Hugh Gusterson is an English

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and George Washington University. His work focuses on nuclear culture,

international security ''International Security'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of international and national security. It was founded in 1976 and is edited by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and publis ...

and the anthropology of science. His articles have appeared in the

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

, the Boston Globe, the

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

the

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, the

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscriptio ...

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

, and ''

American Scientist ''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was moved to ...

''. He is a regular contributor to the

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' is a nonprofit organization concerning science and global security issues resulting from accelerating technological advances that have negative consequences for humanity. The ''Bulletin'' publishes conte ...

and has a regular column i
Sapiens
an anthropology journal.

Biography

Hugh Gusterson grew up in England. He has a B.A. in history from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, a master's degree in anthropology from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

(as a Thouron Scholar), and a PhD in anthropology from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He taught at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

from 1992-2006 before moving to

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

and

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

. Since 2020 he has taught for the anthropology department of the

. His early work was on the culture of nuclear weapons scientists and antinuclear activists. In that work he explored weapons scientists' and activists' contending social constructions of weaponry and international peace and security. More recently he has written on teenage use of alcohol. and counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing that U.S. counterinsurgency campaigns would fail and, in the process, damage U.S. civil society as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2016 he published a book Drone on drone warfare that won the Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize at the

Chicago-Kent College of Law The Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of the Illinois Institute of Technology, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the second oldest law school in the state of Illinois (after Northwestern Law). Chicago-Kent wa ...

. A leading critic of attempts to recruit anthropologists for counterinsurgency work, he is one of the founders of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists. He is currently researching the polygraph, as well as conducting a research project on nuclear waste disposition in Australia. Gusterson served on the American Association of Anthropology's Executive Board from 2009–12, co-chaired the committee that rewrote the Association's ethics code 2012, and currently serves on the Association's Task Force on Engagement with Israel/Palestine. He was President of the American Ethnological Society from 2016-18. He won the American Anthropological Association's anthropology in media award in 2020. He is married to Allison Macfarlane, former chairman of the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the ...

(NRC). They have two children.

Works

*
Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War
', University of California Press, 1998, *
People of the Bomb: Portraits of America's Nuclear Complex
', University of Minnesota Press, 2004,
Drone Remote Control Warfare
MIT Press, 2016,

Editor

''Why America's top pundits are wrong: anthropologists talk back''
editors Catherine Lowe Besteman, Hugh Gusterson, University of California Press, 2005, * ''The insecure American: how we got here and what we should do about it'', editors Hugh Gusterson, Catherine Lowe Besteman, University of California Press, 2009,
''Cultures of Insecurity: States, Communities, and the Production of Danger''
editors Jutta Weldes, Mark Laffey, Hugh Gusterson, and Raymond Duvall, University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
''The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual: Or, Notes on Demilitarizing Anthropology''
edited by Network of Concerned Anthropologists, Prickly Paradigm Press, 2009 *

' Life by Algorithms, University of Chicago Press, 2020

Videos

"Surprising Fact about Political Views of Nuclear Weapons Scientists"
March 1, 2015 talk at the Helen Caldicott Symposium: The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction
"Who are nuclear weapons scientists?"
July 6, 2016 talk at TedxFoggyBottom at the George Washington University
"Ethical Implications of Drone Warfare,"
February 5, 2019, ''LEAP Initiative Series'' at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.
"Democracy, Hypocrisy, First Use"
Harvard University November 4, 2017

American Ethnological Society Presidential address July 10, 2017

Chapters

"Remembering Hiroshima at a Nuclear Weapons Laboratory"
''Living with the bomb: American and Japanese cultural conflicts in the Nuclear Age'', editors Laura Elizabeth Hein, Mark Selden,M.E. Sharpe, 1997,
"Nuclear Weapons Testing"
''Naked science: anthropological inquiry into boundaries, power, and knowledge'', editor Laura Nader, Psychology Press, 1996,
"Becoming a Weapons Scientist"
''Technoscientific imaginaries: conversations, profiles, and memoirs'', editor George E. Marcus, University of Chicago Press, 1995,
"A Pedagogy of Diminishing Returns: Scientific Involution across Three Generations of Nuclear Weapons Science"
''Pedagogy and the practice of science: historical and contemporary perspectives'', editor David Kaiser, MIT Press, 2005,
"Missing the End of the Cold War in International Security"
''Cultures of insecurity: states, communities, and the production of danger'', editor Jutta Weldes, U of Minnesota Press, 1999,

Interviews

"AE Interviews Hugh Gusterson (George Washington University): A conversation on his latest book ''Drone: Remote Control Warfare''"

Conversations in Anthropology@Deakin (Episode #10): Hugh Gusterson

Covid and Culture interview on KNME TV, December 19, 2020

Other scholarly references

Academia.edu

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gusterson, Hugh Living people George Washington University faculty Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of Pennsylvania alumni Stanford University alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty George Mason University faculty 20th-century American anthropologists 21st-century American anthropologists Year of birth missing (living people)