Created in 2011, Hot Spots goes beyond the headlines to consider current events and pressing global issues from the perspective of anthropologists and others on the scene. Hot Spots series are reviewed by the editors of Cultural Anthropology; series editors must be current members of the SCA.

How to Submit

View the submission guidelines. Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Technology and Anthropological Ways of Knowing

Technology and Anthropological Ways of Knowing

In this series, we ask anthropologists working in tech to reflect on the place of anthropology in their quotidian practices and professional lives. We use the d... More

3.11 Politics in Disaster Japan: Ten Years Later

3.11 Politics in Disaster Japan: Ten Years Later

In July 2011, three months after the Tohoku tsunami and subsequent nuclear reactor destabilization, we published the first Hot Spot series on the Society for Cu... More

American Fascism

American Fascism

“Every age has its own fascism,” Primo Levi famously wrote in his essay, “A Past We Thought Would Never Return.” “And we see the warning signs wherever the conc... More

Majoritarian Politics in South Asia

Majoritarian Politics in South Asia

The last decade has been witness to the seemingly meteoric rise and consolidation of a wide range of majoritarian and authoritarian political regimes across Sou... More

The Psychedelic Revival

The Psychedelic Revival

Over the last decade, psychedelics—named for their “mind-manifesting” quality—have made a comeback in modern science, public discourse, and cultural significanc... More

Responding to an Unfolding Pandemic: Asian Medicines and Covid-19

Responding to an Unfolding Pandemic: Asian Medicines and Covid-19

Scholars across disciplines working on Asian medicines are currently encountering a multitude of responses to the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (Covid... More

Bolsonaro and the Unmaking of Brazil

Bolsonaro and the Unmaking of Brazil

Recently Brazil became an example of the destructive forces of populist extreme-right-wing governments. Indigenous and traditional populations, the environment,... More

Europe in the Balance

Europe in the Balance

Europe seems to be plunging into crises of demographic and economic displacements, heightened nationalism, and general unrest. Wealthy countries that have enjoy... More

Behind the Migrant Caravan: Ethnographic Updates from Central America

Behind the Migrant Caravan: Ethnographic Updates from Central America

(Con traducción al español)Central America is again in the news as a region in crisis. In October 2018, a group of migrants gathered in a bus station in San Ped... More

From Reciprocity to Relationality: Anthropological Possibilities

From Reciprocity to Relationality: Anthropological Possibilities

Recently, the discipline of anthropology has faced much-needed critique from a chorus of young and dynamic scholars. These critiques emerged in the face of the ... More