Scott MacLeod's Anthropological Research

Research Interests

Scott's research focuses on the ethnography of information technology, especially vis-à-vis counterculture (scott-macleod.blogspot.com - BLOG ADDED TO DAILY), and particularly virtual ethnography (see Webnographer.org's wiki), as well as on UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The detailed, explanatory potential of anthropology & sociology in relation to the study of the social effects of information technology, and to internet ethnography and tourism studies, provides a fascinating intersection of approaches / disciplines / methodologies, and is my starting place. I'd also like to theorize / "theorize" anthropology, especially vis-à-vis computing. I'm interested, in addition, in questions of anthropology vis-à-vis science. And I'm interested in anthropological, linguistic and philosophical questions of representation and language.

I'm currently envisioning and developing a global, virtual, free-to-students, open, (potentially credit- and degree-granting ~ Ph.D., M.D., & Music school, I.B. etc.) multilingual World University and School, with great universities (e.g. MIT, Ivy League Schools, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, Oxford, T.U.M., Sorbonne, L.M.U., Juilliard, Cambridge, Cal Tech, etc.) as key players, using a Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware 'model.' Teach with your webcam, or in Second Life, or take a course at World University & School. Here's the Facebook group page - facebook.com/group.php?gid=48753608141. World University & School is for the developing world and everyone. And in relation to this, I'd like to help explore converging and networking Second Life, OpenSim, Google Earth, and MIT's Open Course Ware, to facilitate an emerging virtual University~Universe, both real and fantastic. I'm also presently writing an ethnography of Harbin Hot Springs, with a virtual world aspect.

In the fall, spring and summer of 2007 - 2008, I taught "Society and Information Technology" - socinfotech.pbwiki.com - on Berkman Island in Second Life (not on Harvard University's faculty) - slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/113/47/25 (this requires at least one gigabyte of RAM). I teach courses in anthropology and sociology, both in real life and in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life, which is 'placeless.' In the autumn of 2008, I taught "Society and Information Technology" on Penn State Isle II in Second Life, as a Penn State University instructor.

At the University of Edinburgh (D.R.) where I studied from 2003 - 2004, I conducted a virtual ethnographic study of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, St. Kilda, the island archipelago 40 miles west of the outer Hebrides on the west coast of Scotland, which was inhabited for more than 2000 years until 1930. In the 2000-2003 school years, I studied at the graduate level at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara (M.A.), and I studied again at U.C. Berkeley in 2008-2009.

My Second Life avatar's name is Aphilo Aarde, ~ add me as a friend, in-world. :) And here's my Facebook page: facebook.com/macleod, ~ add me as a friend here, too. :) And at twitter.com, my tweet is scottmacleod.

I also explore questions of how we can elicit loving bliss neurophysiologically, naturally.

Loving Bliss Letters

Friends' Dalton Letter
scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm

Loving Bliss and Practices to Elicit This
scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissPractices.htm

Loving Bliss as Friends
scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissFriends.htm

Eudaimonia is Flow and Bliss
scottmacleod.com/EudaimoniaFlow.htm

Guidelines for Practicing Loving Bliss vis-à-vis Practicing a Musical Instrument
scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingLovingBlissvavMusicalInstrument.htm

In addition, I'm interested in the concept of carbon-free, energy autonomy, and here are some interesting, related instances: scottmacleod.com/EnergyAutonomy.htm.

In the falls of 1999 & 2005, I traveled on Semester at Sea, and here are some impressions from those voyages: Semester at Sea.

I enjoy writing poetry, and here are some haiku-ish. Click on the 'poetry' tag on my blog {above} to read or share more poetry.

~ Scott

scott@scottmacleod.com

home: scottmacleod.com

copyright Scott MacLeod's Arts 1998 - 2009

Anthropology References

Boellstorff, Tom. 2008. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Cerwonka, Allaine and Liisa Malkki. 2007. Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Clifford, James and George E. Marcus (eds.). 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.