Description:

Join us for this mini-lecture followed by a discussion with Cal Biruk (Anthropology, McMaster University), moderated by Diego Arispe-Bazán (Anthropology, Northwestern University).

Drawing on long term research in Malawi, this talk will draw on material from Cal's earlier ethnographic work with panel survey projects led by Northern epidemiologists and demographers. It will also discuss recent work that ethnographically tracks the implementation of a population size estimate technique devised for counting wildlife (such as birds or fish) with communities of African men who have sex with men. This work draws attention to how efforts to count and care for vulnerable human populations are haunted by racialized relations of capture and elusion that are simultaneously predatory and capacitating for the (un)counted.

About Cal Biruk

Cal Biruk is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at McMaster University. Their research and teaching interests include critical global health studies, Science and Technology Studies, medical anthropology and queer studies. They are the author of Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World (Duke University Press) and numerous articles in journals such as American Ethnologist, Medical Anthropology Quarterly and Body & Society. They are also the co-author of a book titled Birding (under contract, Duke University Press) that explores the pleasures and politics of birdwatching.

About the Elliott Speaker Series

As part of the Elliott Scholars Program, the Buffett Institute invites academics, practitioners and activists working in areas related to international development to the Northwestern campus for short residencies. While on campus, these guests engage with the Elliott Scholars cohort and the wider Northwestern community.

Please note that 720 University Place is not an ADA-accessible space. Increasing physical access to buildings and facilities is a goal of the University, but not all buildings and venues have been updated.