Brenda Chalfin is Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Florida. She is the author of 3 books: Waste Works: Vital Politics in Urban Ghana (Duke, 2023); Neoliberal Frontiers: An Ethnography of Sovereignty in West Africa (Chicago 2010) and Shea Butter Republic (Routledge 2004). At the intersection of political and economic anthropology, her research examines state processes, border regions, public life and the governance of material flows, from waste and water to off-shore oil finds, and indigenous commodities. Chalfin’s recent work explores the politics of urban form through the case study of popular responses to infrastructural breakdown in Ghana’s planned city of Tema. She is currently pursuing a new project in partnership with colleagues in Ghana and Uganda addressing plastics, urban water supply and patterns of urban development. Addressing the interface of anthropology, architecture and design, these concerns shape a pedagogy she calls ‘Lateral Anthropology’ exploiting the methodological frictions between Lab, Field, Studio and Archive. During the 2022-23 academic year Chalfin was on sabbatical at Aarhus University. Her collaboration with faculty at Aarhus School of Architecture offers the opportunity to advance her knowledge of studio and design-based inquiry.