Gavin Weston
Biographic Data
| ID | 158690 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gavin Weston |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gavin |
| FAMILY NAME | Weston |
| SIGNATURE | WESTON G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8866-5012 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
No Clear Line in the Sand
The discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education has reached a critical juncture, often framed as a crisis. This paper, co-authored with undergraduate social science students, explores the nuanced and evolving role of generative AI (GenAI) in academic settings. Through a focus group discussion, we examine how students engage with GenAI as a means to enhance learning and augment cognitive practices, structure assignments,…
Generative AI and Socio-Technological Advancements
Introduction to the Special Section on Generative AI and Socio-Technological Advancements in Anthropology
Trauma, Triggers and Tricky Terrains
For the same reasons that action, thrillers and horror are among the more popular film genres, within anthropological teaching and research the vicariousness of anthropology is often amplified when we delve into violence, suffering and the morality of others. Over the past two decades I have taught across many themes and topics, but recurrent throughout and increasingly central to my teaching (as I became more specialised and gained more agency i…
For love and money
Antiques Roadshow Events are held in historic locations across the United Kingdom. On site, experts evaluate objects brought in by attendees, who are often cast as passive recipients, while edited highlights make up the long‐running BBC TV program. Through Collaborative Event Ethnography at one Roadshow Event we show how object stories are navigated through “value talk” between attendees and experts in front of live audiences. Value is not a meas…
Queue-munity engagement
Using Collaborative Event Ethnography as a research method, a team of 21 researchers conducted fieldwork at the Antiques Roadshow in Ightham Mote, Kent. This article reflects on the experience of queuing at the event and how it was experienced and discussed by researchers and participants. Drawing upon Mol, the article approaches the practice of queuing as involving an inherent multiplicity of often contradictory experiences through which idealis…
The visibility of gambling sponsorship in football related products marketed directly to children
UK law prohibits direct marketing of gambling to children. However, our data, gathered between 2018 and 2020, demonstrate that gambling logos occur frequently in football-related products and media consumed by children. This is a pressing issue for policymakers because research suggests that although children engage with football as spectators, they engage more often through readily available material culture. Discussions in the media about spons…
Anthropological Controversies
This book uses controversies as a gateway through which to explore the origins, ethics, key moments, and people in the history of anthropology. It draws on a variety of cases including complicity in "human zoos", Malinowski’s diaries, and the Human Terrain System to explore how anthropological controversies act as a driving force for change, how they offer a window into the history of and research practice in the discipline, and how they might fr…
Guatemalan Vigilantism and the Global (Re)Production of Collective Violence
This book grounds an understanding of lynching as an increasingly globalised phenomenon through an examination of two cases in Guatemala. The chapters cover issues of migration, tourism, gangs, inter-generational conflict, media, gossip, and rumour to understand national and global patterns of mob-based vigilantism and how diverse factors are funnelled into singular acts of violence. Gavin Weston critically engages with the discussion of Guatemal…
Song featuring lyrics ‘Oh Senor…’ quite a lot’
In the first few months of my PhD fieldwork in Guatemala excitement and unease regarding my new life as an anthropologist fed an epic bout of insomnia exacerbated by a mouse who shared my shed-like sleeping quarters and liked to climb on my face during my sleep. Sleep was also hampered by a song, largely in Mam, but with two words in Spanish played with disturbing frequency through crackly loud speakers late into the night and from early in the m…
Rights
Philosophical and legal rights take many forms, articulating freedoms and entitlements within particular political contexts. This entry explores the historic emergence of legal rights, the emergence of philosophical ideas of natural rights, and the establishment of universal human rights legislation and anthropological engagement with these ideas. Following strong cultural relativist objections to human rights, the post‐Cold War embrace of rights…
Silvia Posocco, Secrecy and Insurgency
"Anthropologists in Films
Drawing upon 53 films featuring fictional representations of anthropologists, we explore in this article the popular depiction and perception of anthropology by examining portrayals of the discipline in film. Finding that 26 of the 53 can be categorized as horror films, we examine the role of anthropologists in these films as experts and mediators for seemingly alien "others" and how this lends itself to frequently heroic depictions. We draw para…
Superheroes and comic-book vigilantes versus real-life vigilantes
This article explores comic-book superheroes and vigilantes through an anthropological lens to tackle the paradox offered by Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass: why have comic books not inspired more real-life vigilantism? Applying social science literature on vigilantism, social banditry and death squads to fictional characters and contexts, this article explores the gaps between vigilante fact and vigilante fiction. It takes as its starting point Ray Abrah…
