Susan Falls
Susan Falls (falls dot susan at gmail dot com) is a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses on agency, semiotics, and political economy. Interested in exploring how meaning-making works within the production, circulation, and use of material culture, Falls has worked with communities of dissent forming around diamonds, public art, ikat silk, breast milk, and robots. She is the author of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing (2017), and Overshot: The Political Aesthetic of Woven Textiles (with Jessica Smith (forthcoming)). Currently working on an ethnography of plant life, Falls teaches anthropology at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
less
InterestsView All (39)
Uploads
The essays in this volume address the question: what does it mean to understand the contemporary moment in light of the 1930s? In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and facing a dramatic rise of right wing, authoritarian politics across the globe, the events of the 1930s have acquired a renewed relevance. Contributions from a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars address the relationship between these historical moments in various geographical contexts, from Asia-Pacific to Europe to the Americas, while probing an array of thematic questions―the meaning of populism and fascism, the contradictions of constitutional liberalism and “militant democracy,” long cycles and crisis tendencies in capitalism, the gendering and racialization of right wing movements, and the cultural and class politics of emancipatory struggles. Uncovering continuity as well as change and repetition in the midst of transition, Back to the 30s? enriches our ability to use the past to evaluate the challenges, dangers, and promises of the present.
Covers a wide swath of geographies, topics, and disciplines to provide a multifaceted and scholarly understanding of our relationship to the ‘30s
Raises fundamental theoretical questions about the temporality of global capitalism, the meaning of historical materialism, and the limits of liberalism
The essays in this volume address the question: what does it mean to understand the contemporary moment in light of the 1930s? In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and facing a dramatic rise of right wing, authoritarian politics across the globe, the events of the 1930s have acquired a renewed relevance. Contributions from a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars address the relationship between these historical moments in various geographical contexts, from Asia-Pacific to Europe to the Americas, while probing an array of thematic questions—the meaning of populism and fascism, the contradictions of constitutional liberalism and “militant democracy,” long cycles and crisis tendencies in capitalism, the gendering and racialization of right wing movements, and the cultural and class politics of emancipatory struggles. Uncovering continuity as well as change and repetition in the midst of transition, Back to the 30s? enriches our ability to use the past to evaluate the challenges, dangers, and promises of the present.
See research exhibition catalog (Fold/Unfold) here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1548165727/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3
EXCERPT HERE: https://unpblog.com/2017/09/08/excerpt-white-gold/
Women have shared breast milk for eons, but in White Gold, Susan Falls shows how the meanings of capitalism, technology, motherhood, and risk can be understood against the backdrop of an emerging practice in which donors and recipients of breast milk are connected through social media in the southern United States.Drawing on her own experience as a participant, Falls describes the sharing community. She also presents narratives from donors, doulas, medical professionals, and recipients to provide a holistic ethnographic account. Situating her subject within cross-cultural comparisons of historically shifting attitudes about breast milk, Falls shows how sharing white gold seen as a scarce, valuable, even mysterious substance is a mode of enacting parenthood, gender, and political values. Though breast milk is increasingly being commodified, Falls argues that sharing is a powerful and empowering practice. Far from uniform, participants may be like-minded about parenting but not other issues, so their acquaintanceships add new textures to the body politic. In this interdisciplinary account, White Gold shows how sharing simultaneously reproduces the capitalist values that it disrupts while encouraging community-making between strangers.
REVIEWS:
REVIEWS
• Reyes-Foster, Beatriz. 2017. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12437
• Castaneda, Angela. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Journal for the Anthropology of North America 21(1): 39-40.
• Costello, Michael. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Allegra Lab. http://allegralaboratory.net/review-white-gold-stories-of-breast-milk-sharing/
• Tunc, Tanfer Emir. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Gender & Society. x(x): xx.
• Abadie, Roberto, Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medicine Anthropology Theory. http://medanthrotheory.org/read/11062/white-gold
• Abadie, Roberto. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medicine Anthropology Theory. http://medanthrotheory.org/read/11062/white-gold
• Castaneda, Angela. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Journal for the Anthropology of North America 21(1): 39-40.
