Javelinas, also known as collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu), are the only peccary species native to North America. Despite their porcine appearance, peccaries (Family Tayassuidae) are not pigs (Family Suidae). However, this superficial resemblance between javelinas and introduced feral hogs (Sus scrofa), they are often confused in Texas. Feral hogs are responsible for millions of dollars…
Author: Anthropology365
I'm Adam Johnson, an anthropologist teaching at Northwest Vista College while completing my PhD at UTSA after teaching as a lecturer at UNCC for 3 years.
My work engages with the ways in which landscapes mediate multispecies relations. I hope to work with the Cofán, an Indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon and will be visiting in the summer of 2020 to develop a research plan, collaborating with local people in Zábalo.
I have also completed ethnographic research with Drag Queens in North Carolina, science studies research on the ways scientific discourse maintains racial categories and thus inequality, and primate research, studying the ways in which chimpanzees and rhesus macaques construct and make use of space.
https://twitter.com/Anthropology365
“A student and a professor remember the UNC Charlotte mass shooting three years later”: NPR WFAE Charlotte: Sarah Delia
I have not done many interviews on the subject. Here is an NPR article in which I am featured alongside one of my students about the shooting in the classroom three years ago: “A student and a professor remember the UNC Charlotte mass shooting three years later” https://www.wfae.org/charlotte-area/2022-04-29/a-student-and-a-professor-remember-the-unc-charlotte-mass-shooting-three-years-later
Reflecting Three Years After the UNCC Mass Shooting
Every year at this time, I reflect on the shooting that occurred in my classroom on April 30, 2019, that took the lives of two students, injured four others, and traumatized countless others, both in the classroom and across campus. That day changed my life forever, and three years on, I still have to contend…
Javelinas and Texas Ebony Trees in South Texas
Texas Ebony trees (Ebenopsis ebano) is a species of legume native to South Texas. These trees produce large bean pods (see below) that ripen and fall to the ground. They provide food to javelinas (Pecari tajacu) and other wildlife. Using the last five years of iNaturalist javelina sightings, I am examining the relationship between javelinas…
#Hackademics- Hacks for Succeeding in Academia #1: Balancing Family Drama Trauma Fieldwork & Teaching
I recently participated in a webinar with the American Association of Biological Anthropologists and the Sausage of Science Podcast. We discussed mental wellbeing in academia and Dr. Rebecca Lester’s and my recent article on the subject: “Mental health in academia: Hacks for cultivating andsustaining wellbeing.”
“Of Peccaries and People: Perception and Politics in the Texas Hill Country” RAI Anthropology and Conservation Conference Talk 2021
On October 27, I presented some of my preliminary research at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s 2021 Anthropology and Conservation conference at the “Living with Diversity in a More-than-human World” panel. In this talk, I discuss a multispecies community in the Texas Hill Country, centering on human-javelina relations.
“Of People and Peccaries: Perception and Politics in the Texas Hill Country” Transcript (RAI Anthropology and Conservation 2021)
Presentation Slides: INTRODUCTION On my first day of fieldwork, I climbed a steep hill where my collaborator, Roger, reported a group of javelinas lived on his property. As I crested the hill, I noticed shapes obscured in the shade of the Ashe juniper trees. Unsure at first, I was met by a musky smell followed…
A Rat’s Journey There and Back Again
In early August of this year, my partner and I took a much needed vacation to South Padre Island. While visiting, we decided to go snorkeling in Laguna Madre, one of only six hypersaline lagoons in the world. We saw many small fish, lots of large black drums, maybe a barracuda, and tons of hermit…
Abstract: Of People and Peccaries: Perception and Politics in the Texas Hill Country
I am giving a talk in October for the Royal Anthropological Institute: https://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-conservation/panels#10866 Here is the abstract for my talk based on original research at one of my fieldsites in the Texas Hill Country. Javelinas (Pecari tajacu) are porcine-like mammals that range from the southwest United States to northern Argentina. While common in west and…
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