Danny Hoffman
Biographic Data
| ID | 3581058 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Danny Hoffman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Danny |
| FAMILY NAME | Hoffman |
| SIGNATURE | HOFFMAN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 202 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Rebellious Riots
Rally Day
March 5, 2018, was the final rally day for the Sierra Leone People's Party prior to that country's national elections. The SLPP held its last day of public demonstrations in Bo, the country's second largest city and primary urban center in the Mende-dominant southeast. As was true of other political parties in other cities and other elections in Sierra Leone's turbulent past, violence played a key role in structuring rally day events and particip…
New Mediums, Better Messages
The notion of development influences and is influenced by all aspects of human life. Social science is but one representational option among many for conveying the myriad ways in which development is conceived, encountered, experienced, justified, courted, and/or resisted by different groups at particular times and places. This wide-ranging collection from a diverse group of academic and non-academic authors engages with the broad field of develo…
“By name and no other”
“‘By Name and No Other’: The COVID masks portrait project” is a series of images of the photographer’s family made in the early days of the COVID-19 quarantines in Seattle. These portraits document an uncertain moment, creating both a visual archive of an unfolding event and the occasion for reflection on how portraiture works as an ethnographic tool
The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Chez Jolie Coiffure, Rosine Mbakam
Reviewed by: The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Chez Jolie Coiffure Danny Hoffman FILM REVIEW of The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016) and Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018), directed by Rosine Mbakam. Icarus Films. At a double screening in Seattle of Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016), filmmaker Rosine Mbakam fielded an awkward, if well-intentioned, question. Is the poetic voice in The Two Faces uniquely hers? …
Yellow Woman
Yellow Womanis a multimodal ethnographic research project combining text and film to explore the dynamics of cooperation and suspicion on a Liberian gold mine. The sixteen-minute single-take video places the viewer in a uniquely "filmic" position; in other words, it allows the viewer to experience the end of a gold mining operation as only a camera can render it. But it is a point of view that simultaneously captures the tensions and surveillance…
Geometry after the Circle
In August 2014, at the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberian health and security forces instituted an emergency armed quarantine around West Point, one of Monrovia's poorest neighborhoods. When West Point residents protested, security forces fought back, killing one person and injuring many more. The West Point quarantine is one of a number of recent notable cases of urban "gray zone" security operations. That amorphous term has b…
Seven / Brokering Revolution
A Crouching Village
In its scale, its virulence, and, most significantly, its urbanity, the 2014-2015 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD or simply Ebola) in the Mano River region of West Africa seemed to challenge the basic tools of modern public health. As a result, the government of Liberia took the extraordinary step of implementing a cordon sanitaire around one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital city, Monrovia. Observers labeled both the quarantine an…
Frontline collaborations
The stereotype of the ethnographic research assistant as marginal figure, 'inside' enough to facilitate access but 'outside' enough to broker worlds of understanding, has likely always been a fiction. But as qualitative researchers increasingly focus on unfolding events in unstable places, research collaborators are even less likely to be the ambiguous figures of legend. To conduct research in violent environments, researchers often find that the…
Acknowledging the 2012 Anthony Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology
War and Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone Krijn Peters. New York
The War Machines
Violent Virtuosity
In this essay, I argue that the Mano River War should be understood as a conflict to which the ubiquitous presence of digital media was crucial. This was a war structured by the economy of attention. To profit in this economy, combatants and non-combatants were required to play to an audience that they knew was there, but often could only sense or apprehend in the most abstract way. The realities of constantly being available to be seen were cruc…
Life within Limits
Setting the stage for a `Festival of Lies
This article is a two-part essay resulting from the author's experience as a public commentator on a performance in Seattle, USA by the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. The first part of the article explores the difficulties and opportunities that arise when Africanist scholars are asked to serve as cultural experts for a general audience. I outline some of the considerations in agreeing to provide commentary on a performance for which …
The Disappeared
'The Disappeared' is a small collection of images documenting the deforestation of the mountain range outside Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Aesthetically these images are inspired by West African photographic practices and represent an alternative ethnography of the recent war's impact on this region. The article outlines the dynamics of deforestation in the region but argues that the traditional realist aesthetic of documentary photogra…
