Dr. Anna Willow’s new article, Anthropology’s Postapocalyptic Turn: New Temporalities for New Times, explores a shift in anthropological thought that embraces the postapocalyptic as a lived reality rather than a distant threat. Moving beyond traditional narratives of progress or collapse, this perspective recognizes that many communities, especially Indigenous and marginalized groups, have long endured apocalyptic conditions. Drawing on examples of nuclear disaster and ecological degradation, Dr. Willow argues that contemporary ethnographies now focus on how people live through ruin and imagine renewal. She also highlights how social movements, speculative fiction, and activist art offer hopeful visions of sustainable futures. Ultimately, Dr. Willow calls for an anthropology that remains ethically grounded, attentive to inequality, and committed to documenting emergent lifeways that respond creatively to crisis.

Read the full article here!