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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

An MA and PhD course this Fall 2026, with Prof. Targol Mesbah!

Climate crisis protest with dozens of canoes blocking an oil tanker, including a Palestinian flag in the foreground. Lettering reads “Political Ecology: critical approaches to anthropology of the environment, and Socio ecological change”

Text: “ in the last century we have entered a period of unprecedented environmental transformations leading to what many scholars believe is the biosphere on the brink”

Book covers: Uncommon Ground by William Cronin, Ecology of Everyday Life by Chaia Heller, Understories by Jake Kosek, Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway

Text; this course explores political psychology as an interdisciplinary approach to understanding Socio ecological processes of change

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

James Kelman! See his new book and all our Kairos editorial imprint titles on @pmpress.bsky.social @pmpressuk.bsky.social here: pmpress.org/index.php?l=... 📹James Kelman on Self Determination on YouTube

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Registration open now! www.healthautonomyconvergence.com

Flyer with a Black and white photo of a mid 20th century protest, with an ethnically diverse range of participants, mostly femme, with shirts bearing slogans such as silence = death, and signs saying “no mandatory testing of physicians,” “heal the system” etc.

Text above reads: “Health autonomy convergence June 12-14, San Francisco a national convergence for healthcare workers to come together, share experiences, and continue to the work of building a network of radical care. Healthautonomyconvergence.com. Registration opens April.

Text below reads: “ organized by havoc hosted by the department of anthropology and social change at CIIS”

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

The 5th annual David Graeber Memorial Lecture! Pre-register for the event, here: ciis.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Event flyer. Background photo with the late David Graeber seated cross-legged in his office, a serene expression, books on either side, a potted plant in the window and a lamp behind him. In the foreground, the four logos of the organizing departments and orgs: Elizabeth Bruyere School, Rojava University, ICSyH BUAP, and CIIS. John’s photo in lower-right, a wild silver-haired Caucasian man with a wry smile. Text in lower left reads, “co-production of: Elizabeth Bruyere School of Social Innovation; Rojava University; Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities BUAP; and Anthropology and Social Change at CIIS.”

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

4/4 We will challenge convictions, break conventions and twist our minds around unexpected takes on the big questions of our time.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

3/4 The Kurdistan Freedom Movement may be the most astonishing example in the world today. In a series of three days of lectures and discussions we will find out what motivates, inspires and drives this freedom movement.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

2/4 In a conflict-ridden world that seems to get bleaker every day, there are persons, movements and whole regions that are staying optimistic and don’t let anything stop them from defending their ideas and constructing freedom every day.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Set reminders to tune in live: m.youtube.com/@anthciis/st... 1/4 The Building Blocks of a New World “Öcalan expresses a series of concepts that in the 21st century are increasingly becoming the building blocks for the political construction of a new world.” —⁠Antonio Negri

Event flyer. Mostly-obscured Kurdish mural in the background of a femme figure holding an autumn, leafless tree in her upturned left hand. In the foreground, circle shaped professional photo of the speaker, a light skinned bespectacled figure in black, arms folded. Text reads: “ anthropology, and social change visiting scholar series presents the building blocks of a New World talks on Rova Revolution February 9-11 530 to 7:30 PM free Namaste Hall 1453 Mission St., San Francisco three talks! Questions: smaccracken@ciis.edu Reimar Heider Feb 9 a series of concepts: surprising twists Feb 10 building blocks: democratic, confederalism, Jineolojî and the queen of sciences Feb 11 construction of a new world: organize, organized, autonomy, education, and self-defense

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Academy of Social Science @the-academy.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Andrej Grubačić, founding Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Social Change at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and founding member of the Academy of Social Science, issued a statement and video message in solidarity with Rojava.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

4/4 …In this chaotic transition between historical systems, the confederal idea of communal democracy poses a challenge that the "civilized world" seek to extinguish. We must mobilize to defend this project of direct democracy and confederal internationalism.”