The City as Barracks
Responding to characterizations of the postcolonial African city as a negative space, theorists of African urban processes have begun to focus on the city's unique modes of production. But what does this emphasis on productive capacity mean if "the city" is not Johannesburg or Nairobi but the West African urban warscape of Freetown or Monrovia? I explore that question by examining how the labor of male urban youth is organized according to the lo…
Disagreement
Observers often characterize the war in Sierra Leone as a crisis of youth. Understanding that crisis in political terms can be quite challenging. Applying the writings of theorist Jacques Rancière to events in Sierra Leone, I suggest a different understanding of politics, one that allows us to consider the violence of this war as a form of political speech
No Peace No War
Violent Events as Narrative Blocs
Alluding to Sierra Leone's recent violent history, this paper argues that storytelling events offer insights into the ways that people evaluate, discuss, and negotiate social and ethical strategies for making communal life viable in war as well as in peace. At the same time, it explores some of the theoretical implications of Michael Oakeshott's assertion that "there are not two worlds-the world of past happenings and the world of our present kno…
"Warscape Ethnography in West Africa and the Anthropology of "Events
This article introduces some of the challenges of doing ethnography in contexts such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-places where violence and the certainty of uncertainty have become the backdrop for social interaction. It also considers the potential contributions to anthropological theory of such an undertaking. In particular it outlines a fundamental re-orientation towards the concept of "the event." Drawing contrasts with conventional a…
The Brookfields Hotel (Freetown, Sierra Leone)
Danny Hoffman teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington. His current research is on the Kamajor militia movement and its involvement in the civil war in Sierra Leone
Hunter Militias and the International Human Rights Discourse in Sierra Leone and Beyond
Mariane C. Ferme, Danny Hoffman, Hunter Militias and the International Human Rights Discourse in Sierra Leone and Beyond, Africa Today, Vol. 50, No. 4, Mande Hunters, Civil Society and the State (Summer, 2004), pp. 73-95
The Submerged Promise
Yet because what we propose to study is above all reality, it does not follow that we should give up the idea of improving it. -Emile Durkheim, Preface to the First Edition, The Division of Labor in Society. Like many anthropologists working in conflict zones, I find myself writing the story of one war in the context of another. The fieldwork on which my research is based was conducted in war-time Sierra Leone and Liberia, working with irregular …
The City as Barracks
Responding to characterizations of the postcolonial African city as a negative space, theorists of African urban processes have begun to focus on the city's unique modes of production. But what does this emphasis on productive capacity mean if "the city" is not Johannesburg or Nairobi but the West African urban warscape of Freetown or Monrovia? I explore that question by examining how the labor of male urban youth is organized according to the lo…
Frontline collaborations
The stereotype of the ethnographic research assistant as marginal figure, 'inside' enough to facilitate access but 'outside' enough to broker worlds of understanding, has likely always been a fiction. But as qualitative researchers increasingly focus on unfolding events in unstable places, research collaborators are even less likely to be the ambiguous figures of legend. To conduct research in violent environments, researchers often find that the…
"Warscape Ethnography in West Africa and the Anthropology of "Events
This article introduces some of the challenges of doing ethnography in contexts such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-places where violence and the certainty of uncertainty have become the backdrop for social interaction. It also considers the potential contributions to anthropological theory of such an undertaking. In particular it outlines a fundamental re-orientation towards the concept of "the event." Drawing contrasts with conventional a…
Hunter Militias and the International Human Rights Discourse in Sierra Leone and Beyond
Mariane C. Ferme, Danny Hoffman, Hunter Militias and the International Human Rights Discourse in Sierra Leone and Beyond, Africa Today, Vol. 50, No. 4, Mande Hunters, Civil Society and the State (Summer, 2004), pp. 73-95
Frontline anthropology
A Crouching Village
In its scale, its virulence, and, most significantly, its urbanity, the 2014-2015 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD or simply Ebola) in the Mano River region of West Africa seemed to challenge the basic tools of modern public health. As a result, the government of Liberia took the extraordinary step of implementing a cordon sanitaire around one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital city, Monrovia. Observers labeled both the quarantine an…
Like beasts in the bush
(2003). Like beasts in the bush: synonyms of childhood and youth in Sierra Leone. Postcolonial Studies: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 295-308
Disagreement
