About

Courtney T. Wittekind is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University, having joined the faculty in 2023. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology with a secondary field in Critical Media Practice from Harvard University in 2022 and completed her M.Phil. in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Her scholarship addresses three global transformations: uneven urban development, the growth of speculative investment, and the rapid expansion of digital technologies. Her research includes a focus on Myanmar's New Yangon City Project, a state-led initiative to build a large new city in Yangon, which is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Her work examines how small-scale farmers in the redevelopment area attempt to leverage city plans for their own purposes. Additionally, her research funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities explores digital fundraising and speculation related to Myanmar's Spring Revolution. Wittekind's work on these topics has been published in leading anthropology and geography journals, and she has received grants and fellowships from notable institutions including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Blakemore Foundation.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Business
• Law
• Commerce
• Advertising
• Internet privacy
• Geography
• Economics
• Media studies
• Market economy
• Epistemology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• In Maui’s Short-Term Rental Policy Debate: A Dialogueinside the Meeting Room

  Scholarworks (University of Massachusetts Amherst) · 2025-08-06

  other

  This study ethnographically examines conflicts and debates during three testimony sessions held by Maui’s Planning Commission in 2024, regarding a proposed short-term rental (STR) ban policy. The research extracts planning procedural details through observations, ‘neighboring’ interviews, and visual ethnography to understand how stakeholders interact, confront, and negotiate during these sessions. Additionally, the study analyzes stakeholders’ verbal and emotional expressions on the STR ban proposal to uncover connections to both individual and broader socio-economic and cultural conditions. The findings contribute to knowledge in tourism destination policy-making, the power dynamics among stakeholders, as well as insights of procedural justice for sustainable tourism management practices.

  Publisher

• “Take Our Land”

  Cultural Anthropology · 2024 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  Focusing on demonstrations held outside Yangon, Myanmar, in favor of urban development, this article intervenes in the binaries of “truth” versus “falsity” and the “genuine” versus “fake” to advance anthropological theorization on demonstration, speculation, and spectacle. The article traces contrasting claims about “real farmers” and their “genuine desires,” as marshaled by both supporters of a large-scale urban project and those who oppose it. It argues that the notion of “the front” helps illuminate the strategic and pragmatic frames in which spectacles are staged, as well as amid the “economy of appearances” that Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing argues are generated by transnational investment. Narrating the flattening of social relations and political motivations by project-affected residents, the notion of the front displaces simple binaries by emphasizing a conjuring of self and locality increasingly widespread when residents are, themselves, absorbed into the speculative land markets that large-scale investment creates. ဆောင်းပါးအနှစ်ချုပ် ယခုဆောင်းပါးသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ရန်ကုန်မြို့ပြင်နေရာများတွင် ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် မြို့ပြဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ထောက်ခံဆန္ဒပြပွဲများကို အာရုံစိုက်လေ့လာကာ၊ “အမှန်တရား” နှင့် “လုပ်ကြံဖန်တီးမှု”၊ “အစစ်အမှန်” နှင့် “အတုအယောင်” အစရှိသည့် ဘက်နှစ်ဖက်အနေအထားများကို ဝင်ရောက် ဆွေးနွေးသုံးသပ်ခြင်းအားဖြင့်၊ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်ခြင်း၊ ထင်ကြေးပေးခြင်း၊ သရုပ်ဖော်ပြသခြင်း ကိစ္စရပ်များအပေါ် မနုဿဗေဒရှုထောင့်မှ သီအိုရီများ ပိုမိုတည်ဆောက်ဖော်ထုတ်နိုင်ရန် ရည်ရွယ်ရေးသားထားပါသည်။ ယခုဆောင်းပါးသည် အကြီးစားမြို့ပြစီမံကိန်းတခုကို ထောက်ခံနေသူများနှင့် ဆန့်ကျင်ကန့်ကွက်ကြသူများ နှစ်ဖက်စလုံးက စီစဉ်ပုံဖော်နေကြသည့် “လယ်သမားအစစ်” ဆိုသည် နှင့် ၎င်းတို့၏ “လိုအင်ဆန္ဒအစစ်အမှန်” ဆိုသည်တို့အပေါ် ကွဲလွဲစွာ သတ်မှတ်ကြေညာ ပြောဆိုနေကြခြင်းများကို ခြေရာခံ ရေးသားထားခြင်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ သုတေသီ Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing တင်ပြခဲ့သည့်အဆိုဖြစ်သော ပြကွင်းပြကွက် ရင်းနှီးမြုပ်နှံမှုများကြောင့် ပေါ်ပေါက်လာသည့် “အသွင်အပြင်ပဓာန စီးပွားရေးစနစ်”အလယ်တွင် “မျက်နှာစာ” ဆိုသည့် အယူအဆ ရှုမြင်သုံးသပ်ပုံသည် ပုံဖော်ပြသမှုများကို ဗျူဟာမြောက်ပြီး လက်တွေ့ကျသော မူဘောင်များအတွင်းမှ စီစဉ်ဖန်တီးနေကြခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း နားလည်မြင်သာစေရန် အထောက်အကူပြုသည်ဟု ဤဆောင်းပါးက အဆိုပြုတင်ပြလိုခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။မြို့ပြဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးစီမံကိန်းဒဏ်ခံကြရသော ဒေသခံများ၏ လူမှုဆက်ဆံရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးစေ့ဆော်မှုများ ထိုင်းမှိုင်းရပ်တန့် သွားရခြင်းအကြောင်း ရေးသားတင်ပြရာတွင်၊ “အပြ မျက်နှာစာ” ဆိုသည့် ယူဆသုံးသပ်ပုံက၊ ဒေသခံများအနေဖြင့် ကြီးမားသည့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုစီမံကိန်းများ ကြောင့်ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာသည့် မှန်းဆတွက်ချက် မြေယာစျေးတက်မှုများ အကြား ၎င်းတို့ကိုယ်တိုင် ရောက်ရှိသွားကြရသည့်အခါတွင်၊ ကိုယ်တိုင်ရှုမြင်ထားသော “မိမိ” ဆိုသည့် အတ္တ နှင့် “နယ်မြေအနေအထား”ဆိုသည်တို့ ပိုမိုကျယ်ပြန့်လာသည်များကို အလေးပေးခြင်းအားဖြင့်၊ အစစ်နှင့်အတု ဘက်နှစ်ဖက်သာ ရှိသည်ဆိုသည့် ရိုးရှင်းသောအမြင်ကို ပယ်ဖျက်သွားသည်။