• Costello, Michael. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Allegra Lab. http://allegralaboratory.net/review-white-gold-stories-of-breast-milk-sharing/
• Jardine, Fiona. 2019. "Book Review: White Gold " Journal of Human Lactation 1-2. doi: 10.1177/0890334419868161 journals.sagepub.com/home/jhl
• Murray de Lopez, Jenna. 2019. "Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 25 (4):813-815.
• Nolas, Sevasti-Melissa. 2018. "Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Falls, Susan)." Anthropology in Action / Journal for Applied Anthropology in Policy and Practice 25 (3):47049.
• Reyes-Foster, Beatriz. 2017. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12437
• Tunc, Tanfer Emir. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Gender & Society. x(x): xx.
• Veile, Amanda and Rivera, Sydney. 2018. "Book Review: White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls." American Journal of Human Biology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23191.
• Wilson, Kristin. 2019. "Book Review: White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls." American Anthropologist 121(1):275-276.
http://www.amazon.com/Clarity-Cut-Culture-Meanings-Diamonds/dp/1479879908
Reviews
Reviews of Clarity, Cut and Culture
• Hulme, Alison. 2017. "Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: the many meanings of diamonds." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23:626-659.
• Robbins, Richard. 2016. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls. NY: New York University Press, 2014. 224 pp." American Anthropologist 118 (1): 189-190.
• Walsh, Andrew. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Anthropological Quarterly, 88 (4):1123-1126.
• Ghosh, Srijani. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds." Journal of Popular Culture 48 (6):1398-1400.
• Noren, Laura. 2015. "Are Diamonds Conflict Gifts / Book review." Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/are-diamonds-conflict-gifts/.
• Cury, Maria. 2015. "Review: Clarity, Cut and Culture." Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 7 (1).
• Wood, Graeme. 2014. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut and Culture." Pacific Standard https://psmag.com/social-justice/book-reviews-100-words-less-clarity-cut-culture-many-meanings-diamonds-88695.
• French, Howard. 2014. "Book shelf: Dispatches From the Diamond Wars: The heavily marketed symbol of marriage is the most destabilizing natural resource of all." Wall Street Journal September 5 https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-dispatches-from-the-diamond-wars-1409953813.
• Cury, Maria. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 7(1).
• French, Howard. 2014. "Book shelf: Dispatches From the Diamond Wars: The heavily marketed symbol of marriage is the most destabilizing natural resource of all." Wall Street Journal September 5 https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-dispatches-from-the-diamond-wars-1409953813.
• Ghosh, Srijani. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Journal of Popular Culture 48 (6):1398-1400.
• Hulme, Alison. 2017. "Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: the many meanings of diamonds by S. Falls." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23:626-659.
• Noren, Laura. 2015. "Are Diamonds Conflict Gifts / Book review." Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/are-diamonds-conflict-gifts/.
• Robbins, Richard. 2016. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." American Anthropologist 118 (1): 189-190.
• Walsh, Andrew. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Anthropological Quarterly, 88 (4):1123-1126. doi:10.1353/anq.2015.0043.
• Wood, Graeme. 2014. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut and Culture." Pacific Standard https://psmag.com/social-justice/book-reviews-100-words-less-clarity-cut-culture-many-meanings-diamonds-88695.
The essays in this volume address the question: what does it mean to understand the contemporary moment in light of the 1930s? In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and facing a dramatic rise of right wing, authoritarian politics across the globe, the events of the 1930s have acquired a renewed relevance. Contributions from a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars address the relationship between these historical moments in various geographical contexts, from Asia-Pacific to Europe to the Americas, while probing an array of thematic questions―the meaning of populism and fascism, the contradictions of constitutional liberalism and “militant democracy,” long cycles and crisis tendencies in capitalism, the gendering and racialization of right wing movements, and the cultural and class politics of emancipatory struggles. Uncovering continuity as well as change and repetition in the midst of transition, Back to the 30s? enriches our ability to use the past to evaluate the challenges, dangers, and promises of the present.
Covers a wide swath of geographies, topics, and disciplines to provide a multifaceted and scholarly understanding of our relationship to the ‘30s
Raises fundamental theoretical questions about the temporality of global capitalism, the meaning of historical materialism, and the limits of liberalism
The essays in this volume address the question: what does it mean to understand the contemporary moment in light of the 1930s? In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and facing a dramatic rise of right wing, authoritarian politics across the globe, the events of the 1930s have acquired a renewed relevance. Contributions from a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars address the relationship between these historical moments in various geographical contexts, from Asia-Pacific to Europe to the Americas, while probing an array of thematic questions—the meaning of populism and fascism, the contradictions of constitutional liberalism and “militant democracy,” long cycles and crisis tendencies in capitalism, the gendering and racialization of right wing movements, and the cultural and class politics of emancipatory struggles. Uncovering continuity as well as change and repetition in the midst of transition, Back to the 30s? enriches our ability to use the past to evaluate the challenges, dangers, and promises of the present.