Observers often characterize the war in Sierra Leone as a crisis of youth. Understanding that crisis in political terms can be quite challenging. Applying the writings of theorist Jacques Rancière to events in Sierra Leone, I suggest a different understanding of politics, one that allows us to consider the violence of this war as a form of political speech
Violent Events as Narrative Blocs
Alluding to Sierra Leone's recent violent history, this paper argues that storytelling events offer insights into the ways that people evaluate, discuss, and negotiate social and ethical strategies for making communal life viable in war as well as in peace. At the same time, it explores some of the theoretical implications of Michael Oakeshott's assertion that "there are not two worlds-the world of past happenings and the world of our present kno…
The Brookfields Hotel (Freetown, Sierra Leone)
Danny Hoffman teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington. His current research is on the Kamajor militia movement and its involvement in the civil war in Sierra Leone
Geometry after the Circle
In August 2014, at the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberian health and security forces instituted an emergency armed quarantine around West Point, one of Monrovia's poorest neighborhoods. When West Point residents protested, security forces fought back, killing one person and injuring many more. The West Point quarantine is one of a number of recent notable cases of urban "gray zone" security operations. That amorphous term has b…
Violent Virtuosity
In this essay, I argue that the Mano River War should be understood as a conflict to which the ubiquitous presence of digital media was crucial. This was a war structured by the economy of attention. To profit in this economy, combatants and non-combatants were required to play to an audience that they knew was there, but often could only sense or apprehend in the most abstract way. The realities of constantly being available to be seen were cruc…
Yellow Woman
Yellow Womanis a multimodal ethnographic research project combining text and film to explore the dynamics of cooperation and suspicion on a Liberian gold mine. The sixteen-minute single-take video places the viewer in a uniquely "filmic" position; in other words, it allows the viewer to experience the end of a gold mining operation as only a camera can render it. But it is a point of view that simultaneously captures the tensions and surveillance…
The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Chez Jolie Coiffure, Rosine Mbakam
Reviewed by: The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Chez Jolie Coiffure Danny Hoffman FILM REVIEW of The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016) and Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018), directed by Rosine Mbakam. Icarus Films. At a double screening in Seattle of Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016), filmmaker Rosine Mbakam fielded an awkward, if well-intentioned, question. Is the poetic voice in The Two Faces uniquely hers? …
From the Field
Other| May 01 2002 from the field Danny Hoffman Danny Hoffman Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Public Culture (2002) 14 (2): 429–430. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-2-429 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Danny Hoffman; from the field. Public Culture 1 May 2002; 14 (2): 429–430. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-2-429 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager Easy…
Like beasts in the bush
(2003). Like beasts in the bush: synonyms of childhood and youth in Sierra Leone. Postcolonial Studies: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 295-308
Frontline anthropology
Hunter Militias and the International Human Rights Discourse in Sierra Leone and Beyond
Mariane C. Ferme, Danny Hoffman, Hunter Militias and the International Human Rights Discourse in Sierra Leone and Beyond, Africa Today, Vol. 50, No. 4, Mande Hunters, Civil Society and the State (Summer, 2004), pp. 73-95
The Submerged Promise
Yet because what we propose to study is above all reality, it does not follow that we should give up the idea of improving it. -Emile Durkheim, Preface to the First Edition, The Division of Labor in Society. Like many anthropologists working in conflict zones, I find myself writing the story of one war in the context of another. The fieldwork on which my research is based was conducted in war-time Sierra Leone and Liberia, working with irregular …
No Peace No War
Violent Events as Narrative Blocs
Alluding to Sierra Leone's recent violent history, this paper argues that storytelling events offer insights into the ways that people evaluate, discuss, and negotiate social and ethical strategies for making communal life viable in war as well as in peace. At the same time, it explores some of the theoretical implications of Michael Oakeshott's assertion that "there are not two worlds-the world of past happenings and the world of our present kno…
"Warscape Ethnography in West Africa and the Anthropology of "Events
This article introduces some of the challenges of doing ethnography in contexts such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-places where violence and the certainty of uncertainty have become the backdrop for social interaction. It also considers the potential contributions to anthropological theory of such an undertaking. In particular it outlines a fundamental re-orientation towards the concept of "the event." Drawing contrasts with conventional a…
The Brookfields Hotel (Freetown, Sierra Leone)
Danny Hoffman teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington. His current research is on the Kamajor militia movement and its involvement in the civil war in Sierra Leone
Disagreement
