Anand Pandian

Apocalypse no: how almost everything we thought we knew about the Maya is wrong For many years the prevailing debate about the Maya centred upon why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are asking: how did the Maya survive?

www.theguardian.com/news/2026/fe...

“I don’t exist in an after climate crisis—we know now that there is no after, only varying degrees of loss, varying degrees of change.”

"The Future of Here gathered and presented imaginary artifacts from the everyday life of a future people that might one day inhabit the landscape of this city we now call Baltimore, once our own civilization was long gone."

Speculating on the Futures of Here “I don’t exist in an after climate crisis—we know now that there is no after, only varying degrees of loss, varying degrees of change. My mother was a climate writer who found that her words …

Last winter and spring, I took a journey deep into an imagined future with artist @auntiemojo.bsky.social and an amazing group of students at Johns Hopkins University. Here's a glimpse of the future river culture we conjured together at the Peale Museum in Baltimore.

www.aam-us.org/2026/02/17/s...

Why Americans Fortify Their Lives — And the Public Places That Can Heal the Divide Dr. Anand Pandian on fear, fortresses and our strongest tools for rebuilding trust

Spaces held in common shape our ability to imagine and practice a collective life with others unlike ourselves. @civiccommonsus.bsky.social has been exploring this challenge, and it's been a real privilege thinking along with them. Link below and in my bio.
medium.com/reimagining-...

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong The pushback against ICE exposed a series of mistaken assumptions.

"If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from... whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

ANAND PANDIAN: That space of normal life, that sense of the everyday that we all take for granted, has somehow been punctured. BLAIR: Anand Pandian is an anthropology professor at Johns Hopkins University and the author of "Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls Of American Life, And How To Take Them Down." PANDIAN: I think a lot of people have the sense now that they have to stand up and say something. They can't pretend that normal life can simply go on, as it does, even if everything in our lives conspires to give us the illusion that somehow we could just go on.

Privileged people can ignore fascism for a while, telling themselves things are normal. Then all of a sudden fascism smacks them in the face and they realize their comfortable way of life is at risk.

After violence in Minneapolis, some influencers break from typical content Lifestyle influencers or those cute animal accounts on social media rarely feature commentary about news and politics. The violence in Minneapolis has been an exception.

I was on NPR Morning Edition this morning! Speaking for, well, 37 seconds, but grateful for this chance to weigh in on unacceptable ICE violence in Minneapolis and the truth that so many in this country have begun to insist on, that “normal” life cannot go on like this.

www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...

Why Americans Fortify Their Lives — And the Public Places That Can Heal the Divide Dr. Anand Pandian on fear, fortresses and our strongest tools for rebuilding trust

NEW: @anandian.bsky.social wandered across America to find out why fear and division were increasing. Read our latest article to see how he found fortification of our lives — SUVs, security cameras, even clothing — reflect a deeper cultural anxiety about strangers and belonging: tinyurl.com/24zujewh

The snow (and ice, yes) a reminder: be kind to your neighbors, those of your and other kinds, those here to stay and those passing through.

From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that reality

'When the divide between self and other becomes as stark as it has in everyday American life, efforts to address collective predicaments or to respond to the suffering of others can meet with deep skepticism.'
#isolationism #individualism #collectivity #society #justice #environment #resistance

From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that reality

As @anandian.bsky.social argues, rejecting global climate action reflects not only fossil fuel lobbying but habits of thought that address wellbeing in sharply individualistic terms. “To make meaningful change…we have to address these ways of living and thinking.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump pulls US out of international cultural property preservation centre and coalition of arts agencies In a memo announcing the withdrawals, the president said the organisations ran “contrary to the interests of the United States”

It’s no coincidence the 66 int’l orgs Trump quit cluster around climate and arts & heritage. Trump knows better than most green transformation is a social & cultural issue. It now falls to the rest of us to fill the culture gap in climate policy & action.
🧵1/
www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/08/t...

