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In Context with School for Advanced Research: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Paul Ryer
How do the present and past shape each other? Why does understanding this matter?In Context with SAR tackles the fascinating world of scholarly research through questions like why people left Chaco Canyon or how climate change affects migration and explores them through the perspectives of three experts across anthropology, archaeology, and the humanities more broadly.Hosted by Paul Ryer and produced by the School for Advanced Research (SAR), each episode brings together voices from the field who share real-world stories, behind-the-scenes research, and their takes on today’s challenges.Founded in 1907, SAR is a hub for groundbreaking social science and humanities research, supporting scholars and artists through residencies, seminars, and collaborations. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico SAR is also home to the Indian Arts Research Center, a leader in Native arts and museum practices.
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- 3 weeks ago47 min
What If the Border Story Starts With Water?
What if the real story of the border isn’t about walls at all? In this episode, we explore how rivers, irrigation projects, and trade routes have bound together and divided the U.S., Mexico, and Canada over nearly two centuries.In this episode, Paul and C. J. discuss: Personal roots in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands and origins of the projectTransformation of the border through massive construction and engineeringParadox of closed-border policing vs. open-border trade and transportationWater infrastructure, irrigation, and the creation of migrant labor demandSystemic flaws, compensatory infrastructure, and the disfiguring of the Rio GrandeKey Takeaways: The U.S.–Mexico border is not a single, uniform place but a 2,000-mile span of diverse ecosystems, cultures, and landscapes that defies simple political narratives.Over the last 175+ years, the border has been physically made visible and “legible” through mega-projects, dams, canals, roads, and fences, layered one atop another.Water engineering and irrigation projects have not only transformed rivers but also generated powerful economic magnets for migrant labor, tightly linking hydrology to human movement.Many contemporary crises at the border stem from earlier grand projects and policies; new “solutions” often serve as compensatory layers that attempt to fix problems those very systems created.The most profound environmental damage along the border has been done to the river itself, especially the Rio Grande, whose flow, shape, and ecology have been radically altered, challenging us to rethink our relationship with the more-than-human world.“The border has always been open, and the border has always been closed. The only question is, to whom and to what and when?” - C. J. AlvarezEpisode Resources:Book: <em style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(34, 36, 47); --darkreader-inline-bgcolor: transparent; --darkreader-inline-color: var(--darkreader-text-22242f, #cecac4);" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="" da
- Mar 11, 202640 min
Believing In Bits
In this episode, Paul and Gabriella discuss: What Gabriella Coleman means by “sturdy knowledge” and why the concept matters in today’s epistemic crisisHow misinformation debates often rely on a “naive liberal epistemology” that oversimplifies how knowledge is producedWhy is scientific consensus difficult to achieve, even without political polarizationWhy AI boosterism reflects the same epistemic blind spots as science absolutismKey Takeaways: Establishing reliable knowledge is never simple or automatic, even in the absence of political polarization. Scientific facts emerge through contested processes shaped by uncertainty, debate, and institutional structures.Treating facts as obvious or self-evident often deepens mistrust rather than resolving disagreement. Absolutist claims leave little room for nuance, making public corrections feel like evidence of deception instead of scientific evolution.Knowledge is always produced within social and political contexts, and pretending otherwise undermines credibility. Transparency about positionality and process strengthens trust more than claims of pure neutrality.AI boosterism repeats the same epistemic mistakes as science absolutism by framing technology as a neutral source of truth. Without humility and accountability, AI risks amplifying, not solving, the current epistemic crisis.“And you know this notion of sturdy knowledge, as we've explored. And you put so well, is anti-arrogance, it's like pro-humility.” - Gabriella ColemanEpisode Resources:Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”Bruno Latour, Reassembling the SocialBruno Latour, The Pasteurization of FranceSusan Sontag, Illness as MetaphorNaomi Klein, DoppelgängerAbout Gabriella Coleman: Gabriella (Biella) Coleman is a full professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her work focuses on the politics, cultures, and ethics of hacking, and she is widely regarded as one of the leading scholars examining hacker communities and digital power. She is the author of Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, the latter named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014 and recipient of the 2015 Diana Forsythe Prize from the American Anthropological Association.Coleman’s current research examines the relationship between hackers and the state, including a Ford Foundation–, NSF-, SSHRC-, and FRQ-funded project on the professionalization of hacking from
