The Geek Anthropologist

Rings of Power fails to lean into the possibility of moral ambiguity, instead reproducing the same simplistic binaries between good and evil. For the Elves, the inherent “goodness” of their race, and their purpose on Middle Earth is eminently visible, communicated through the sheer beauty of their people, their clothes, their architecture, their relationship to nature. Even more disturbingly, Rin…

What does it mean for a telescope to be showing us the past 13 billion years? What are we looking for out there?

By Samuel Gerald Collins Patkin, Terri Toles (2021). Who’s in the Game? Identity and Intersectionality in Classic Board Games. Jefferson, North Carolina:...

By Vivian Asimos Limpár, Ildikó (2021) The truths of monsters: coming of age with fantastic media. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &...

I’ve yet to meet an academic who is not a geek. What it means to be either an academic or...

Wanda tells us, again and again, “I’m not a monster, I’m a mother.” While recent endeavors into feminist horror have worked to critique this trope of mother monster, Wanda’s representation in Multiverse of Madness only serves to replicate this archetype—that there are good mothers and there are bad mothers, that women’s entire sense of identity and moral rectitude comes from their relationship to…

While I admire the decision to try to help each of Spidey’s foes—particularly since the Avengers have never met a problem they don’t try to punch their way out of—the curative ideal that Spiderman peddles tells us a lot about how the US in particular addresses public health problems, the medical and social ills that the country chooses to “cure” or address through vertical, top-down tactics.

2021 gave us new ways to think about virtual presence and digital connection through Minecraft; the role of a mediated and mediatized grief in Wandavision; the Marxist politics underlying GameStop stock; the ongoing importance of centering repatriation in the practice of archaeology; and the bureaucratic magic of Loki.

The Geek Anthropologist is seeking qualified individuals to join our Editorial Board. As an Editor at TGA, responsibilities include: recruiting...

By Esther Stoppani 001897 The first thing I feel upon waking is the cold; the freezing-hot sensation of blood rushing...