Warwick Anderson

@wombatscholar.bsky.social

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Critical histories of science and medicine, science studies, postcolonial endeavours. New book on modern excrementalities: Spectacles of Waste (Polity). Writing mostly on disease ecologies and planetary health now. Living on Wangal country.

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A fairly balanced article on the 'long tail' of eugenics in Australia. Surprisingly, quotes me extensively. Let's hope it generates more historical analysis of the recursions of eugenics postWW2. Although patterns vary, the recurrent appeal needs critical study - surely a long tale! #STS #histSTM

Great science, uncomfortable history: Sir Gustav Nossal and the long tail of eugenicswww.theguardian.com Book says one of Australia’s most eminent scientists promoted discussion of eugenics in the 1960s and 70s, but not that he supported racist ideas – and researchers praise his thorough commitment to re...

Interesting contrast in institutional responses to past links with white nationalism, racism and Indigenous disposession. 20 years ago, I wrote about the involvement of the South Australian Museum and University of Adelaide in Aboriginal exploitation, receiving mixed responses. Now a push back?

One exclusive Australian institution is facing up to its deeply racist past while another backs away from it | Paul Daleywww.theguardian.com The University of Melbourne and the South Australian Museum are taking starkly different approaches to addressing their toxic histories

I think I’ve discovered my new career! www.discovertasmania.com.au/off-season/o...

Wombat Walkerwww.discovertasmania.com.au Where your passion for fitness meets a love of furry friends. Maintain the physical and mental wellbeing of our wombats by leading them on their morning excursions.

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We are delighted to have Elizabeth Stephens as our keynote speaker, of the Australasian Health and Medical Humanities network. Presenters include Guy Geltner, Megan Cassidy-Welch @megancw.bsky.social, Aydogan Kars, Rose Byfleet, ++. Please share w/ interested folks. #publichealth #healthscaping

A reminder that Spectacles of Waste is now available 'everywhere', it seems. From Polity/Wiley or your preferred book provider. Sad to say, I'm already working on the sequel: waste in space, or spaceshit earth! www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b... #STS #histSTM

I had no idea Hazan was a pediatric cardiac surgeon earlier in his career. An important figure in radical publishing, in the tradition of Maspero. What an interesting life. A nice memoir here: www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/0...

Éric Hazan, rebel publisherwww.newstatesman.com The leading French thinker has died aged 87. His cosmopolitan ease and intellectual industry is an example to the left.

The WHO's recognition of health impacts of climate change is tremendously important. Perhaps schools of public health and the training of health professionals will eventually catch up? Growing interest, still inadequate, from medical humanities, history of science & medicine, and STS #STS #histSTM

WHO General Programme of Work 2025–2028 prioritizes climate change and healthwww.who.int This initiative aims to safeguard health amidst climate challenges, foster synergies between climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, and prioritize vulnerable populations.

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youtu.be/tWyznoctmzY?... My talk at the Karolinska Institute on the shared rhetorics of antivivisection, anti vax, and anti- immigration that I gave a few weeks ago is now on YouTube.

Hagströmer Lecture 2024youtu.be Anita Guerrini, Foreign Bodies: Humans, Animals, and Vaccine Development.How do we balance our need for advances in medical treatment and desire for scientif...

This copious and frankly shocking account of Melbourne University's investment in white nationalism is all available open access. It's a model other universities might follow. www.mup.com.au/books/dhoomb...

Dhoombak Goobgoowana, Ross L Jones, James Waghorne, Marcia Langtonwww.mup.com.au Dhoombak Goobgoowana acknowledges and publicly addresses the long, complex and troubled relationship between the Indigenous people of Australia and the University of Melbourne. It is a book about race...

