Cool Anthropology

Through a series of case studies by leading anthropologists, Cool Anthropology highlights the many different approaches that scholars have used to engage the public with their research. Editors Kristina Baines and Victoria Costa showcase efforts to make meaningful connections with communities outside the walls of academia, moving anthropological thinking beyond the discipline. Through their focus on collaborative efforts, contributors push against the exclusivity of "knowledge production" to ask how engaging communities as both producers and consumers of academic research helps to promote anthropology better and do anthropology better.

Cool Anthropology is a practical "how to" guide for anthropologists looking to make their work relevant and accessible to a wide audience.

• Imprint: University of Toronto Press
• Published: April 2022
• Pages: 270

• epub: 9781487534370
• pdf: 9781487534363
• paperback: 9781487524418
• hardcover: 9781487506537

Kristina Baines is an associate professor of anthropology at CUNY Guttman Community College, affiliated faculty at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, and the founder and director of anthropology at Cool Anthropology.

Victoria Costa is a creative technologist and community organizer, and the founder and director of cool at Cool Anthropology.

"Cool Anthropology is a pioneering attempt for anthropologists to reach out to broad audiences beyond the classroom by availing themselves of contemporary technologies not previously used as tools to connect with the public. The book is a critical step forward at a time when the discipline is needed to counter a world full of disinformation and misinformation."

Laura Nader, University of California, Berkeley, author of Laura Nader: Letters to and from an Anthropologist

"Envisioned as a community, a movement, a website, and now an edited volume, Cool Anthropology demonstrates the value of engaging broad audiences with powerful insights offered by anthropology. The book details a rich array of new and innovative approaches to disseminating knowledge, providing readers a how-to on public anthropology, a sense of camaraderie, and affirmation that such efforts are not only acceptable but imperative."

Alisse Waterston, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY), coauthor of Light in Dark Times: The Human Search for Meaning

"A book that defies categorization – a joyful collection of essays that takes anthropology from ‘remixing’ archives to reimagining urban living spaces, from rethinking anthropological storytelling to creating genuinely collaborative experiences through virtual reality. The contributors move beyond traditional understandings of applied or engaged anthropology, challenging readers to embrace a cool, ethical anthropology that reaches far beyond the academy."

S. Elizabeth Bird, University of South Florida, author of The Audience in Everyday Life: Living in a Media World