Abstract
Dr. Darcie DeAngelo’s fieldwork confronted her with two radically different technologies—bombs and rats. Both were integral to understanding relations in the aftermath of war—that, in fact, these relations were transformed not only by the humans, but also by the nonhumans, who actively disarmed the land, namely, landmine detection rats. Fears of militarism became disrupted when a rat came into the minefield. The rat itself provoked feelings of love between human deminers. Additionally, the rat, as landmine detection technology and as a living being, helped to alter feelings of war that the bombs perpetuated. Dr. DeAngelo soon began to realize that this had implications for trauma and healing, ecological relations, and transitional justice, all of which she found to be entangled.
Speaker
Dr. Darcie DeAngelo is a medical anthropologist with training in sensory ethnography. Her area of focus is on landmine detection industries in Cambodia, especially those that work with animal detection aids. She is dedicated to engaged studies and has conducted research in diverse fields from public mental health disparities to international policy.
She also produces public humanities exhibitions where she troubles the boundary between art and anthropology. These pieces have been shown in a wide variety of places from academic conferences, art galleries, to experimental public-facing exhibitions. She is currently an assistant professor of sociocultural anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, a Wilson Center China Fellow, and is a member of the policy-scholar team at the Mansfield-Luce Asia Foundation. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Visual Anthropology Review.
Moderator
Dr. Steve Heder has studied, worked in or taught about Southeast Asia and China since the early 1970s. He holds a PhD in Politics and has worked for the United Nations and various human rights organizations. He is currently a Research Associate at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the London School of Oriental and African Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Foreign Policy Institute. His particular research interests have included democracy, revolution, genocide and human rights.
