Joshua Rubin

Joshua Rubin is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Colby College. He previously taught at Bates College for a decade, where he received the prestigious Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching. His research focuses on media, sensory perception, and political history, particularly in South Africa and digital spaces.

Education: B.A. from the University of Michigan; Ph.D. in Anthropology from Yale University.

Research interests include rugby as an embodied performance of colonial and post-apartheid politics, video game development, and the evocative power of art and media. His first book, Animated by Uncertainty (2021), explores rugby's role in South African colonial and apartheid histories. Current projects include an ethnography of user research in video games (Feeding the Loop), a Routledge volume comparing academic and industry research, and a monograph on 'dangerous evocations' in media.

Publications span journals like Cultural Anthropology and edited volumes such as Not Playing Around (2022).