See research exhibition catalog (Fold/Unfold) here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1548165727/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3
EXCERPT HERE: https://unpblog.com/2017/09/08/excerpt-white-gold/
Women have shared breast milk for eons, but in White Gold, Susan Falls shows how the meanings of capitalism, technology, motherhood, and risk can be understood against the backdrop of an emerging practice in which donors and recipients of breast milk are connected through social media in the southern United States.Drawing on her own experience as a participant, Falls describes the sharing community. She also presents narratives from donors, doulas, medical professionals, and recipients to provide a holistic ethnographic account. Situating her subject within cross-cultural comparisons of historically shifting attitudes about breast milk, Falls shows how sharing white gold seen as a scarce, valuable, even mysterious substance is a mode of enacting parenthood, gender, and political values. Though breast milk is increasingly being commodified, Falls argues that sharing is a powerful and empowering practice. Far from uniform, participants may be like-minded about parenting but not other issues, so their acquaintanceships add new textures to the body politic. In this interdisciplinary account, White Gold shows how sharing simultaneously reproduces the capitalist values that it disrupts while encouraging community-making between strangers.
REVIEWS:
REVIEWS
• Reyes-Foster, Beatriz. 2017. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12437
• Castaneda, Angela. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Journal for the Anthropology of North America 21(1): 39-40.
• Costello, Michael. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Allegra Lab. http://allegralaboratory.net/review-white-gold-stories-of-breast-milk-sharing/
• Tunc, Tanfer Emir. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Gender & Society. x(x): xx.
• Abadie, Roberto, Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medicine Anthropology Theory. http://medanthrotheory.org/read/11062/white-gold
• Abadie, Roberto. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medicine Anthropology Theory. http://medanthrotheory.org/read/11062/white-gold
• Castaneda, Angela. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Journal for the Anthropology of North America 21(1): 39-40.
• Costello, Michael. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Allegra Lab. http://allegralaboratory.net/review-white-gold-stories-of-breast-milk-sharing/
• Jardine, Fiona. 2019. "Book Review: White Gold " Journal of Human Lactation 1-2. doi: 10.1177/0890334419868161 journals.sagepub.com/home/jhl
• Murray de Lopez, Jenna. 2019. "Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 25 (4):813-815.
• Nolas, Sevasti-Melissa. 2018. "Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Falls, Susan)." Anthropology in Action / Journal for Applied Anthropology in Policy and Practice 25 (3):47049.
• Reyes-Foster, Beatriz. 2017. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12437
• Tunc, Tanfer Emir. 2018. Review of White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls. Gender & Society. x(x): xx.
• Veile, Amanda and Rivera, Sydney. 2018. "Book Review: White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls." American Journal of Human Biology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23191.
• Wilson, Kristin. 2019. "Book Review: White Gold: Stories of Breast Milk Sharing by Susan Falls." American Anthropologist 121(1):275-276.
http://www.amazon.com/Clarity-Cut-Culture-Meanings-Diamonds/dp/1479879908
Reviews
Reviews of Clarity, Cut and Culture
• Hulme, Alison. 2017. "Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: the many meanings of diamonds." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23:626-659.
• Robbins, Richard. 2016. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls. NY: New York University Press, 2014. 224 pp." American Anthropologist 118 (1): 189-190.
• Walsh, Andrew. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Anthropological Quarterly, 88 (4):1123-1126.
• Ghosh, Srijani. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds." Journal of Popular Culture 48 (6):1398-1400.
• Noren, Laura. 2015. "Are Diamonds Conflict Gifts / Book review." Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/are-diamonds-conflict-gifts/.
• Cury, Maria. 2015. "Review: Clarity, Cut and Culture." Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 7 (1).
• Wood, Graeme. 2014. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut and Culture." Pacific Standard https://psmag.com/social-justice/book-reviews-100-words-less-clarity-cut-culture-many-meanings-diamonds-88695.