Went to the launch tonight of a very important history of the University of Melbourne's relations with Indigenous peoples: collecting, denial and attempted erasure. In the name of Western civilization. This seems to me an unprecedented historical reckoning. Already covered in the Guardian:

‘Denying history is simply lying’: how the University of Melbourne honoured racists, thieves and body snatcherswww.theguardian.com An unflinching examination of its own history has revealed shocking stories in the sandstone foundations of a revered institution

It seems Spectacles of Waste as a book is available in the US and UK (but Australia not yet). The electronic version available everywhere. As Anna Tsing kindly says, 'Anderson puts the "anal" back in analysis and the "colon" back in colonialism.' That's good, isn't it? #STS #anthro #histSTM #histsci

I found this article on wombat hospitality very moving, especially in view of the terrible decline in wombat numbers, which continues apace. The wombat as quiet (and beleaguered) hero.

A kangaroo, a possum and a bushrat walk into a burrow: research finds wombat homes are the supermarkets of the forestwww.theguardian.com Scientist discovers a cast of recurring characters using burrows in the aftermath of bushfire, after sifting through more than 700,000 images

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The RCC is organizing a workshop on "Imagining #Planetary #Health, Well-Being, and #Habitalibilty: Perspectives from the Environmental Humanities" in October 2024. The deadline closes soon! Read the full call here: www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/news/news_ev... #rccnews #envhum #cfp

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Episode Out Now! Listen to the extraordinary @profemmakowal.bsky.social discuss her new book 'Haunting Biology: Science and Indigeneity in Australia' and the need to face the ghosts of science-past to ensure a more just and thoughtful science-future. #hps #histSTM #STS #PhilSci 🧪

S3 Ep 9 - Emma Kowal on 'Haunting Biology' - The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Sciencethehpspodcast.buzzsprout.com How are we to understand Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century?Is it a racist ruse, a stubborn residue of racial pseudoscience?Or is it a potentially empowering force that can b...

I usually find Guardian interviews a bit flat, but I like this one with Warren Ellis from the amazing Dirty Three. So, whales are like Marlon Brando in the Godfather: 'I think they'd probably make the greatest therapists.' How true. I'd give the sandwich a miss though.

Warren Ellis on Steve Albini, Mad Max and the best sandwich: ‘Whipped cream and banana on white bread’www.theguardian.com Asked 10 random questions, the Dirty Three musician talks about watching bad TV with Marianne Faithfull, cleaning toilets and the best advice Albini gave him

Glad to know those of us down south won't miss the show! Hoping to stay up for this display of the aurora australis later tonight.

Aurora australis: spectacular southern lights might be seen as far north as Queensland after ‘extreme’ solar stormwww.theguardian.com Bureau of Meteorology says aurora australis could be visible near Sydney and Perth between Saturday 10pm and Sunday 2am, while warning of storm’s impacts

I very much wanted to go next week to Canberra for the launch of Deborah Bird Rose's posthumous Dreaming Ecology - a very important study of Indigenous ecologies. I miss Debbie so much, hard to believe it's 6 years since we last heard her wise and warm words. Sadly, I'll be stuck in Sydney then.

Book Launch: Dreaming Ecology: Nomadics and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, Victoria River, Northern Australia | School of Culture, History & Languagechl.anu.edu.au Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this page contains images of deceased persons.

Should be an interesting lecture - but what really intrigues me is the image. @hanspols.bsky.social

I suspect the late Jerome Rothenberg would have appreciated their songs too. Haunting audio. ‘I’m a blue whale, I’m here’

‘I’m a blue whale, I’m here’: researchers listen with delight to songs that hint at Antarctic resurgencewww.theguardian.com Audio collected with underwater microphones suggests numbers at least stable after centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred alive

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Beautiful obituary by @nytimes' Clay Risen for poet Jerome Rothenberg, whose hugely influential "Technicians of the Sacred" brought indigenous poetries into Western conciousness. [gift link] www.nytimes.com/2024/05/05/b...

Jerome Rothenberg, Who Expanded the Sphere of Poetry, Dies at 92www.nytimes.com His anthology “Technicians of the Sacred” included a range of non-Western work and was beloved by, among others, rock stars like Jim Morrison and Nick Cave.

