David Sutton | Humanities and Social Sciences | SIU

David Sutton (Phd University of Chicago, 1995) is a Professor of Anthropology specializing in Anthropological Theory, Historical Consciousness and Memory, Food and the Senses, Movies and Material Culture. He does research primarily on the island of Kalymnos (the Sponge Divers' island) in Greece.

Recent publications include a consideration of cooking and anthropological theories of continuity and change entitled Bigger Fish to Fry: A Theory of Cooking as Risk, with Greek Examples (Berghahn Press, 2022). For a preview, see: https://youtu.be/TFZ2UGZFxxE.

I also co-edited a collection titled Changing Continuities and the Scholar-Activist Anthropology of Constance R. Sutton (Ian Randle, 2023). See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrfKPmoABqQ&t=18s.

Other recent work includes a consideration of neoliberal tropes: "Tacit and Embedded as Forms: A Tropological Approach to Neoliberalism." Anthropological Theory, Online First: https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996221133870 and an anthropological analysis of the movie "Midsommar": “The Horror/Beauty of the Harga: Midsommar as Western Imaginary of a Screen-Free Life.” Visual Anthropology 35(4-5): 448-468.

For the past several years I have been recording video interviews with some of the founders and current practitioners of Food Anthropology. These interviews can be found at: https://foodanthro.com/food-anthropology-history/.

Here is a link to my favorite recent scholarly books on cooking: https://shepherd.com/best-books/scholarly-reads-about-cooking.

 

COURSES

Anthropology Through Science Fiction 

Food, Symbol and Society

Anthropology of Popular and Material Culture  

Transcending Gender

Greece: Islands of Imagination

Anarchist Anthropology

Anthropology of the Senses and Material Culture