Anthropologists frequently discuss collaboration as a decolonial approach that could address the colonial origins of anthropology and make space for ontological innovation. In developing decolonial, collaborative projects, many scholars work across languages, cultures, and national boundaries. Such contexts can often produce work (e.g. reports, drafts, publications) that needs to be translated. In higher education’s context of tightened budgets and time crunches, many scholars turn to AI to support collaboration across languages. We ask to what degree AI translation softwares can be used to successfully support transnational, decolonial, feminist collaborations, the likes of which form a core component of anthropology’s future. We address this question through a critical analysis of our own project and collaboration between U.S.-based settler scholars and a grassroots organization of Indigenous women in Guatemala. By way of conclusion, we bring feminist translation theory to bear on AI’s role in collaboration.

This study investigates the status and challenges faced by the Punjabi language in contemporary India. Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language with over 105 million speakers, holds a deep cultural significance in both India and Pakistan. Sociopolitical factors such as the dominance of Hindi, Urdu, and English, the role of religion, the marginalization of regional languages, and the declining formal education in Punjabi have contributed to this trend. This paper examines the historical context of Punjabi’s decline, tracing its roots to the colonial era and the political divisions resulting from the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. The paper also discusses emerging strategies for language revitalization, focusing on grassroots initiatives like Punjabi rap and the role of local communities in preserving linguistic heritage. My analysis underscores the need for a multifaceted approach, incorporating education, political will, and cultural initiatives to combat the erosion of Punjabi and ensure its survival for future generations.

In recent years, sounds studies have taken a noticeable “turn” toward questions of sound’s ontology. There is also a self-professed move away from questions of culture, signification, and discourse, and toward questions of materiality, affect, and potentiality. This study examines how the matter sensed by the human body as haptic and sonic manifests as vibration and how its haptic, movemental, and tactile qualities enable the theorization of different forms of collective movement and sociality. Focusing on the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), or “sound cannons,” deployed in public events, this research examines how vibratory force operates within assembled bodies (Bennett 2010; Latour 2005). Through an analysis of LRAD’s effects, the study examines coercive resonance, and the negotiation of relational capacities. Ultimately, this study seeks to understand a fuller range of the nonhuman powers circulating around/within human bodies, and how they splice bodies together in mutual, collaborative entanglement. 

Over the past few decades, smartphone ownership has become increasingly prevalent across the globe, especially within the United States. The sudden increase in communication and information access has dramatically altered how people interact with each other. This project uses Actor-Network theory to describe how phones act as mediators that transform the individual into an alternative version of themselves with various real and digital social contexts. The study draws on several open-ended interviews with students at Skidmore College to examine how smartphones are influencing cultural norms, communication, and identity. The research provides insight into how phones and the internet blur boundaries between private and public life.

In our society, we choose between integrating into mainstream culture and preserving our native heritage. The ongoing debate within the deaf community regarding cochlear implants reflects a broader societal discussion about separation and integration. Hearing parents of deaf children may choose to provide their child with a cochlear implant, believing it will help them integrate into the hearing world. Conversely, advocates for ASL argue that cochlear implants can lead deaf individuals to distance themselves from their culture. This paper explores the divide between the hearing and deaf communities, highlighting the tension between the desire for integration into mainstream society and the need to preserve their culture through separation.