Department of Anthropology
University Museum Room 426
Bio
Andrew M. Carruthers is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in linguistic anthropology, semiotics, and Southeast Asian Studies, in addition to topical classes on migration and globalization. Trained in the ethnography of Island Southeast Asia, he studies Malay-speaking migrants’ everyday evaluative practices to better understand how they jointly navigate the interpersonal and infrastructural realities of life across the world’s largest and most populous archipelago.
He was the 2022-2023 U.S. Senior Fulbright Scholar to Malaysia, based at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Before arriving at Penn, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Max Weber Foundation Research Group on “Borders, Mobility, and New Infrastructures” at the National University of Singapore, and a Visiting Fellow in the Indonesian and Malaysian Studies Programmes at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
Education
Ph.D., Yale University (2016)
M.Phil., Yale University (2012)
Visiting, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Hasanuddin, Indonesia (2010)
A.B., Cornell University (2009)
Visiting, Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (2008)
Research Interests
Linguistic and sociocultural anthropology; semiotics; migration studies; borders, mobilities, and infrastructures; comparison and ethno-metasemiotic frameworks of evaluation; social theory; Southeast Asian and Nusantara Studies; Indonesia and Malaysia.
Selected Publications
Books
Under Contract:
Specters of Affinity: The Social Life of Comparison at a Southeast Asian Border. Studies in the Anthropology of Language, Sign, and Social Life (Jack Sidnell, series editor). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Short Monograph:
2018. Living on the Edge: Being Malay (and Bugis) in the Riau Islands. Trends in Southeast Asia Series Number 12. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute / Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN:978-981-4818-62-9. pp. viii, 54.
Edited Books:
2022. Laut Sama Direnangi: A festschrift for James T. Collins. (Co-edited with Chong Shin). Kajang: National Malaysian University Press.
2016. Bukit Sama Didaki: Festschrift Sempena Hari Lahir Professor Emeritus Dr. James T. Collins yang ke-72. (Co-edited with Chong Shin and Dedy Ari Asfar). Kajang: National Malaysian University Press. (In Malay)
Articles
n.d. “Thick[-er] Description: The Arts of Comparison in an Archipelagic World.” To be submitted to Language & Communication.
n.d. “Through Thick and Thin: Comestibles and Comparisons in the Bugis Diaspora.” To be submitted to Language in Society (co-authored with Firman Saleh).
n.d. “Cynegetic Semiotics and the Voicing Structure of ‘Illegality’”. To be submitted to Anthropological Theory.
2023(b). “Specters of excess: Passing and policing in the Malay-speaking archipelago.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Volume 33, Issue 2, pp. 131-160.
2023(a). “In lieu of “keywords”: Toward an anthropology of rapport.” American Anthropologist, Volume 125, pp. 478-492.
2020. "Intensity, Infrastructure, Aquatectonics." Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. Volume 38, Issue 5, pp. 820-825.
2019. "Policing Intensity." Public Culture. Volume 31, Number 3, pp. 469-496.
2018. “Living on the Edge: Being Malay (and Bugis) in the Riau Islands.” Trends in Southeast Asia. Number 12, pp. 1-54.
2017b. “Grading Qualities and (Un)settling Equivalences: Undocumented Migration, Commensuration, and Intrusive Phonosonics in the Indonesia-Malaysia Borderlands.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. Volume 27, Issue 2, pp. 124-150.
2017a. “‘Their Accent Would Betray Them’: Undocumented Immigrants and the Sound of ‘Illegality’ in the Malaysian Borderlands.” SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Volume 32, Number 2, pp. 221-259.
Selected Policy Papers and Public Engagements
n.d. “Nusatnara: What’s in a name?” To be submitted to The Edge Malaysia.
2020. “Movement Control and Migration in Sabah in the Time of COVID-19.” ISEAS Perspective 2020(135):1-11.
2018. “Be Careful about Putting your Blinders on when Conducting Ethnographic Research” – 5in10 with Andrew Carruthers, TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, Max Weber Stiftung.
2017. “Clandestine Movement in the Indonesia-Malaysia Migration Corridor: Roots, Routes, and Realities.” ISEAS Perspective 2017(58):1-8.
2016. “Developing Indonesia’s Maritime Infrastructure: The View from Makassar.” ISEAS Perspective 2016(49):1-8.
2016. “Sabah ICs for Sabahans: Will it help?” ISEAS Perspective 2016(11):1-8.
Book Chapters
2021. “Living on the Edge: Being Malay (and Bugis) in the Riau Islands” in The Riau Islands: Setting Sail (The SIJORI Series), edited by Francis E. Hutchinson and Siwage Dharma Negara, pp. 336-374.
Book Reviews
2024. Irregular Migrants and the Sea at the Borders of Sabah, Malaysia:Pelagic Alliance. By Vilashini Somiah. London: Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2021, pp. 207-209.
2017. Indonesia’s Changing Political Economy: Governing the Roads. By Jamie S. Davidson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Volume 32, Number 1, March 2017, pp. 173-176.
2014. Laughing at Leviathan: Sovereignty and Audience in West Papua. By Danilyn Rutherford. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 73, Issue 4 pp. 1163-1165.
Courses Taught
ANTH 6420: Ethnographies in Linguistic Anthropology
ANTH 6280: Language in Culture and Society: Special Topics
ANTH 6260: Intensity
ANTH 2550: Modern Southeast Asia
ANTH 2020: Language, Migration, Diaspora
ANTH 1140: Migration and Borders
ANTH 0330: Language, Society and the Human Experience
ANTH 0120: Globalization and Its Historical Significance
Previous Courses:
ANTH 550: Movement, Mobility, Migration
Affiliations
Wolf Humanities Center, University of Pennsylvania
Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania
Southeast Asia Working Group, University of Pennsylvania
Lauder Institute, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Max Weber Foundation Research Group on Borders, Mobility, and New Infrastructures, National University of Singapore
Global Malaysian Studies Network, Institute of Ethnic Studies (Institut Kajian Etnik), National University of Malaysia (UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia)