Episode #25: Tess Lea

Conversations in Anthropology

It's our 25th excursion! In this episode, Tim and David are in conversation with Associate Professor Tess Lea (University of Sydney) to talk about the anthropology of policymaking, cultures of remedialism and much more. Tess is an anthropologist with a fundamental interest in with issues of (dys)function: how it occurs and to what, whom and how it is ascribed. Looking at extraction industries, everyday militarisation, houses, infrastructure, schools, and efforts to create culturally congruent forms of employment and enterprise from multiple perspectives, her work asks why the path to realising seemingly straightforward ambitions is so dense with obstacles. Tess is the Chief Investigator of the Housing for Health Incubator and the author of two books: Bureaucrats and Bleeding Hearts (2008) and Darwin (2014). This episode ALSO features special guest host Dr Cameo Dalley (Deakin University), a socio-cultural and economic anthropologist whose work focuses on the politics of belonging, indigeneity, and land.