On the Anthropology of Bicycles and (Un)Common Sense
Channel: University of Vermont
Date: 2016-06-30

As some anthropologists are fond of saying, common sense is neither common nor sensical. Is it not a body of earthy and self-evident wisdom? Perhaps. But it is also a wily concept and social category of knowledge with complicated cultural dimensions and social, political, and institutional lives. Professor Vivanco explores the construction, performance, and uses of common sense in urban bicycle culture and political advocacy in the U.S. and Colombia.

Luis Vivanco has been at UVM since 1997. He received his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Princeton University. His scholarship has focused on the culture and politics of environmental social movements and ecotourism in Latin America, and the visual politics of wildlife film. In recent years, his work has turned to the intersections of urban mobility and sustainability discourse, focusing on the construction of bicycles as green transportation. He has held two Fulbright Scholar Awards (Costa Rica 2004, Colombia 2014) and in 2012 won the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, UVM's highest teaching honor.