What is anthropology? Funny you should ask. The writing of this essay couldn’t come at a better time, as I find myself struggling with this very question - or really a variation of it. What makes my work anthropology? I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves that question at one time or another, but it comes with particular urgency for me at the moment. I’m writing my dissertation proposal, and given my topic, urban agriculture as an alternative economic development practice in Detroit, I read a lot of economic geography - things on Fordist crises and the alterity of alternative economies. It’s wonderful stuff, thought provoking, stimulating, challenging, relevant. But after a two to three day bender with it, I find myself, well, lost. Not lost as in “I don’t know what this stuff means,” (though that does happen). But lost as in existential crisis lost. Is this where my intellectual project lies? Is this the academic conversation I’m going to contribute to? “No,” I whisper to myself, “I really hope not.”