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Andrew Walsh

Andrew Walsh

Associate Professor - Sociocultural Anthropology

PhD 1998 (University of Toronto)

Telephone: (519) 661-2111 x85092

Office: Social Science Centre Rm #3402

UWO Email

My work involves collaborative research and teaching in Madagascar’s northernmost province of Antsiranana. Recent topics of research include: artisanal mining; ecotourism; small-scale NGOs; humanitarianism; community-based conservation; local responses to climate change; and the region’s emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic. Much of this work has involved ongoing work with colleagues and students at the University of Antsiranana. Read more about this work here.

From 2026 to 2031 I will be leading an international collaborative research project concerning conventional “awareness raising” and its alternatives in northern Madagascar, focussing especially on awareness raising around climate change and HIV/AIDS. The project aims to:

  • Develop critical and interdisciplinary ethnographic accounts of the planning, contextual mediation, and reception of conventional awareness raising projects concerning HIV/AIDS and climate change in five northern Malagasy communities.
  • Act on research findings (in collaboration with expert Malagasy and international collaborators and experienced research assistants) by working with community partners to produce alternative means of raising awareness about critical issues in the region through the co-design of programming that effectively communicates local knowledge, perspectives, and priorities concerning the threats posed by HIV/AIDS and climate change.
  • Offer experiential learning and research training to Canadian and Malagasy students and emerging scholars, preparing them for futures in critical social sciences, community-based research, public health, climate change mitigation, and other domains.

Books

2020. The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Co-edited with Elizabeth Ferry and Annabel Vallard. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

2012. Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism and the Global Bazaar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Journal Articles

2024. HIV in Madagascar: Cause for Alarm. Anthropologica, 66(2). Primary author with co-authors Snyders Jessico Betombo and Mitsou Raharivelo. https://doi.org/10.18357/anthropologica66220242676

2024. Patterns of rising HIV positivity in northern Madagascar: evidence of an urgent public health concern. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease. 2024 Jan;9(1):19. co-author with Robinson KE, Long JK, Fardine M, Stephano AM, Grewal EP https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed9010019

2024. Call for action: addressing the alarming surge of HIV in Madagascar. Co-author with Andrianarimanana-Köcher D, Rakotoarivelo RA, de Dieu Randria MJ, Raberahona M, Ratefiharimanana A, Andriamasy EH, Vallès X, Benski AC, Emmrich JV and Robinson K BMJ Global Health. 9(4):e015484. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015484

2023. Managing Community Based Conservation in Bobaomby, Madagascar. Primary author with co-authors Rabearivola Élysé Nomenjanahary and Hortensia Rasoanandrasana. Ateliers d'anthropologie, https://doi.org/10.4000/ateliers.17520

2019. The Ordinary Ethics of Charcoal in Northern Madagascar. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 25.S1: 108-123

2015. Lost and/or Left Behind in a Malagasy Outpost of the 'Underworld of Gemstones'. Critique of Anthropology 35(1): 30-46. 

2012. After the Rush: Living With Uncertainty in a Malagasy Mining Town. Africa, 82(2): 235-251.  

2010. The Commodification of Fetishes: Telling the Difference between Natural and  Synthetic Sapphires. American Ethnologist, 37(1): 98-114. 

2006. “Nobody has a money taboo”: Situating Ethics in a Northern Malagasy Sapphire Mining Town. Anthropology Today, 22(4): 4-8. 

2005. The Obvious Aspects of Ecological Underprivilege in Ankarana, Northern Madagascar. American Anthropologist, 107(4): 654-665. 

2004. In the Wake of Things: Speculating in and about Sapphires in Northern Madagascar. American Anthropologist, 106(2): 225-237. 

2004. Soa’s Version: Ironic Form and Content in the Life Story of a Transnational, Métisse Woman. Global Networks, 4(3): 259-270. 

2003. "Hot Money" and Daring Consumption in a Northern Malagasy Mining Town. American Ethnologist, 30(2): 290-305. 

2002. Saving Souls, Preserving Bodies: Religious Incongruity in a Northern Malagasy Mining Town. Journal of Religion in Africa, 32(3): 366-392. 

2002. Responsibility, Taboos and the ‘Freedom to do Otherwise’ in Northern  Madagascar. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 8(3): 451-468. 

2001. What makes (the) Antankarana, Antankarana: Reckoning Group Identity in Northern Madagascar. Ethnos, 66(1): 27-48. 

2001. When Origins Matter: The Politics of Commemoration in Northern Madagascar. Ethnohistory, 48(1-2): 237-256. 

1997. The Imagined Community of the Antankarana: Identity, History and Ritual in  Northern Madagascar. Journal of Religion in Africa, XXVII (3): 308-333. (Co-authored with Michael Lambek)

Book Chapters

2026. Transparency and Accountability in DIY Aid. In How transparency works: Ethnographies of a Global Value, Filipe Calvao and Elizabeth Ferry eds. Forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

2021. Normal Uncertainties in a Malagasy Mining Town. In: Norms and Illegality, Cristiana Panella and Walter Little, eds. Lexington University Press. Pp. 161-175.

2020. Introduction: Engaging Precious Minerals. Co-authored with Elizabeth Ferry and Annabel Vallard. In: The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Co-edited with Elizabeth Ferry and Annabel Vallard. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp. 3-32.

2020. What is Artisanal about Artisanal Mining? In: The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Co-edited with Elizabeth Ferry and Annabel Vallard. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp. 69-88.

2020. Afterword: Facets of Preciousness. Co-authored with Elizabeth Ferry and Annabel Vallard. In: The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Co-edited with Elizabeth Ferry and Annabel Vallard. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp. 189-198.

2015. After the Rush: Living with Uncertainty in a Malagasy Mining Town. In Reading Cultural Anthropology: An Ethnographic Introduction. Pamela Stern ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press. Pp. 226-237. [reprint of 2012 Africa article]

2014. Tourism”. Oxford Bibliographies in “African Studies”. Ed. Thomas Spear. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 171-186.

2013. Parenting through Boom and Bust in a Northern Malagasy Mining Town. In: Contest for Land in Madagascar: Environment, Ancestors and Development. Sandra J.T.M. Evers, Gwyn Campbell and Michael Lambek, eds. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 171-186.

2013. Gems of Ankarana: The commodification and generification of Madagascar’s natural wonders. In: The Ecotourism/Extraction Nexus: Political Economies and  Rural Realities of (un)Comfortable Bedfellows. Bram Büscher and Veronica Davidov, eds. New York: Routledge. Pp. 35-54. 

2009. The Obvious Aspects of Ecological Underprivilege in Ankarana, Northern Madagascar. In World in Motion: The Globalization and the Environment Reader, Gary Kroll and Richard H. Robbins (eds). Lanham MD: Altamira Press. Pp. 109- 130. [reprint of 2005 American Anthropologist article]

2009. The Grift: Getting Burned in the Northern Malagasy Sapphire Trade. In: Economics and Morality: Anthropological Approaches, Kate Brown and Lynne Milgram (eds), Altamira Press. Pp. 59-76. 

2007. Ethnographic Alchemy: Perspectives on Anthropological Work from Northern Madagascar.  In Anthropology Put to Work, Les Field and Richard G. Fox, eds. Oxford: Berg Publishers, pp. 201-216. 

I am willing to supervise students considering ethnographic research projects concerning the work of NGOs, small-scale (DIY) development projects, artisanal mining, tourism, ecotourism, and other topics in Madagascar or elsewhere.