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “Build the New City as Fast as Possible”: Speculation as Subsistence in Peri‐Urban Myanmar

  Antipode · 2024-12-09 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This article examines an ambitious plan to construct a built‐from‐scratch new city outside Yangon, Myanmar and sheds light on the contradictory responses sparked by rapid urban expansion. Despite fears that this megaproject would threaten the region's way of life, hopes for the new city's construction remained high throughout the project's early phases. Residents of areas targeted for development went so far as to publicly demand the city be built “as fast as possible”. In this article, I highlight the gap between residents’ pro‐project enthusiasm and the expectations of civil society activists and development actors, who predicted locals would reject the planned new city. I argue that this divergence exposes the perceived limitations of solutions held out for populations facing de‐agrarianisation. Equally, it refocuses attention on how project‐affected populations envision their own post‐agrarian future. In doing so, I demonstrate how and why speculation on peri‐urban land has emerged as a compelling mode of subsistence for even the poor among the region's landowning class.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Livestreamed land: Scams and certainty in Myanmar’s digital land market

  Environment and Planning D Society and Space · 2023 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  Scams are endemic to digital capitalism, whether they manifest as bitcoin bubbles or bullshit jobs. Drawing on two years of digital ethnography in Myanmar’s Facebook land markets, this article explains what happens when the land scam migrates online. By unraveling warnings of trickery, interviewing wary participants, and inhabiting Facebook Live real estate tours, we argue that the scam is a vocation born of hope and desperation that targets land as the most-stable asset amidst crisis, one which operates through the networked and affective affordances of social media sites. Specifically, we highlight how Facebook enables brokers to ‘crowd’ transactions and amplify hype around sought-after plots, obscuring risk and responsibility while generating excitement and competition. Live video formats enable brokers to cultivate digital intimacy and authenticity from afar, creating a collective emotional investment in what we call the “virtual reality of land.” Bringing together critical geography and media studies, our analysis situates the scam in particular histories of inequality while explaining how these relations are reformulated through social media sites' sensory, affective, and connective affordances.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Review forum

  Political Geography · 2022-08-18

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Networks of Speculation: Making Land Markets on Myanmar Facebook

  Antipode · 2022 · 17 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Security
  • Business

  Abstract Digital platforms have changed how property is sold and valued in the Global North, yet little is known about digital tools in emerging land markets. Drawing on in situ and digital ethnography, we argue that Facebook plays a key role in making a new kind of market in Myanmar, one in which land is transformed into a speculative asset, exchanged across ever‐expanding networks. While commodification is familiar within longer histories of capitalism, this case highlights the significance of digital platforms to the contemporary remaking of property relations. Unlike classic cases of market‐making enabled by active state regulation, Myanmar’s digital land markets were forged in the context of state absence by brokers who harnessed the technological affordances of social media to increase the scale, scope and speed of transactions. This creative re‐appropriation of the platform forged new, unregulated digital markets that ultimately accumulated corporate profits and intensified participant risk.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rethinking Land and Property in a “Transitioning” Myanmar: Representations of Isolation, Neglect, and Natural Decline

