Robin Hudson Rodd | Scholars@Duke

Robin Hudson Rodd
Associate Professor of Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University

I began my career as an anthropologist studying with Piaroa communities in southern Venezuela, where I was interested in the use of psychoactive plants, local theories and practices of knowledge, mind, power, and health. I focused on the ways that consciousness practices associated with the consumption of yopo snuff and Banisteriopsis caapi were socially transmitted and integrated into everyday community life. I have since examined the ritual practices and theories of selfhood associated with ayahuasca use in Australia. My current work focuses on the relationships between democracy and authoritarianism and citizenship and memory in Argentina and Uruguay. Broadly, I am interested in how democratic or authoritarian subjectivities are produced, sustained, and come undone. This work emerges out of conversations among anthropology, Latin American studies and critical theory.

Current Research Interests

Memory, temporality and citizenship
Political theology of democracy and authoritarianism
Latin American studies, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela
Political anthropology, anthropology of consciousness, Amazonian cosmology

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Associate Professor of Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University, DKU Faculty, Duke Kunshan University 2020

Contact Information

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Western Australia (Australia) 2005
Academic Positions Outside Duke
- Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology, James Cook University. 2020 - 2023
- Secretary of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia, www.ailasa.org. 2016 - 2020
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Academic Articles
  - Gu, Y., and R. Rodd. “Culinary art, political theater, and COVID-19 policy: An ethnographic study of a live poultry stall in Wuxi.” Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 44, no. 2 (December 1, 2022): 151–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12300.
    Full Text
  - O’Shaughnessy, David M., Zoltán Sarnyai, Frances Quirk, and Robin Rodd. “Traditional Amazonian medicine in addiction treatment: Qualitative results.” Ssm Qualitative Research in Health 2 (December 2022): 100086–100086. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100086.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “Dossier Introduction: Museums, Art, and the Politics of Memory in Latin America.” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research 27, no. 2 (May 4, 2021): 191–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13260219.2021.1994694.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “The Banality of Evil, Nunca Más and the Implicated Subject in Argentine Memory Spaces.” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research 27, no. 2 (May 4, 2021): 228–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/13260219.2021.1994699.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - O’Shaughnessy, David M., Ilana Berlowitz, Robin Rodd, Zoltán Sarnyai, and Frances Quirk. “Within-treatment changes in a novel addiction treatment program using traditional Amazonian medicine.” Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology 11 (January 2021): 2045125320986634. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125320986634.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “Democracy Without Citizens: Australian Citizen Agency and the Symbolic Significance of Not Having Rights.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 33, no. 4 (December 2020): 459–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-020-09353-9.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “Democratic Citizenship as Uruguayan Cultural Heritage.” Democratic Theory 6, no. 1 (June 1, 2019): 27–48. https://doi.org/10.3167/dt.2019.060103.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, R. “Piaroa Shamanic Ethics and Ethos: Living by the Law and the Good Life of Tranquillity.” International Journal of Latin American Religions 2, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 315–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-018-0059-0.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, R. “It’s all you! Australian ayahuasca drinking, spiritual development, and immunitary individualism.” Critique of Anthropology 38, no. 3 (September 1, 2018): 325–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X18775818.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, R. “The ‘I’ and the ‘we’ of citizenship in the age of waning democracy: Wolin and Balibar on citizenship, the political and dedemocratization.” Citizenship Studies 22, no. 3 (April 3, 2018): 312–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2018.1449812.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin, and Arelis Sumabila. “Yopo, ethnicity and social change: a comparative analysis of Piaroa and Cuiva yopo uset.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 43, no. 1 (January 2011): 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2011.566499.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “Reassessing the cultural and psychopharmacological significance of Banisteriopsis caapi: preparation, classification and use among the Piaroa of Southern Venezuela.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 40, no. 3 (September 2008): 301–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2008.10400645.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “Piaroa Sorcery and the Navigation of Negative Affect: To Be Aware, To Turn Away.” Anthropology of Consciousness 17, no. 1 (March 2006): 35–64. https://doi.org/10.1525/ac.2006.17.1.35.
    Full Text
  - Rodd, Robin. “Maripa: To Know Everything The Experience of Power as Knowledge Derived from the Integrative Mode of Consciousness.” Anthropology of Consciousness 14, no. 2 (July 2003): 60–88. https://doi.org/10.1525/ac.2003.14.2.60.
    Full Text
  - Rodd, Robin. “Snuff synergy: preparation, use and pharmacology of yopo and Banisteriopsis caapi among the Piaroa of southern Venezuela.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 34, no. 3 (July 2002): 273–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2002.10399963.
    Full Text
  - Rodd, Robin. “Märipa teui: A radical empiricist approach to Piaroa shamanic training and initiation.” Antropológica 96 (2002): 53–82.
    Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Rodd, Robin. “The fascist essence now as then.” Arena Journal 6 (1996): 25–34.
- Book Sections
  - Rodd, Robin. “Remembering obedience and dissent: Democratic citizenship and memorials to state violence in Australia and Argentina.” In Mapping South-South Connections Australia and Latin America, edited by Sarah Walsh and Fernanda Penaloza. Springer, 2019.
  - Rodd, Robin. “Plantes psychoactives et leurs usages parmi les Piaroa.” In Histoires et Usages Des Plantes Psychotropes, edited by Sebastian Baud, 185–212. Paris: Edition Imago, 2018.
  - Rodd, Robin. “Shamanism in Latin America: Themes and debates in the anthropology of religion.” In Religion, Ciencias Sociales y Humanedades, edited by Juan Mauricio Renold, 124–39. Rosario, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de Rosario, 2016.
  - Scuro, Juan, and Robin Rodd. “Neo-Shamanism.” In Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, 1–6. Springer International Publishing, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_49-1.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Rodd, Robin. “L’arbre de la connaissance.” In Les Maïtres Du Désordre, edited by Bertrand Hell, 184–88. Paris: Musee du Quai Branly, 2012.
    Link to Item
- Datasets
  - Rodd, Robin. “Chemicals, Not Symbols: The Chemical Ecology of Shamanism as a Healthcare System,” 2009. https://doi.org/10.1037/e719372011-034.
    Data Access
  - Rodd, Robin. “Sorcery and Emotion: To Turn Towards, To Turn Away,” 2003. https://doi.org/10.1037/e619512011-087.
    Data Access
Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances
- Today is not tomorrow: PTSD understories | Today is not tomorrow: PTSD understories at Umbrella Studio, Townsville, Australia 2019
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- ENVIRON 593K: Independent Studies and Projects 2023
Teaching Activities
- CULMOV 203 Wealth, Power and Inequality
  CULANT 302 Fieldwork Methods
  CULANT/POLSCI 214 Authoritarianism and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Academic Positions Outside Duke

Selected Publications

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Datasets

Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances

Recent Courses

Teaching Activities