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

3/4 …Democratic confederalism represents a "rupture" of its own—a compelling alternative to the barbarism of state and capital. This is why "integration as a source of subordination" is being forced upon the people of Northern Syria…

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

2/4 …In such a precarious moment, the destruction of any meaningful alternative is a priority for the status quo. The war against Rojava was never truly about resources; it is a war against an alternative to the nation-state…

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

1/4 “We are indeed in the midst of a systemic transition. The world of endless accumulation—the civilization we call capitalism—is approaching its demise. We are inching toward a tributary system defined by political accumulation and blunt force… english.anf-news.com/news/attack-...

english.anf-news.com

Attack on Rojava is an attack on hope

As a result of various international agreements and directives behind the scenes, the Syrian transitional government of Ahmed al-Sharaa and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have declared war on the Democ...

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Curious about our MA+PhD in activist anthropology? Sign up for the Tuesday 5pm Info Session, here: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... . 📹Prof. Targol Mesbah for the inauguration of Academy of Social Science

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Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

I was invited to deliver the keynote speech for a three-day conference on Michael Burawoy. Another verse of a long goodbye to my dearest colleague, friend, and comrade… Thanks to Portuguese sociologists for organizing this conference. Details of the conference 🧵

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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

“Contradicting this idea that feminism is no longer relevant, gendered rhetoric is now a primary mode of bolstering state power. Insidiously, feminist language is being reappropriated to justify the erasure of feminist ideas and feminist history.”

publicbooks.org

The History of Women’s Studies Is a History of Conflict

Women’s studies programs in the United States are threatened by authoritarian pressure. For example, the Ohio legislature restricts how marriage and abortion can be presented in the college ...

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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

“Gaitán’s murder is the climax of the book, a death foretold, an event so compressed with hope that its explosion sent historical shrapnel in all directions.” In a new interview at PB, Greg Grandin discusses the execution of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. www.publicbooks.org/a-second-enl...

publicbooks.org

“A Second Enlightenment”: Greg Grandin on Latin America, the United States, and the Creation of Social-Democratic Modernity

“My books try to explain a tension.”

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New Left Review @newleftreview.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Carolyn Lesjak reviews Fredric Jameson in NLR 154: ‘In contrast to “the private lives of currently fashionable autofiction”, the works discussed here “try to write the collective, or at least register the crisis of the individual attempting to do so.”’ newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

Front cover of a book titled Inventions of a Present by Fredric Jameson

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Curious about mostly online our activist Anthropology MAs+PhDs? Sign up for the Sept 5, 4pm Pacific Time Info Session with our founding department chair, Andrej Grubačić: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... Train in Anthropology informed by methodologies from Anarchism to Marxism.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Join an academic department with a distinctive commitment to solidarity with populations and struggle, critiques of capitalist and colonial dominance, and the nation state! Graduate empowered to help build a better world we all know as possible! 2/2

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Brands Me and my marketing to gay friends: gays:

Image of a fit Caucasian masc person decked out in matching rainbow pants, blazer, umbrella, sunglasses, and necktie over a bare chest, making an exuberant “let’s party” gesture.

News photo of the anti-ICE rioters in L.A. ducking LAPD teargas behind a makeshift barricade made of repurposed pink metal park furniture.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

…readings but include multiple modes of engagement that reflect a commitment to learning outside systems of domination. This will most certainly include some unlearning as well.” 8/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

…on anti-blackness, The Standing Rock curriculum, and recent material from the Abolitionist Collective, and others. Students will also research and produce curricula that are relevant for communities where they are located. Note that curricula are not limited to… 7/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Whether or not the university education system on the whole will reinvent itself accordingly, we can draw on its resources to learn with and contribute to community based political education. In this seminar we will read such existing curricula as We Charge Genocide Again… 6/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

…intervening in the university curriculum was to save lives. We could say that higher education is again (or still) in crisis, a crisis of legitimacy and relevance for large portions of the world population. 5/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

From the Future Pedagogies Course: “Nesbit Crutchfield, member of the 1968 San Francisco State Universitys student strike which led to the creation of Black Studies and Ethnic Studies university departments in the United States, recalls that their primary reason for… 4/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