From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that reality

From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian

From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that reality

MLK Jr insisted that what affects any one of us will affect all of us. His understanding of the “network of mutuality” that sustains us all is an essential lesson for this fraught moment in the US, I argue in a new op-ed for the Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“The ocean was forever unfolding, forever exploring, forever tinkering with form”—another engrossing tale from Richard Powers, with characters you keep wondering about, and lyrical language that takes you deep into the sea.

"These days, so much turns on our collective ability to open ourselves to new ways of being with one another. This is the first lesson from Millie's world: You don't have to be the same to be close." This extraordinary new book by Danilyn Rutherford is such a moving and compelling read.

Renee Macklin Good’s wife says she ‘nurtured kindness’ On Wednesday, Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent. Becca Good, her wife, shared the following statement with MPR News.

On Wednesday, Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent. Becca Good, her wife, shared the following statement with MPR News.

Really looking forward to this conversation about Danilyn’s powerful new book. Join us!

So excited to be in conversation Anand Pandian and Ashanté Reese!

We had so much fun talking about Something Between Us that we decided to do it again.

Thanks to SAR for hosting us. You can register here:

sarweb.org/date/beautif...

@anandian.bsky.social
@dukepress.bsky.social

During a fierce storm I could hear the panicked screams of children in tents outside. This is Christmas in Gaza This time of year is the true beginning of winter: the 40 coldest and harshest days of the season. One resident of Gaza City describes the reality for Palestinians living with little shelter and no el...

“If there is any urgency left in international concern for Gaza, winter should make it impossible to look away. People need proper shelter now, prefabricated homes delivered immediately. Not statements, not promises, but materials, access and action. My students deserve at least that much.”

Something Between Us | Stanford University Press An anthropologist's quest to understand the deep social and political divides in American society, and the everyday strategies that can overcome them.

www.sup.org/books/anthro...
New book by anthropologist Anand Pandian

Reclaiming Collective Life in a Fractured U.S. In a new book, an anthropologist recounts his quest across the U.S. to understand the nation's deepening divides and how to repair them.

From the archive. After Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win, an anthropologist set out across the U.S. to understand the nation’s deepening divides. In the new book Something Between Us, he grapples with these rifts and how to repair them. Read more: www.sapiens.org/culture/some...

Nuestros libros del 2025 Nuestra fidelidad a la sociología, la ciencia política y la economía sigue ahí, aunque cada vez de forma más porosa. Este año la lista se abre también a la historia, la antropología y la teoría políti...

Grateful to see Something Between Us make this 2025 book list from Spain’s El Diario newspaper.

www.eldiario.es/132_c4276a

PODCAST+ | Faithful Politics Bipartisan conversations between a Democrat political junkie and a Republican Pastor discusses the news of the week. Join Josh and Will every week, on the Faithful Politics Podcast as they talk to som...

I’ve been talking about my book for a while, but this was a special experience: Faithful Politics, co-hosted by a liberal activist + a conservative pastor, both terrific listeners + conversationalists. We talked about fear + trust, otherness + vulnerability.

www.faithfulpolitics.us/podcast-1/ep...

Society for Cultural Anthropology presents: SCA Fridays, a monthly series. 2025 Reading Recap. Hosts: Anand Pandian (Johns Hopkins) and Jessica Cattelino (UCLA) Friday, December 19, 12pm-1pm ET

Here's one for all the readers! 📚🤓📚📑 Join us for our last SCA Fridays of the year as we reflect on, appreciate, and read from publications from 2025.

Teaching and Organizing for Environmental Justice in Baltimore Baltimore’s residents of color are twice as likely as white residents to develop cancer from toxic exposure, and suffer some of the highest asthm...

Our latest Teaching Tools reflects on a collaboration between an anthropologist (@anandian.bsky.social) and a community organizer (Shashawnda Campbell of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust) on teaching and activism beyond the classroom: www.culanth.org/fieldsights/...