Writing in community: Relationship building and accountability in knowledge production
Abstract As anthropology reckons with its past, present, and future, anthropologists increasingly seek to challenge inequities within the discipline and academia more broadly. Anthropology, regardless of subdiscipline, is a social endeavor. Yet research often remains an isolating (though not necessarily solitary) process, even within research teams and in coauthorship contexts. Here, we focus on peer‐reviewed publication as the principal manifestation of knowledge production and propose a method for challenging division, hierarchy, power differentials, and adherence to tradition: writing in community . Writing in community is a collaborative form of writing that centers care, abundance, joy, and personal satisfaction over the individuality currently rewarded by the academy. This process engenders consensus, circumvents normative hierarchical research and writing, and promotes relationship building. Here, we experiment by inviting reviewers and editors into our community to collectively contribute to the writing process and reflect on that experience together. Ultimately, we challenge norms for scholarship, (co)authorship, and ways of knowing to offer a more equitable praxis of knowledge production. We propose that writing in community can help anthropologists enact values of multivocality and research transparency.
Authors
- Lisa Hodgetts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7114-0738)
- María José Figuerero Torres (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6411-4432)
- Sarah Herr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2390-8866)
- Mónica Barnes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7953-7596)
- Elizabeth Chin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8486-6562)
- Kirk A. Maasch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8658-8030)
- Christa Craven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8374-9487)
- Daniel H. Sandweiss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9984-8831)
- Kristina Douglass (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0931-3428)
- Jordi A. Rivera Prince (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8865-3011)
- Emily M. Blackwood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2691-4770)
- Kylie Quave (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3337-6306)
- Emily B. P. Milton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8504-1247)
- Danilyn Rutherford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9209-3336)
- María A. Gutiérrez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6331-3763)
- Madeleine Landrum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1086-0004)
- Elizabeth L. Rodgers
Institutions
- College of Wooster (US)
- Western University (CA)
- American Museum of Natural History (US)
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
- George Washington University (US)
- Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR)
- Brown University (US)
- Archaeology Southwest (US)
- Wenner-Gren Foundation (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- University of Maine (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Anthropologist
- Published
- 2025-04-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.28070
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 30.35
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Universidad de Buenos Aires
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica, Universidad de Buenos Aires