I see grad students at Penn have unionized! I was one of a gang trying this in 1989-90 to no effect. We were denounced for imagining that US universities were run like business corporations. Looks like recent events proved us right. The anti-union grad students are now mostly senior administrators

Overwhelming majority of Penn graduate student workers vote to unionizewww.thedp.com The vote passed by a 1,807-97 margin. With this victory, the organization becomes the largest union at Penn in recent memory, representing over 3,700 workers.

So far, an interesting contrast to the situation in the US. We'll see how long it lasts.....

Australian universities reject calls for police to break up Gaza protestswww.theguardian.com Group of Eight chief says campuses don’t want to see ‘escalation’ like what is occurring in the US

So sad to learn of the death of Lyndall Ryan, a dear friend, vital colleague, and dedicated exponent of truth telling in the Australian history wars. Her determined documentation of Indigenous massacres transformed our understanding of the colonial frontier. A moving tribute from Ann Curthoys.

Lyndall Ryan’s impact on Australian history research will be felt for many years to come | Ann Curthoyswww.theguardian.com Ryan’s rigorous, public-facing study of frontier violence and massacres led to the massacre map, which continues to attract international attention. She was also a cherished friend

I owe it all to Mr Squiggle, my hero. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

From Crater Crescent to Canberra: Mr Squiggle gets a new home at the National Museum of Australiawww.theguardian.com The original pencil-nosed puppet and objects including fellow puppets, artworks, scripts, costumes and more have become part of the National Historical Collection

I feel like I'm missing out. The cicadas were loud in Sydney last summer, but probably not this loud. The insects are talking back to humans, while they can. wapo.st/3xRVKMF

Cicadas are emerging — and they’re so loud, some called the sheriffwapo.st Some in Newberry County, S.C., thought the noise was a siren. The sheriff assured them it was just cicadas.

Congratulations to @bethlinker.bsky.social on her posture (book). Good to see history of science/medicine getting noticed - even if it's about the 'phrenology of the 20th century'! #histsci #histSTM

Beth Linker Is Turning Good Posture on Its Headwww.nytimes.com A historian and sociologist of science re-examines the “posture panic” of the last century. You’ll want to sit down for this.

As it's still #earthday somewhere, worth sharing this plea for planetary health ethics. When Potter coined 'bioethics' just before the first Earth Day in 1970, he meant to connect medical ethics with land ethics and the biosphere. Now even more necessary, at scale. Open access. #STS #envhist #envhum

Toward Planetary Health Ethics? Refiguring Bios in Bioethics - Journal of Bioethical Inquirylink.springer.com In responding to perceived crises—such as the COVID-19 pandemic—in routinized ways, contemporary bioethics can make us prisoners of the proximate. Rather, we need bioethics to recognize and engage wit...

Congratulations to Geoff Bowker and Annemarie Mol, awarded the Bernal Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science - for distinguished contributions to science and technology studies. This is the Society's lifetime achievement award. Nice images accompanying the announcement! #STS #histSTM

2024 John Desmond Bernal PrizeSearchMobile Menu4sonline.org

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The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Early access publication of an expansive review by @eddieholmes.bsky.social: a review that actually grapples with the details of SARS2 origins, and includes mention of some truly remarkable never-published data! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 | Annual Reviewswww.annualreviews.org The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has evoked heated debate and strong accusations, yet seemingly little resolution. I review the scientific evidence on the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and its subsequent spread throug...

@robertpeckham.bsky.social talking about fear and hope on ABC Radio National - along with a few others. Peckham always seems so astute and measured. Take a look at his recent book, Fear: An Alternative History of the World (2023). Timely, alas.

Fear and anger – the complicated emotions that govern our world - ABC listenwww.abc.net.au Authoritarians rule through fear. We can clearly see that from China to the Middle East to eastern Europe. But why do we constantly overlook the way in which fear also shapes democratic societies? It'...