Robyn Holly Taylor-Neu
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Sociocultural Anthropology
2025University of California, Berkeley
Unsettling forms: Animation, alienation, and violence in Berlin
— Co-advisors: Charles L. Briggs & Daniel Fisher
Committee: Charles Hirschkind, Stefania Pandolfo & Niklaus Largier
Master of Arts in Social Sciences
2016University of Chicago
"All there is": On reconciliation and the poetics of a singing voice
— Advisor: Michael Silverstein
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with Distinction
2014University of Alberta
Fellowships & Grants
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship
2026–2028Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Berlin Program Postdoctoral Fellowship
2025–2026Berlin Program for Advanced German & European Studies,
Freie Universität Berlin
Wenner-Gren Post-PhD Research Grant
2025–2026The Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York
One-Year Grant for Doctoral Candidates
2022–2023Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)
Berkeley–Freie Universität Mobility Grant
2022Erasmus+
Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
2021–2022The Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York
Regents' Fellowship
2017–2021University of California, Berkeley
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship
2017–2020Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Diebold Fellowship in Linguistic Anthropology
2017University of California, Berkeley
Master of Arts Tuition Scholarship (full)
2015–2016University of Chicago
Honors & Awards
John Gumperz Graduate Student Essay Prize
2024Society for Linguistic Anthropology
For "Alienable gesture" (Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2025)
Publications
Elon's arm: On the reanimation of a "rigid" gesture
Forthcoming 2027Signs and Society
Alienable gesture
2025Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
Awarded the 2024 John Gumperz Graduate Student Essay Prize, Society for Linguistic Anthropology
Un-sitely mediations: A gestural approach to animated citationality
2024Semiotic Review 10
Parasites and post-truth climate
2019Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 30(1): 4–26
"All there is": The reconciliatory poetics of a singing voice
2018American Anthropologist 120(1): 113–125
Co-authored
Post-secondary education's chronic problem (OR, it's about time.)
2022With A. Taylor. In Equity and Social Justice Education Perspectives in Canada, ed. A. Abdi. Canadian Scholars Press.
(De)constructing the "lazy Indian": An historical analysis of welfare reform in Canada
2019With T. Friedel, A. Taylor & T. Kemble. Aboriginal Policy Journal 8(2): 65–87
"Trying to square the circle": Research ethics and Canadian higher education
2018With A. Taylor & S. Butterwick. European Educational Research Journal
Presentations
Nested rhythms: Animation filmmaking and the task of drawing time
2026American Ethnological Society Conference, Victoria, Canada
Panel: Rhythms of Experimentation – Sound, Sensation and Ethnographic Pedagogies
Elon's Arm: Notes on the Reanimation of Gesture
2025American Anthropological Association Meeting, New Orleans
Panel: Gesture: Citations, Resuscitations, and Excitations
Peripheral Visions
2025Invited talk, Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
Berlin is (not) Berlin: Reanimations of the City as Ethnographic "Site"
2023American Anthropological Association Meeting, Toronto
Panel: Fieldwork Technologies – Transitional Histories of Ethnographic Mediation
Un-sitely Mediations
2023Semiotic Anthropology Conference, Penn University
Unsettling the Score
2019American Anthropological Association / Canadian Anthropological Association Meeting, Vancouver
Panel: Othering Images, Images of the Other
A Parasite and Post-Truth Climate
2017American Anthropological Association Meeting, Washington D.C.
Panel: Reality
Teaching
Poetics of Crisis
Spring 2025Instructor, Reading and Composition — University of California, Berkeley
Introduction to Media Studies
Fall 2024Discussion Leader — University of California, Berkeley
Anthropology of Animation
Fall 2020Instructor, Reading and Composition — University of California, Berkeley
Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology
2019–2020Discussion Leader — University of California, Berkeley
Teaching Recognitions
Certificate of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education
2025University of California, Berkeley
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award
2020University of California, Berkeley
Professional Development
American Anthropological Association & The OpEd Project
Supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation
Pedagogy Workshops
2024–2025Teaching & Resource Center, University of California, Berkeley
Including: Syllabus and Course Design; Creating and Using Grading Rubrics; Teaching Reading & Composition; How Students Learn; and Strategies for Teaching and Learning – Creating Inclusive Classrooms
Anthropology Pedagogy Course
2019University of California, Berkeley
Professional Engagement
Contributing Editor, Visual & New Media Review
2019–presentSociety for Cultural Anthropology
Ad hoc reviewer
Semiotic Review
Co-founder & Co-convener, Armchair Ethnography Working Group
2018–2025University of California, Berkeley
Co-convener, Anthropological Inquiry Working Group
2018–2021University of California, Berkeley
Co-convener, Linguistic Anthropology Working Group
2017–2019University of California, Berkeley
Event Organizing
Gesture: Citations, resuscitations, and excitations
2025Oral presentation panel, American Anthropological Association Meeting, New Orleans
Organizer and chair; with Michael Lempert (discussant), Charles Briggs, Randeep Hothi, and Cristiana Giordano
Cry of the Burro (Michael Taussig & Amy Franceschini / FutureFarmers)
2018University of California, Berkeley
Performance-talk on anthropological inquiry and anthropogenic climate change
Mana of Mass Society — Panel Discussion
2018University of California, Berkeley
With William Mazzarella (University of Chicago); respondents: Ned Dostaler, Mohamad Jarada, Robyn Taylor-Neu, and Valerie Black
Critical [S]pacings: A Symposium
2013University of Alberta, Edmonton
Symposium on space and spatialization in social theory
Research Positions
Research Assistant to Prof. Lauren Berlant
2016–2018University of Chicago
Research Assistant to Prof. Marshall Sahlins
2017University of Chicago
Essays & Interviews
Errant Elements, Issue 4
CaMP Anthropology Blog
Supplementals, Society for Cultural Anthropology
Anthropology News, American Anthropological Association
Visual and New Media Review, Society for Cultural Anthropology
CaMP Anthropology Blog
Supplementals, Society for Cultural Anthropology
Member Voices, Society for Cultural Anthropology
Visual Art & Film
Similar Rubble
2025Spectral Remix Exhibition, Merchant House Gallery, New Orleans. Video.
Album Cover Illustration for John Borra, Last Dance at The E Room
2025Animation GIF and Illustrations for Hard-Working Students Project
2022–2023University of British Columbia
Illustrations for Stephanie Glick, Public Scholars Initiative
2022University of British Columbia
Graphic Story for Hard-Working Students Project
2021University of British Columbia
Illustrations for Alberta Stories – Indigenous Stories
2020SSHRC Partnership Grant
Album Cover Illustrations for John Borra, Blue Wine
2019