On the Pedagogical Strengths of Teaching Controversy
Gluckman observed I believe I am not alone among senior anthropologists in finding it more interesting to teach students about anthropologists than about anthropology (Gluckman 1963: 312). Those who have taught students regarding some of anthropology s juicier controversies will recognise that the feeling is mutual. This paper argues that we should embrace this potential to engage by intentionally exploring our discipline s dirty laundry as contr…
The Ship of Theseus and the Problem of "Postwar" Answers to Contemporary Guatemalan Problems
This article considers the problems caused by the ubiquitous use of terms such as “postwar” and “postconflict” in the analysis of contemporary Guatemala. The terms feed a historical reductionism which conflates present-day social problems with the violence of the past while also conflating continuity, change, and historical and analytical categories. Drawing upon Plutarch's thought experiment “The Ship of Theseus”, we explore the paradox at the h…
Dunbar's Number
Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading disconcertingly into wider societal contexts. In this article, we note our skepticism with one particularly popular-in our view, problematic-supposed causal correlation between neocortex size and social group size. The resulting Dunbar's Number, as it has come to be called, has been statistically tested against observed group size in different primate speci…
Dunbar's Number
Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading disconcertingly into wider societal contexts. In this article, we note our skepticism with one particularly popular-in our view, problematic-supposed causal correlation between neocortex size and social group size. The resulting Dunbar's Number, as it has come to be called, has been statistically tested against observed group size in different primate speci…
"Anthropologists in Films
Drawing upon 53 films featuring fictional representations of anthropologists, we explore in this article the popular depiction and perception of anthropology by examining portrayals of the discipline in film. Finding that 26 of the 53 can be categorized as horror films, we examine the role of anthropologists in these films as experts and mediators for seemingly alien "others" and how this lends itself to frequently heroic depictions. We draw para…
Queue-munity engagement
Using Collaborative Event Ethnography as a research method, a team of 21 researchers conducted fieldwork at the Antiques Roadshow in Ightham Mote, Kent. This article reflects on the experience of queuing at the event and how it was experienced and discussed by researchers and participants. Drawing upon Mol, the article approaches the practice of queuing as involving an inherent multiplicity of often contradictory experiences through which idealis…
Anthropological Controversies
This book uses controversies as a gateway through which to explore the origins, ethics, key moments, and people in the history of anthropology. It draws on a variety of cases including complicity in "human zoos", Malinowski’s diaries, and the Human Terrain System to explore how anthropological controversies act as a driving force for change, how they offer a window into the history of and research practice in the discipline, and how they might fr…
Superheroes and comic-book vigilantes versus real-life vigilantes
This article explores comic-book superheroes and vigilantes through an anthropological lens to tackle the paradox offered by Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass: why have comic books not inspired more real-life vigilantism? Applying social science literature on vigilantism, social banditry and death squads to fictional characters and contexts, this article explores the gaps between vigilante fact and vigilante fiction. It takes as its starting point Ray Abrah…
On the Pedagogical Strengths of Teaching Controversy
Gluckman observed I believe I am not alone among senior anthropologists in finding it more interesting to teach students about anthropologists than about anthropology (Gluckman 1963: 312). Those who have taught students regarding some of anthropology s juicier controversies will recognise that the feeling is mutual. This paper argues that we should embrace this potential to engage by intentionally exploring our discipline s dirty laundry as contr…
Dunbar's Number
Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading disconcertingly into wider societal contexts. In this article, we note our skepticism with one particularly popular-in our view, problematic-supposed causal correlation between neocortex size and social group size. The resulting Dunbar's Number, as it has come to be called, has been statistically tested against observed group size in different primate speci…
Superheroes and comic-book vigilantes versus real-life vigilantes
This article explores comic-book superheroes and vigilantes through an anthropological lens to tackle the paradox offered by Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass: why have comic books not inspired more real-life vigilantism? Applying social science literature on vigilantism, social banditry and death squads to fictional characters and contexts, this article explores the gaps between vigilante fact and vigilante fiction. It takes as its starting point Ray Abrah…
On the Pedagogical Strengths of Teaching Controversy
Gluckman observed I believe I am not alone among senior anthropologists in finding it more interesting to teach students about anthropologists than about anthropology (Gluckman 1963: 312). Those who have taught students regarding some of anthropology s juicier controversies will recognise that the feeling is mutual. This paper argues that we should embrace this potential to engage by intentionally exploring our discipline s dirty laundry as contr…
