Alan Klima

"On Thursday, March 2nd, Alan Klima, Associate Professor of Anthropology U.C. Davis, presented a preview version of his film, Ghosts and Numbers, at Brown.

Ghosts and Numbers is a series of images, stories, and documentary footage which visually explores the material and immaterial dimensions of contact between neoliberalism and the spirit world. Set in the aftermath of the Asian economic crash and world currency crisis that began in Thailand in 1997, the film follows, in alternation, the trajectory of poor rural migrants to Bangkok as they sell lottery in the streets, the interplay between spirits and avid lottery players, and the political imagination of a new entrepreneurial regime in Thailand."

Academic bio:

• http://www.anthropology.ucdavis.edu/anthro/fprofile/facultyprofile_s.cfm?id=7

Link to his book, The Funeral Casino:

• http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7284.html

Link to article:

• Thai Love Thai: financing emotion in post-crash Thailand