Anthropology Commons^™

‘Black Lives Bladder,’ Other Dumb Things Eric Andre Said At The Rnc, And Why They Bladder, I Mean Matter, Alex Prong

2018 Undergraduate Awards

When comedian Eric Andre went to the Republican National Convention (RNC), he attended Alex Jones’ speech. He stuck his microphone on the end of a long stick, and pushed through the crowd, until finally, Alex Jones said, “Let’s bring the Daily Show guy up here.”

“They keep attacking me and I just wanna sign up for the open mike,” said Eric. “I know, the democrats are never violent, like the Black Lives Matter movement and attacking the Trump people,” Alex replied.

To which Eric said, “I’m not a democrat either, I’m a nihilist” (“Eric at the RNC”).

This interaction, and …

Mind Over Matter: Accounts Of Selfhood In An Age Of Theoretical Gender, Levi C. R. Hord

2018 Undergraduate Awards

This paper is a reflection on the rapidly shifting social understandings of gender identity. Using a theoretical framework composed of existentialist thought, cultural critique, empirical research, and post-structuralism, I argue that our understandings of gender identity have shifted towards a model which (following decades of theory) takes lived gender to be malleable and constructed. This has caused a movement away from the centrality of the sexed body in determining gender identity – including transgender identities – which in turn has created unresolved tension regarding what constitutes and validates gender identity as “real” in our narratives of selfhood. This movement away …

An Unknowable Wildness: An Analysis Of Cryptids As Queer Cultural Iconography, Levi C. R. Hord

2018 Undergraduate Awards

This essay examines the rise in cryptids – animals whose existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, or creatures who exist on the margins of biological understanding to the point of being mythical – being claimed by younger queer people as symbols of their outsider status and transgression. Beginning with an analysis of the political resistance that the reclamation of monstrosity makes possible for queer subjects, I argue that “cryptid culture” is a refusal of a politics of assimilation that has lately characterized LGBTQ+ communities. I then argue that this attachment to “cryptid culture” is also indicative of shifts in personal queer …

Humanitarianism As A Moral Alibi At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Layne Clarke

2018 Undergraduate Awards

In recent years, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have cast themselves into a humanitarian role, presenting themselves as an organization that is ultimately concerned with the wellbeing and safety of undocumented migrants who undertake the dangerous journey of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. However, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are of the opinion that this humanitarianism is hollow given that CBP ultimately enforces prevention through deterrence, a prevention strategy that deters migrants to the dangerous terrain of the Sonoran Desert and is believed to have caused in numerous migrant deaths. In this essay, I explore the contradictions inherent in CBP’s supposed mandate …