The Ship of Theseus and the Problem of "Postwar" Answers to Contemporary Guatemalan Problems
This article considers the problems caused by the ubiquitous use of terms such as “postwar” and “postconflict” in the analysis of contemporary Guatemala. The terms feed a historical reductionism which conflates present-day social problems with the violence of the past while also conflating continuity, change, and historical and analytical categories. Drawing upon Plutarch's thought experiment “The Ship of Theseus”, we explore the paradox at the h…
Silvia Posocco, Secrecy and Insurgency
"Anthropologists in Films
Drawing upon 53 films featuring fictional representations of anthropologists, we explore in this article the popular depiction and perception of anthropology by examining portrayals of the discipline in film. Finding that 26 of the 53 can be categorized as horror films, we examine the role of anthropologists in these films as experts and mediators for seemingly alien "others" and how this lends itself to frequently heroic depictions. We draw para…
Rights
Philosophical and legal rights take many forms, articulating freedoms and entitlements within particular political contexts. This entry explores the historic emergence of legal rights, the emergence of philosophical ideas of natural rights, and the establishment of universal human rights legislation and anthropological engagement with these ideas. Following strong cultural relativist objections to human rights, the post‐Cold War embrace of rights…
Guatemalan Vigilantism and the Global (Re)Production of Collective Violence
This book grounds an understanding of lynching as an increasingly globalised phenomenon through an examination of two cases in Guatemala. The chapters cover issues of migration, tourism, gangs, inter-generational conflict, media, gossip, and rumour to understand national and global patterns of mob-based vigilantism and how diverse factors are funnelled into singular acts of violence. Gavin Weston critically engages with the discussion of Guatemal…
Song featuring lyrics ‘Oh Senor…’ quite a lot’
In the first few months of my PhD fieldwork in Guatemala excitement and unease regarding my new life as an anthropologist fed an epic bout of insomnia exacerbated by a mouse who shared my shed-like sleeping quarters and liked to climb on my face during my sleep. Sleep was also hampered by a song, largely in Mam, but with two words in Spanish played with disturbing frequency through crackly loud speakers late into the night and from early in the m…
The visibility of gambling sponsorship in football related products marketed directly to children
UK law prohibits direct marketing of gambling to children. However, our data, gathered between 2018 and 2020, demonstrate that gambling logos occur frequently in football-related products and media consumed by children. This is a pressing issue for policymakers because research suggests that although children engage with football as spectators, they engage more often through readily available material culture. Discussions in the media about spons…
Anthropological Controversies
This book uses controversies as a gateway through which to explore the origins, ethics, key moments, and people in the history of anthropology. It draws on a variety of cases including complicity in "human zoos", Malinowski’s diaries, and the Human Terrain System to explore how anthropological controversies act as a driving force for change, how they offer a window into the history of and research practice in the discipline, and how they might fr…
Queue-munity engagement
Using Collaborative Event Ethnography as a research method, a team of 21 researchers conducted fieldwork at the Antiques Roadshow in Ightham Mote, Kent. This article reflects on the experience of queuing at the event and how it was experienced and discussed by researchers and participants. Drawing upon Mol, the article approaches the practice of queuing as involving an inherent multiplicity of often contradictory experiences through which idealis…
Trauma, Triggers and Tricky Terrains
For the same reasons that action, thrillers and horror are among the more popular film genres, within anthropological teaching and research the vicariousness of anthropology is often amplified when we delve into violence, suffering and the morality of others. Over the past two decades I have taught across many themes and topics, but recurrent throughout and increasingly central to my teaching (as I became more specialised and gained more agency i…
For love and money
Antiques Roadshow Events are held in historic locations across the United Kingdom. On site, experts evaluate objects brought in by attendees, who are often cast as passive recipients, while edited highlights make up the long‐running BBC TV program. Through Collaborative Event Ethnography at one Roadshow Event we show how object stories are navigated through “value talk” between attendees and experts in front of live audiences. Value is not a meas…
No Clear Line in the Sand
The discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education has reached a critical juncture, often framed as a crisis. This paper, co-authored with undergraduate social science students, explores the nuanced and evolving role of generative AI (GenAI) in academic settings. Through a focus group discussion, we examine how students engage with GenAI as a means to enhance learning and augment cognitive practices, structure assignments,…
Generative AI and Socio-Technological Advancements
Introduction to the Special Section on Generative AI and Socio-Technological Advancements in Anthropology
Sociology (12 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (5 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture (3 works)