Observers often characterize the war in Sierra Leone as a crisis of youth. Understanding that crisis in political terms can be quite challenging. Applying the writings of theorist Jacques Rancière to events in Sierra Leone, I suggest a different understanding of politics, one that allows us to consider the violence of this war as a form of political speech
The Disappeared
'The Disappeared' is a small collection of images documenting the deforestation of the mountain range outside Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Aesthetically these images are inspired by West African photographic practices and represent an alternative ethnography of the recent war's impact on this region. The article outlines the dynamics of deforestation in the region but argues that the traditional realist aesthetic of documentary photogra…
The City as Barracks
Responding to characterizations of the postcolonial African city as a negative space, theorists of African urban processes have begun to focus on the city's unique modes of production. But what does this emphasis on productive capacity mean if "the city" is not Johannesburg or Nairobi but the West African urban warscape of Freetown or Monrovia? I explore that question by examining how the labor of male urban youth is organized according to the lo…
Setting the stage for a `Festival of Lies
This article is a two-part essay resulting from the author's experience as a public commentator on a performance in Seattle, USA by the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. The first part of the article explores the difficulties and opportunities that arise when Africanist scholars are asked to serve as cultural experts for a general audience. I outline some of the considerations in agreeing to provide commentary on a performance for which …
The War Machines
Violent Virtuosity
In this essay, I argue that the Mano River War should be understood as a conflict to which the ubiquitous presence of digital media was crucial. This was a war structured by the economy of attention. To profit in this economy, combatants and non-combatants were required to play to an audience that they knew was there, but often could only sense or apprehend in the most abstract way. The realities of constantly being available to be seen were cruc…
Life within Limits
War and Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone Krijn Peters. New York
Acknowledging the 2012 Anthony Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology
Frontline collaborations
The stereotype of the ethnographic research assistant as marginal figure, 'inside' enough to facilitate access but 'outside' enough to broker worlds of understanding, has likely always been a fiction. But as qualitative researchers increasingly focus on unfolding events in unstable places, research collaborators are even less likely to be the ambiguous figures of legend. To conduct research in violent environments, researchers often find that the…
A Crouching Village
In its scale, its virulence, and, most significantly, its urbanity, the 2014-2015 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD or simply Ebola) in the Mano River region of West Africa seemed to challenge the basic tools of modern public health. As a result, the government of Liberia took the extraordinary step of implementing a cordon sanitaire around one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital city, Monrovia. Observers labeled both the quarantine an…
Seven / Brokering Revolution
Yellow Woman
Yellow Womanis a multimodal ethnographic research project combining text and film to explore the dynamics of cooperation and suspicion on a Liberian gold mine. The sixteen-minute single-take video places the viewer in a uniquely "filmic" position; in other words, it allows the viewer to experience the end of a gold mining operation as only a camera can render it. But it is a point of view that simultaneously captures the tensions and surveillance…
Geometry after the Circle
In August 2014, at the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberian health and security forces instituted an emergency armed quarantine around West Point, one of Monrovia's poorest neighborhoods. When West Point residents protested, security forces fought back, killing one person and injuring many more. The West Point quarantine is one of a number of recent notable cases of urban "gray zone" security operations. That amorphous term has b…
The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Chez Jolie Coiffure, Rosine Mbakam
Reviewed by: The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Chez Jolie Coiffure Danny Hoffman FILM REVIEW of The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016) and Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018), directed by Rosine Mbakam. Icarus Films. At a double screening in Seattle of Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016), filmmaker Rosine Mbakam fielded an awkward, if well-intentioned, question. Is the poetic voice in The Two Faces uniquely hers? …
“By name and no other”
“‘By Name and No Other’: The COVID masks portrait project” is a series of images of the photographer’s family made in the early days of the COVID-19 quarantines in Seattle. These portraits document an uncertain moment, creating both a visual archive of an unfolding event and the occasion for reflection on how portraiture works as an ethnographic tool
Sociology (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · History (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Sierra leone (11 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (9 works) · Anthropology (9 works) · Ethnology (9 works) · Ethnography (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works)