Ali Kenner
Currently, I am Adjunct Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Managing Editor + Program Director at Cultural Anthropology, the journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology.
My dissertation research focused on environmental health problems – asthma and air pollution in particular – and the ways in which different communities care for these problems. For more information, see the abstract for “Breathtaking: Contemporary Figures of U.S. Asthma Care.”
I have collaborated with Kim Fortun and Mike Fortun and many others on The Asthma Files (under construction), an electronic archive of text, still images, video and audio files that illustrate multiple perspectives on asthma – from the vantage point of affected people in different locales and communities, heath care providers, and scientists from many different disciplines. Situated within the emerging field of digital humanities, our research group uses collaborative ethnography to experiment with different modes of knowledge production.
This past year (2011-2012), I have focused my attention on two projects, the future of academic publishing and an ethnography of yoga therapy. See my sporadic posts for more information on both.
Before coming to the field of Science and Technology Studies, I earned a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Albany, SUNY (2006). During that time, my research focused on digital media, feminist pedagogy, and ethics of care, which included work on the politics of aging and elderly care.
I’ve spent the last seven years working in the world of publishing and literature, first as a graduate assistant for the New York State Writer’s Institute and more recently as managing editor of Cultural Anthropology.
I also hold two, 200-hour yoga teacher certifications, one in Hatha yoga and the other in Kundalini yoga. Visit my yoga page to see my current yoga class schedule.