• French, Howard. 2014. "Book shelf: Dispatches From the Diamond Wars: The heavily marketed symbol of marriage is the most destabilizing natural resource of all." Wall Street Journal September 5 https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-dispatches-from-the-diamond-wars-1409953813.
• Cury, Maria. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 7(1).
• French, Howard. 2014. "Book shelf: Dispatches From the Diamond Wars: The heavily marketed symbol of marriage is the most destabilizing natural resource of all." Wall Street Journal September 5 https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-dispatches-from-the-diamond-wars-1409953813.
• Ghosh, Srijani. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Journal of Popular Culture 48 (6):1398-1400.
• Hulme, Alison. 2017. "Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: the many meanings of diamonds by S. Falls." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23:626-659.
• Noren, Laura. 2015. "Are Diamonds Conflict Gifts / Book review." Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/are-diamonds-conflict-gifts/.
• Robbins, Richard. 2016. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." American Anthropologist 118 (1): 189-190.
• Walsh, Andrew. 2015. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut, and Culture: The Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls." Anthropological Quarterly, 88 (4):1123-1126. doi:10.1353/anq.2015.0043.
• Wood, Graeme. 2014. "Book Review: Clarity, Cut and Culture." Pacific Standard https://psmag.com/social-justice/book-reviews-100-words-less-clarity-cut-culture-many-meanings-diamonds-88695.
The term “robot” first appeared almost 100 years ago with the publication of Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R), a science fiction play by the Czeck writer Karel Čapek. The play, a critique of emerging mechanization, takes up themes present in Marx’s The Fragment on Machines ([1857–8]1974). But although R.U.R. was widely read, celebrated, and performed, unresolved concerns surrounding human/machine relationships have been brought forth to the present through artworks, films, cultural theory, and politics. As robotics engineering, digital software, environmental degradation, and neoliberal imaginaries develop at breakneck speed, questions about what our world might soon look like beg the construction of an appropriate anthropological response. An anthropology of and for the future will need to reflect on how the new artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technologies (motivated by the potential for significant financial rewards) are already impacting urban, national, and transnational regimes of life and governance.
Falls, Susan, 2018. "Homo Roboticus." Anthropology News. 59 (4): 52-52.
The Act of Killing Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012, 115 and 159 minutes. Color. Distributed by Drafthouse Films, Austin, TX 78749, http://drafthousefilms.com/
model of expressive culture and site of active resistance.
Keywords: race; countryside; culture; leisure; popular culture; recreation
We also invited skilled makers to weave functional bedding on manually operated looms. They were asked to consider overshot patterning of 19th and early 20th century American coverlets, but to use a black to white palette (not only to undermine some of the ways we found color being said to signify class and race in our historical work, but also to draw viewers’ attention to the formal qualities of the weaving work itself). These new works are folded and stacked to form pillars in the white box Lukasiewicz Gallery at the Lyndon Arts Center. This reiteration of the pillar unites the historic set with the contemporary work.
Viewers will only glimpse at the pattern, palette work, and overall value of these coverlets when they are folded (as we often found them in our research). To reveal the value and entailments of woven coverlets, the pillars will be deconstructed and each individual piece will be Unfolded in a public performance. Viewers will be able to perceive the skill, material connotations, and meanings contained in these objects individually, and as a set. They will be re-stacked at full size to both recall their utilitarian roots and to form a minimalist sculpture, uniting as it were, the utilitarian and domestic with the architectural and artistic. We invite all to attend the Unfolding!
The collaboration included reading swaps, co-lectures, pen-pal reflections, critiques, and a public exhibition at Oglethorpe Gallery in Savannah, Ga. Students produced both written work and visual art communicating their design ethos in response to course explorations.
See images here: http://issuesxyzed.blogspot.com/
What happens when anthropologists and art historians collaborate in and out of the classroom? Seeing Waters project was an exploration of such a collaboration with students in Susan Falls’ Urban Ethnography course and Lisa Jaye Young’s Madness of Photography course.
PROJECT GOALS
We set out to produce a series of photographic and text-based artworks through anthropology/art history student partnerships for a May 2012 installation at the Creative Coast Alliance exhibition space. The subject was Waters Avenue, a neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia. Once a thriving district, the area is currently struggling economically.