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.

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Lessons for Liberalism from the “Illiberal East”

Lessons for Liberalism from the “Illiberal East”

The cumulative effects of Brexit, the resurgence of populist politics in Europe, and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States have given r... More

Im/migration in the Trump Era

Im/migration in the Trump Era

One year into the Trump presidency, when our core values of multiculturalism, cross-cultural understanding, international diversity, and racial inclusion are un... More

Demonetization: Critical Responses to India’s Cash(/less) Experiment

Demonetization: Critical Responses to India’s Cash(/less) Experiment

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetized 86 percent of the cash circulating in India. While citizens were allowed to deposit and exchange n... More

Cuba as Dreamworld and Catastrophe

Cuba as Dreamworld and Catastrophe

This Hot Spots series attempts to interrogate how Cuba is interpellated by diverse audiences to think with and about the complexities and paradoxes of everyday,... More

The Rise of Trumpism

The Rise of Trumpism

The rise of Donald Trump caught many off-guard. What happened? And what comes next? At least one thing is clear: stark divides are being exposed in social order... More

Standing Rock, #NoDAPL, and Mni Wiconi

Standing Rock, #NoDAPL, and Mni Wiconi

Thousands of Water Protectors from more than three hundred Native nations, as well as allied supporters from a range of social movements, gathered at the Standi... More

Crisis of Liberalism

Crisis of Liberalism

Is liberalism in crisis? The surge of populist politics—challenging both representation and reason—around the world demands that we pose the question. 2016 has ... More

Arctic Abstractive Industry

Arctic Abstractive Industry

The Arctic is a region that is being dramatically altered through climate change, even as extractive industries and the nations that rely on them frame the Arct... More

Refugees and the Crisis of Europe

Refugees and the Crisis of Europe

Since the beginning of 2015, an unprecedented number of people from Middle Eastern and African countries—many of them fleeing war, persecution, and unrelenting ... More

Greece is Burning

Greece is Burning

At last judged adequately modern, Greece won the privilege of hosting the summer Olympic Games in 2004. Many analysts have pointed to the national deficit that ... More