Global (colonial?) knowledge structures

A week ago I arrived at the San Fransisco International airport with two suitcases packed with books, field notes and clothes. This could be the opening of an anthropological “arrival story”, with the aim to show that I was “actually there”, and to give legitimacy to my account of how the Nacirema lives. In December last year I received a note from the Swedish Research Council that I had been awarded a post-doc scholarship to go to the University of California at Santa Cruz in the U.S. Apart from analyzing my ethnographic material, I will participate in a graduate seminar called “Multispecies Storytelling: Diversities, Histories, Comparisons” organized by Professor Anna Tsing and Donna Haraway. The aim of a post-doc study is to “deepen expertise in a specialist subject, including necessary skills and methods” and is “expected to produce relevant publications accordingly”. My thought wanders to the idea of being able to absorb some of the fame that surrounds the University of California, where the highest number of Nobel laureates has been fostered. I know that anthropology is not among the Nobel Prize categories, but these prizes are commonly used as a reference for the level of top notch knowledge production at a university. The decision to contact a U.S. researcher to plan my post-doc application was thus a strategic attempt. U.S. universities are widely considered as important knowledge centers. It might be pure incidence, but I consider the fact that I did not receive funds for a similar project when placing it in Argentina. I tried trice, and then I applied my new strategy. The statistical proof is meager, I know. And these reflections should of course not be interpreted as if I am not incredibly happy about the scholarship, or that I have any doubt that I will learn a lot from the researcher that I contacted. It is just a reflection on the power structures that influence ideas about whose knowledge counts, what research projects that receive funds, and who produces valuable knowledge.