Zeynep Gizem Haspolat, Rice Anthropology Graduate Student, has been awarded Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant for her research titled as “Commodifying Life, Managing Liveliness: Live Cattle Imports in Turkey.”
Her project studies the reorganization of commodity networks around cattle as a living commodity by focusing on cattle imports in Turkey. Taking up the rapid rise in live imports in Turkey over the past decade, the project will examine the ways economic efficiency and veterinary health get negotiated by state officials, importers, and veterinarians involved in the organization of this economic process. Through detailed ethnographic fieldwork, the project will study the tensions emerging around liveliness as both a source of potential economic value and something to be managed throughout the exchange process. The research will offer insights into not only the regional patterns of increased reliance on live imports for animal agriculture but also broader socio-ecological relations within capitalism.