Greg Downey said he was not teaching last semester. He said he teaches large survey courses (500-600 students for human evolution class). He said it feels like a watered-down university course. Like Daniel Lende, Greg said he missed the days of blogging reaching academic and public audiences simultaneously. As editor of Ethos, he sees that articles are not using integrative approaches; most are cultural anthropological with psychology words thrown in. It’s not biocultural or neuroanthropological. To intervene, Greg said he cleaned up his public presence. He is working on a graphic novel version of the syllabus to his psychological anthropology course so that it can travel without him. He wants it to include others’ work but not compete with other people’s stuff. For example, he asked the anthropology online magazine, SAPIENS (https://www.sapiens.org), not to compete other bloggers but they ignored his request and are now competing with existing blogs. In his shared screen, Greg showed a PDF with embedded objects. The PDF is a cartoonized version of his syllabus with more multimedia but less text (not legal to distribute images) with embedded links. Part of his public media presence are his YouTube videos. He wants to make existing materials more visible and engaging, with a more biocultural approach. There is a special editions function on publisher Wiley’s platform that sits on the Ethos space, e.g., decolonizing psychological anthropology. There is an upcoming special Ethos issue that is authored by all non-western authors (in 2020, there was an issue authored by all women). He reiterated that he does not want to compete with others’ sites. Greg said he uses Apple Keynote, PowerPoint, and animations to create MPEGs (moving picture experts group video files). There are 3–5-minute pointers to others’ academic work. He talked about Facebook’s “ancestral movement,” that it is huge. These are his efforts to leverage his work, including a graphic novel (done in May) with text, graphics, and links.
Intro to PsychAnthro for an Online Audience (Greg Downey)
You are here: Home1 / CMB Network Meeting September 20212 / Intro to PsychAnthro for an Online Audience (Greg Downey)
FPR-Related Organizations
FPR-Hampshire College Culture, Brain, and Development Program
Links to FPR Publications
Culture, Mind, and Brain: Emerging Concepts, Models, Applications (Cambridge University Press, 2020)