this shit away from the rest of us who want to have human interactions.
"The math is brutal and the juxtaposition stark: millions for OpenAI while pink slips go out to longtime lecturers. The CSU isn’t investing in education—it’s outsourcing it, paying premium prices for a chatbot many students were already using for free."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
We can have AI students take AI classes from AI professors and charge them in crypto bucks and maybe we can keep this shit away from the rest of us who want to have human interactions.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Worth checking out: @amethno.bsky.social's new online collection featuring ten essays on the anthropology of free trade: americanethnologist.org/online-conte...
Anthropology of Free Trade - American Ethnological Society
Nothing Found
americanethnologist.org
December 4, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Worth checking out: @amethno.bsky.social's new online collection featuring ten essays on the anthropology of free trade: americanethnologist.org/online-conte...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
We were delighted to get a shout-out from @joedeville.bsky.social recognising us as a scholar-led press working to improve the scholarly publishing landscape in today's #OAWeek webinar from @openlibhums.org on Mainstreaming Diamond Open Access
October 24, 2025 at 12:46 PM
We were delighted to get a shout-out from @joedeville.bsky.social recognising us as a scholar-led press working to improve the scholarly publishing landscape in today's #OAWeek webinar from @openlibhums.org on Mainstreaming Diamond Open Access
Reposted by Rachel Smith
I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.
December 2, 2025 at 10:59 AM
I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
I would love for more French people to read “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency” by Fanny Pigaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla. Currently 50% off at Pluto Books.
www.plutobooks.com/product/afri...
www.plutobooks.com/product/afri...
Africa's Last Colonial Currency - Pluto Press
How the CFA Franc enabled France to continue its colonies in Africa
www.plutobooks.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:27 AM
I would love for more French people to read “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency” by Fanny Pigaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla. Currently 50% off at Pluto Books.
www.plutobooks.com/product/afri...
www.plutobooks.com/product/afri...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
"1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” abt AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to "democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate
Workers say the firm’s ‘warp-speed’ approach fuels pressure, layoffs and rising emissions
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:52 AM
"1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” abt AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to "democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...