- Feb 19, 202641 min
Social Movements and Ethics in Philosophy
In this episode, Paul, Carl, and Heidi discuss:What it feels like to live in Minneapolis amid intensified ICE and Border Patrol operations.The role of legal observers and rapid response networks in documenting enforcement activity.The power and limits of social media in organizing, surveillance, and public accountability.How churches, small businesses, musicians, and neighborhood groups are reshaping civil society in real time.Key Takeaways: Minneapolis residents describe the current ICE presence as feeling like a “military occupation,” yet alongside fear and exhaustion, there is a profound sense of solidarity and shared purpose.Legal observers play a critical role in documenting law enforcement actions, providing evidence for court cases, and countering official misinformation.Social media has become both a democratizing force for transparency and a potential tool for surveillance and misinformation, highlighting the need for in-person organizing alongside digital tools.Universities and institutional leadership may lag behind grassroots movements, even when faculty, students, and community members are deeply engaged.“Everybody just wants to figure out some way to help, and all you have to do is give them some opportunity to do that, and they will leap in happily, willingly.” - Carl Elliott“There is so much power in people standing up for their rights and supporting their neighbors.” - Heidi Reynolds-StensonEpisode Resources:Cultures of Resistance: Collective Action and Rationality in the Anti-Terror Age by Heidi Reynolds-StensonThe Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No by Carl ElliottAbout Carl Elliott: Carl Elliott is a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where he joined the Center for Bioethics in 1997. Originally from Clover, South Carolina, he trained in both medicine and philosophy at Davidson College, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of Glasgow. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, Elliott has also held fellowships at the Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, and the School for Advanced Research. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Mother Jones, and The American Scholar. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Ina, and their three children.About Heidi Reynolds-Stenson: Heidi Reynolds-Stenson earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 2018 and soon after joined the faculty at Colorado State University Pueblo. Her research focuses on social movements, protest, and policing, and she is the author of a book and several scholarly articles on these topics. Her current projects examine the impact of Black Lives Matter protests on police reform, historical shifts in protest policing, and legal consciousness surrounding family responsibilities discrimination.Connect with Carl Elliott: Website: <a href="https://www.carl-elliott.
- Jan 16, 202651 min
What happened at Chaco Canyon?
In this episode, Paul, Barbara, Phillip, and Robert discuss: Why Chaco Canyon drew people for centuries, and why it continues to remain a powerful symbol of the ancient Southwest.What social network migration has revealed about Chaco Canyon throughout the centuries.How science, oral tradition, and indigenous epistemologies can better work together to interpret sacred places like Chaco.The importance of Chaco and the need to respect all peoples involved. Key Takeaways: We want to be careful not to polarize the past with modern understandings of categories. For instance, the roads show how interconnected religion, politics, and economics were all interwoven.There are different stories and different perspectives that need to be acknowledged and treated with respect as we try to find the balance between preservation, development, and indigenous peoples.Chaco matters to different groups. While there may be different views on the best way to protect Chaco, the shared sentiment is that Chaco is powerful, sacred, and significant, and we should all do what we can to ensure its health.There are many different reasons why people may have left Chaco, ranging from droughts to astrological phenomena to clans dying out and more.“All of us have to be very, very careful that we don't take our Western European education and template and try to lay it down on a group of people that might as well come from Venus or Mars. We don't know what they were thinking; we don't know their judgment, values, and such things. We’ve got to be careful of not trying to interpret ancestral people in our everyday framework.” - Phillip TuwaletstiwaEpisode Resources: Evaluating Chaco migration scenarios using dynamic social network analysisParallel roads, solstice and sacred geography at the Gasco Site Lidar Reveals Sacred Roads Near Chaco CanyonAbout Dr. Barbara Mills: Regents’ Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona and Curator of Archaeology at the Arizona State Museum, Dr. Mills is one of the foremost experts on the social networks, migrations, and ceremonial practices of Chacoan society. Her work integrates dynamic social network analysis, ceramic studies, and Indigenous collaboration to explore why people gathered — and eventually dispersed — from Chaco Canyon.Connect with Barbara:Website: https://anthropology.arizona.edu/person/barbara-mills About Phillip Tuwaletstiwa: A Native archaeologist and geodesist of Hopi he
- Dec 10, 202550 min
How is AI Changing Archaeology / Anthropology / History / Native Studies?
