A couple of folks have asked me what I’ll do once I’m no longer blogging for The Chronicle (at the end of this month). Most people may not be all that interested in my answer, but I just thought I’d take a few minutes to respond.
1) I have to FINALLY finish my next book manuscript, which is loooonnnggg overdue to an ever-patient editor. That is my first order of business, and I hope to have some time time in early 2012 to get a draft completed. The book is an ethnographic examination of Africana Judaism. I actually took a chunk of the unfinished manuscript to Israel this summer and allowed some members of the community I’m working with (the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem) to read and critique the piece. It was tremendously helpful. And energizing! Now I just have to get the rest of the draft done.
2) Blogging for the Chronicle has meant neglecting my other blog, From the Annals of Anthroman. I hope to revive my efforts there. Since fewer people read that blog, I tend to take more liberties (for better or worse). Anthroman should also have his own comic book or TV show or something. Maybe I’ll work on that, too. (But only after the aforementioned book is done!)
3) David Kim, Rudy Busto and I have just launched a new book series, RaceReligion, with Stanford University Press. We hope to get some scholars, junior and senior, to consider publishing their work with us. I trolled the recent American Anthropological Association and American Academy of Religion conferences for potentially relevant work that might fit the series. I’ll keep hunting for possibilities next year. We hope to link some of our collaborations to a new project for The Immanent Frame.
4) Eric Klinenberg has just taken over as editor of Public Culture, a journal I read almost religiously as a grad student. I’m slated to help his new editorial board start a revamped “Public Books” section of the journal, and I’ll be looking for potential reviewers.
5) I’ve already mentioned the Oxford Press online bibliography project. It goes live next month, and we want to expand its number of entries next year.
6) I recently co-produced a low-budget ethnographic film about state violence against Rastafari in Jamaica, Bad Friday. We’ve taken it to a few film festivals already, and we plan to screen it at several universities and colleges in 2012.
7) A few faculty members and students are trying to figure out how best to institutionalize a commitment to ethnographic film at the University of Pennsylvania. At the very least, we want to figure out if we can make a clear and convincing argument for why students should be able to produce visual/digital dissertations in partial fulfillment to their PhDs. We’ll see how that goes.