If higher education is in crisis, we take that as an opportunity to shed destructive assumptions and to re-imagine horizons of possibility from the ground up. Join our info session to learn more! 3/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Sign up for our next info session, April 15, 5:30pm pacific time: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... . Join a department-wide commitment to solidarity with populations, training in theory generated by social movements, and a singular emphasis on nonstate spaces. 2/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Got a political project with populations in struggle? Interested in a low-residency MA+PhD that seeks to unlearn as well as to learn, pushing outside the limitations and norms of higher education as imagined within a colonial and capitalist framework? 1/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

From our course, Alternative Economic Systems “This course offers a critical examination of economic possibilities, alternative production systems, and subjectivities that can be considered “postcapitalist” in that they strive to transcend what is conceivable within the current socioeconomic order.”

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Interested in our low-residency MA+PhD in activist Anthropology? Sign up for the April 15, 5:30pm Info Session to learn more! www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... Train in ethnography with populations in struggle, graduate with the tools to help make a better world

ciis.edu

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

From our course, ANTH 6111 Migration, Borders, and Citizenship. “This course situates the migration crisis within a global frame, and attends to migrant and refugee struggles, showing how the modern border is an important elements of the worldwide regulation of human mobility.”

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Interested in our low-residency MA+PhD in activist anthropology, which centers anticapitalist methodologies? Sign up here for the April 15 5:30pm Pacific Info Session: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... Train in ethnography with populations in struggle!

ciis.edu

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

If “end-stage capitalism” were a single picture.

Dog-killing, prison photo op taking “ICE Barbie,” Kristi Noem in her “police ice” labeled drab uniform, with her infamous Rolex on her left wrist. In the forefront, a large mockup of the watch labeled with its retail price, $45,000.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

In our Societies Against the State course this Spring, we are studying the Kurdish Freedom Movement all semester! . Curious about our low-residency MA+PhD in activist anthropology? Sign up today to join the April 15, 5:30pm Pacific Info Session: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr...

An “alternate timeline” meme of the (imprisoned in real life) beaming Kurdish Freedom movement leader Abdullah Öcalan in a green button up shirt appearing implausibly on the cable tv program “The Daily Show.” Host John Stewart gestures for the camera toward our PM Press book, Building Free Life: Dialogues with Öcalan, a yellow book with Öcalan’s face on the cover.

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

📹Subcomandante Marcos removes his mask! . Interested in our low-residency MA+PhD in activist anthropology, including research in solidarity with populations in struggle? Sign up for the April 15, 5:30pm Pacific Info Session: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr...

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Interested in our low-residency MA+PhD in activist anthropology? Sign up here for the April 15, 5:30pm Pacific Time online Info Session: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... 📹Department friend @davidgraeber (RIP🖤) from davidgraeber.org on the Paradox of Sovereignty

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

3. In the San Francisco Bay Area? come to the in-person Open House anytime 10:30am-4:30pm (our breakout session at 12:45pm). ciis.edu/events/spring-… 8/8

ciis.edu

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

2. Attend the online CIIS Open House on Saturday Feb 22 anytime 10am-2:30pm (our breakout session at 10:30). ciis.edu/events/spring-… 7/8

ciis.edu

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

1. Sign up for the Info Session! Thursday Feb 20 Online Info Session, 5:30pm Pacific Time: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... 6/8

ciis.edu

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

But we also research and publish from a world systems standpoint, in the tradition of Marxist sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein (of “late stage capitalism” fame). . Here are ways to connect with us: 5/8

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Anthropology and Social Change @anthciis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

…(and Anthropology specifically) we build upon work by Noam Chomsky, David Graeber, James C. Scott, and Pierre Clastres. Our emphasis is on real uptopias, human projects and movements with an anti-statist focus. 4/8

Wallerstein wearing spectacles with images of the earth globe in each lens. Text at the top reads “capitalism’s late stage intensifies”

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