Ping-hsiu Alice Lin | Spotlight in Comparative Studies in Society and History

The Department of Anthropology at Harvard University is pleased to share that Assistant Professor Ping-hsiu Alice Lin’s article, “After Exploratory Geology: Gemological El Dorado in Global Afghanistan,” originally published in the July 2024 issue of Comparative Studies in Society and History (CSSH), has been selected for the journal’s “Under the Rubrics” spotlight. As part of this recognition, Lin contributed a micro-essay reflecting on the work.

In her spotlight piece, Lin observes:

The world I studied in Afghanistan’s mines could not be more different from the world of geological surveys and resource valuations that shape policy in distant capitals. Indeed, there are many different worlds in Afghanistan’s mineral territories… anticipation becomes a perpetual orientation toward future mineral wealth that keeps communities invested in extraction despite present hardships.

The full spotlight, “Along the Imperial Spectrum, with Serkan Yolaçan, Ping-hsiu Alice Lin, and Victoria Fomina,” can be found here.