• Faculty

  • Hugh Raffles

    Professor and Chair of Anthropology; Director, Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought

    Email
    rafflesh@newschool.edu

    Office Location
    D - 6 East 16th Street

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    Hugh Raffles

    Profile

    Hugh Raffles is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and Director of the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography and Social Thought (GIDEST).

    Hugh’s essays have appeared in a wide variety of venues, including Granta, Public Culture, Cultural Anthropology, American Ethnologist, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, Cabinet, and Orion. His most recent book, The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time (Pantheon, 2020), won the 2023 J.I. Staley Prize from the School for Advanced Research. Hugh is a recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for non-fiction and an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

    www.hughraffles.com

    Ethnography; nature; writing and other forms of representation and expression.


    Degrees Held

    DFES 1999, Yale University 


    Recent Publications

    Books

    The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time (2020)
    Winner of the 2023 J.I. Staley Prize from The School for Advanced Research and the Openbook Award, Taiwan.

    Insectopedia  (2010)
    New York Times Notable Book; winner of the 2012 Ludwik Fleck Prize from the Society for the Social Studies of Science and the 2011 Orion Book Prize.

    In Amazonia, A Natural History (2002)
    A Choice/American Library Association Outstanding Academic Title; co-winner of the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Whiting from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology.

    Articles and Book Chapters

    “The Black Stone of Djúpalónssandur,” Revel, Issue 1, November 2023.

    “Eldfell,” in Til Fundar Við Eldfell/A Meeting with Edlfell, Safnahús Vestmanneaya, Heimaey, Iceland, September 2023.

    “On Stones, Large and Small,” Orion, Winter 2022. 

    “Jewel Identity,” Apollo: The International Art Magazine, October 2021.   

    “The Stones of Lewis, Portals in Time,” New York Review of Books, October 9, 2020,  

    “Beyond the Boundary Layer,” in Tomás Saraceno, Aria. Florence: Marsilio/Palacio Strozzi, 2020.  

    “Muscovite,” Public Seminar, October 2, 2020.   

    “Removing the Teddy Roosevelt statue is just the beginning,” CNN.com, June 25, 2020.

    “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 5,” with Orla Murphy, Emmett Scanlon, Liska Chan, Derek Hoeferlin, Peggy Deamer, Yuko Uchikawa, Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió, Sarah Rottenberg, Germane Barnes, Jesse LeCavalier, Susannah Drake, Annmarie Adams, and Carolina Dayer, Places Journal, April 2020 

    “Solve et Coagula,” in Frances Richard, ed., I Stand in My Place With My Own Day Here: Site-Specific Art at The New School (New York, 2019)

    “Living Through the End Times,” (co-authored with The GIDEST Collective) New Geographies vol. 9 (Fall 2017): 48-52.

    Against Purity,” Social Research: An International Quarterly vol. 84, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 171-182.

    “London Stone Redux,” in John Law and Evelyn Ruppert, eds., Modes of Knowing: Resources from the Baroque. London: Mattering Press, 2016, 224-241.

    “Suspended,” Orion vol. 34, no. 2 (March/April 2015): 12.

    “Beetle Wrestler (Natalie Jeremijenko and Chris Woebken),” Design and Violence, Museum of Modern Art, September 2014. Reprinted in Paola Antonelli and Jamer Hunt, eds., Design and Violence. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2015, 198-201.

    "Foundations,” Cabinet (2014)

    "Twenty-five Years is a Long Time," Cultural Anthropology (2012)

    "A Conjoined Fate," Orion (2010)

    "Jews, Lice, and History," Public Culture (2007)

    "Cricket Fighting," Granta (2007)

    "The Language of the Bees: An Interview with Hugh Raffles by Sina Najafi," Cabinet (2007)


    Research Interests

    Human/non-human/non-animal relations


    Awards And Honors

    2023 Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

    2023 J.I. Staley Prize from the School for Advanced Research

    2023 Openbook Award (Taiwan)

    2018 Openbook Award (Taiwan)

    2012 Ludwik Fleck Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science

    2012 Shortlist, de Groene Waterman Prize (Belgium)

    2011 Orion Book Award

    2010 Special Prize for Extending Ethnographic Understanding from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology

    2009 Whiting Writers' Award

    2004 Honorable Mention, Sharon Stephens First Book Prize of the American Ethnological Society

    2003 Co-Winner, Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology


    Current Courses

    Ind Senior Project
    LANT 4990, Fall 2024

    Independent Study
    LANT 3950, Fall 2024

    Independent Study
    GANT 6990, Fall 2024

    Problems in Anthropology
    GANT 6065, Fall 2024

    Future Courses

    Ethnography and Writing
    GANT 6310, Spring 2025

    Ind Senior Project
    LANT 4990, Spring 2025

    Independent Study
    LANT 3950, Spring 2025

    Independent Study
    GANT 6990, Spring 2025

    Independent Study
    GPUB 6990, Spring 2025

    Past Courses

    Ind Senior Project
    LANT 4990, Spring 2024

    Independent Study
    LANT 3950, Spring 2024

    Independent Study
    GANT 6990, Spring 2024

    Independent Study
    GPUB 6990, Spring 2024

    Workshop in Ethnography
    LANT 3035, Spring 2024

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