QUESTIONS OF POWER:
“AMERICA 250”
Session 1 of Summer Pocket Talks: Interactive Seminars on Critical Topics
Formerly known as the Anthropology Summer Salon
Thursday, July 23, 2025 from 5:30PM PM - 7:30 PM
Doors open at 5:30pm, talks begin at 6pm
Georgetown Neighborhood Library
1st Floor Reading Room
3260 R St NW, Washington, DC 20007
RSVP for updates and reminders
The Summer Pocket Talks is a series of interactive presentations and discussions, designed to kindle broader conversations and insights on timely issues and topics. As an attendee, you will hear from thinkers from the social sciences and humanities, be able to ask questions and discuss with speakers and other attendees, and connect with other interested in pressing topics. Complimentary tea and light refreshments are provided!
Check out the talks for this session below!
Toys and Patriotism:
What can dolls, action figures, and board games tell us about the U.S.?
Eva Rey Pinto, PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology, American University
This talk explores how toys have done much more than entertain children. From wartime play to fashion icons, we will uncover how the playroom has long been a place where national identity and the "American Dream " are imagined and learned.
"Our People Have Been Here:"
How Black food liberation builds power in Baltimore
Cecile Walton, MA, Recent Masters Graduate
Department of Anthropology, American University
How do autonomous, sovereign food systems reclaim power or demand it? In Baltimore, where industries of toxicity and extraction continue to threaten communities' health, Black Yield - a black-led, Pan African organization - is designing tools for self-defense through taking back control of food and land. This talk describes how building knowledge about black-food geographies is an act of self-defense against dangerous progress narratives in the wake of America 250.
Beyond Polling:
Ethnographic Examination of Voting and Political Identity
John Villecco, PhD, Recent PhD Graduate
Department of Anthropology, American University
With a longitudinal focus on northeastern Pennsylvania, I used ethnographic methods to examine how voters who supported right-wing populist politicians developed their political identities and voting proclivities within their socioculturally constructed lives. My work offers a holistic, historically situated, and person-centered approach to understanding why and how people vote.