  ˜The œjournal of Burma studies · 2018-01-01 · 45 citations

  articleSenior author

  In this article, we assess ideas of “progress” in the evolution of Burma/Myanmar studies, asking whether shifting conditions might offer openings to reconsider narratives about the country. We question two recurring tropes consistent across the work of journalists, policy analysts and scholars: an alleged history of undifferentiated “isolation,” and the ensuing state of Burma/Myanmar following a seemingly “natural” decline. Such language reflects assumptions that otherwise go unspoken in accounts of Myanmar’s current transition. We consider descriptions of Yangon’s colonial architecture, asking what depictions of the city as having languished following the colonial era might tell us about assumptions in Burma/Myanmar studies. Such depictions are emblematic of a common trope in the literature, whereby historical narratives of isolation replace more dynamic accounts of interaction, particularly in regard to land and property. Drawing on work in Yangon and Shan State, we question common descriptive impulses related to the difficulty of accounting for history— including dependency on a conventional timeline broken into unquestioned periods, and recurring references to “isolation,” “nationalization” or “customary tenure” as glosses for the relations present in such periods. We ask how those analyzing Myanmar might progress beyond such impulses, cognizant that increased access to the country offers opportunities to trouble simplistic narratives, highlighting their political and intellectual perils.

  PublisherDOI

• Road Plans and Planned Roads: Entangled Geographies, Spatiotemporal Frames, and Territorial Claims-making in Myanmar’s Southern Shan State

  ˜The œjournal of Burma studies · 2018-01-01 · 7 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In this article, I investigate conflicting claims to land made in the peri-urban areas of Taunggyi, in Myanmar’s Shan state, where decades of ethnic insurgency, the negotiation of ceasefire agreements, and resultant military-state development strategies have figured land as a primary site and object of struggle. Yet, as I argue in this paper, it is not only land that is at stake in ongoing conflicts, but also the incongruous conceptions of space and time that motivate such claims. By exploring case studies linked to proposed road construction in Pa-O majority regions, I develop an approach to “land grabs”- and the counter claims-making they impel- that foregrounds the spatiotemporal, showing how distinct senses of time are activated, embodied, and re-animated through encounters with particular spaces. In this, I specifically argue that the linear, historical timeline embraced by state authorities-a timeline tied to sequential notions of advancement, modernization, and democratization - cannot be taken as fact; instead, it must be considered alongside alternate conceptualizations, through which the notion of a single narrative of “progress” might be opened up to contain alternative notions of past and present, and with them, new political possibilities.

  PublisherDOI

• A Space “In‐Between”: Liminality and Landscape on the Thailand‐Burma (Myanmar) Border

  Visual Anthropology Review · 2016-11-01 · 6 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Drawing on ethnographic research along the Thailand‐Burma border, this article analyzes the experiences of migrating youth, asking how their socially ambiguous positioning relates to the “liminal landscapes” in which they move. Analyzing images captured on “photo‐walks” along the border, I argue that young migrants strategically exploit potentialities intrinsic in the liminal landscapes that surround them, coupling their socially uncertain position with a particular flexibility in terms of their vision of space. As such, I propose that “photo‐walks” offer an important means by which to integrate analyses of both the social and spatial elements of a life “in‐between.”

  PublisherDOI

• Life Stories from Verbal to Visual: Participatory Arts-based Practices and the Anthropology of Childhood

  Research Showcase @ Carnegie Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University) · 2013-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In recent decades, the anthropology of childhood, within a context of enhanced international advocacy for the rights of children, has recast children as subjects fully worthy of study, in possession of agency, and able to interpret their social and political surroundings. Attempts at applying life story methodologies commonly used with adult subjects to children, however, have fallen short, producing an onslaught of texts that uncritically quote the child’s “voice” without consideration of means of engagement nor production of these representations ( James, 2007: 261). In this paper, I argue for an alternative method to the life story approach in child-focused ethnography; one that is grounded in visual participatory practices and that builds upon, but does not replicate, life story methods used with adult subjects. Drawing on ethnographic research completed with child and adult subjects in Thailand and Burma, I will make a case for participatory research methodologies that are tailored specifically to children and make visible the self-making processes through which children understand their place in the world.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Hilary Oliva Faxon

  University of Montana

  3 shared

• Boonlert Visetpricha

  Thammasat University

  1 shared

• Eli Elinoff

  Victoria University of Wellington

  1 shared

• Saowanee T. Alexander

  Ubon Ratchathani University

  1 shared

• Claudio Sopranzetti

  1 shared

• Elizabeth Rhoads

  Lund University

  1 shared

• Jamie Gillen

  University of Auckland

  1 shared

• Jonathan Rigg

  University of Bristol

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• National Endowment for the Humanities' Dangers and Opportuni…