Alum Christo Sims in Keywords for Ethnography and Design
Christo Sims, BCNM alum, published "Idealism" amongst other contributors for Keywords for Ethnography and Design. This series encompasses works that address the challenges ethnographers face when they are involved in the design field.
"Idealism" discusses the need for hope and idealism within the academic ethnography community. Sims calls for ethnographers to lift up designers while practicing self-critique.
An excerpt from his essay:
I propose that design has become appealing for anthropology, in part because it appears to offer concrete, hopeful, and future-facing ways for ethnographers to respond to such ethico-political predicaments. However, while this appeal is understandable, there are pitfalls in placing our hopes too heavily on design. I am not dismissing the potential of design for ethnography. Still, I want us to think about what is being collectively made, and for whom or what, when we turn to design as a source of moral and professional renewal.
Read the rest of "Idealism" here.
Read all the short essays in this collection here.