In this episode, Paul, Maurizio, Parker, Steven, and James discuss:How AI and machine learning have changed the approach to archeological research.Understanding the paradigm shift AI brings to archaeology.Multi-factorial and the human factor.Ethical considerations surrounding AI, indigenous communities, and cultural heritage.Key Takeaways:We are currently in a stage of experimentation where we are figuring out what AI and machine learning are good at doing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.Multi-factorial analysis allows for gathering and analyzing information at scale, generating new knowledge and opening up lines of questioning.AI is not an all-seeing eye to identify all archaeological sites. It will not replace the human archaeologist with human-interpretive skills. We need to be intentional about how we engage with AI technology and the types of questions we ask of it.“If we leave technology to the technology or to the technologists, we miss the point, which is ethical analysis, discussion of different ontologies and human interpretation, which is necessary in many terms.” - Dr. Maurizio ForteEpisode Resources:Artificial intelligence rethinks the past: How computers are reconstructing Etruscan and Roman landscapesVision Foundation Models in Remote Sensing: A surveyAugmenting field data with archaeological imagery survey: mapping hilltop fortifications on the north coast of PeruAbout Dr. Forte: Dr. Maurizio Forte is the William and Sue Gross Distinguished Professor of Classical Studies, Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University. He is a pioneer in digital archaeology, integrating technologies such as virtual reality, AI, and neuroaesthetics into the study of ancient civilizations. As the founder of the Dig@Lab at Duke, he leads interdisciplinary research at the intersection of cultural heritage and emerging technologies. Dr. Forte currently serves as an AAAS-SPTF Fellow and advisor for cultural heritage and neurodiplomacy at the U.S. Department of State.Connect with Maurizio:Website: maurizioforte.comAbout Dr. VanValkenburgh: Dr. Parker VanValkenburgh is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brown University and Interim Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. His research focuses on the long-term impacts of colonialism and imperialism on Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Andes. Utilizing archaeological methods, GIS, and remote sensing, he co-directs projects like the Paisajes Arqueológicos de Chachapoyas (PACha) and the Geospatial Pla
- Nov 17, 202522 min
Welcome to In Context with SAR!
Welcome to In Context with SAR!In this episode, Doug and Paul introduce In Context with SAR!How do the present and past shape each other? Why does understanding this matter?Investigating Humanity with SAR tackles the fascinating world of scholarly research through questions like why people left Chaco Canyon or how climate change affects migration and explores them through the perspectives of three experts across anthropology, archaeology, and the humanities more broadly.Hosted by Paul Ryer and produced by the School for Advanced Research (SAR), each episode brings together voices from the field who share real-world stories, behind-the-scenes research, and their takes on today’s challenges.Founded in 1907, SAR is a hub for groundbreaking social science and humanities research, supporting scholars and artists through residencies, seminars, and collaborations. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico SAR is also home to the Indian Arts Research Center, a leader in Native arts and museum practices.Whether you’re an academic, a student, or just someone who loves a good story, Investigating Humanity with SAR is here to bring big ideas to life.Join us as we connect history to today’s world—one question at a time.“The idea is to take some academic topics that are relevant to the wider world and provide a forum for cutting-edge scholars to get together and have a conversation about their work, but hopefully in ways which are intelligible to non-scholars.” - Paul RyerConnect with Paul Ryer & School for Advanced Research: Website: https://sarweb.org/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156
About In Context with School for Advanced Research
How do the present and past shape each other? Why does understanding this matter?In Context with SAR tackles the fascinating world of scholarly research through questions like why people left Chaco Canyon or how climate change affects migration and explores them through the perspectives of three experts across anthropology, archaeology, and the humanities more broadly.Hosted by Paul Ryer and produced by the School for Advanced Research (SAR), each episode brings together voices from the field who share real-world stories, behind-the-scenes research, and their takes on today’s challenges.Founded in 1907, SAR is a hub for groundbreaking social science and humanities research, supporting scholars and artists through residencies, seminars, and collaborations. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico SAR is also home to the Indian Arts Research Center, a leader in Native arts and museum practices.
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