Michael Agar
Ethknoworks LLC

The "methods fair" at Oxford, sponsored by the UK Economics and Social Research Council, more or less like the U.S. National Science Foundation, turned out to be a mind trip, literally, since I was honored that they would fly me all that way to be part of it.

Most interesting was the special (more…)

I have as many problems as any other American of Irish descent. Whenever I visit the UK, a dual colonial mentality surges forth, like Franz Fanon described, only double barrel. A couple of pints of Guinness wash it way pretty quickly, along with a conversation with a few British friends.

I wondered if being (more…)

Michael Agar is a well-known researcher in linguistic anthropology. In the field of applied linguistics more generally he is especially known for his path-breaking work on “languaculture”, a concept that calls attention to the inextricable bond between language and culture.
He was born in Chicago on May 7, 1945, moving to the San Francisco Bay Area (more…)

For reasons that don't matter I just did a two-page essay on how centers of science should pay attention to human social research as something other than an example of bad 19th century chemistry. I kind of like it so thought I'd put it on the blog. Here it is:

A suggested workshop topic: (more…)

How the West Was Won ...
... or Maybe Lost


A consortium of ecologists at the University of New Mexico asked presenter to integrate human/social research and urban ecology into their research program. This presentation is based on research (more…)

Abstract for Public Anthropology Lecture
Linköping University
April 26, 2010

It’s Not Your Grandparent’s Anthropology.


Since Boas and Malinowski in the early 20th century, the image of the anthropologist has been the same: A European or American, alone, living with people of color in a small impoverished isolated community, in Africa (more…)

Abstract for Linguistics Seminar

Institutional Discourse Then and Now: Bottles Change But The Wine Stays The Same

Linköping University
April 27, 2010
Michael Agar

In the 1980s “institutional discourse” represented an intersection of two intellectual trends in the U.S. First of all, “linguistics” was breaking out from under the Chomsky hegemony, and several different (more…)

A regional center in Sweden dedicated to the integration of research and practice invited me to give a workshop in April. This is the abstract.

Narrative Workshop
Skaraborg Institute
Michael Agar, workshop coordinator
www.ethknoworks.com


“Narrative” is now a concept of interest in numerous fields. Even analysis of quantitative data, for example, can (more…)

It's been a long few weeks with a fair amount of travel. I'm just home from the fourth trip in the last month or so. I can't believe that there are still large numbers of people who don't know you have to take your shoes off when you go through airport security. So why (more…)

In February we gave the first paper from the UNM ecology project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings in San Diego. My favorite part of the day was the poster session for high school kids in the main exhibition hall. There may be hope for the future.

Here's the press (more…)