Research Philosophy:
My research collective, interests and projects are loosely assembled under the banner of what I call ‘The Good Life’ Lab. The name of course draws inspiration and provocation from critical theorist Lauren Berlant’s superb book ‘Cruel Optimism’ (although my favorite Berlant book is possibly ‘On the Inconvenience of Other People’).
Berlant skillfully reminds us how our attachments to objects/scenes of flourishing, possibility and thus our visions and fantasies of a ‘good life’ can in fact become harmful obstacles to our flourishing. Fair enough. However, as Berlant also carefully reminded us, ‘cruel optimism’ is not a descriptor, it is a question, a provocation that still leaves open the fundamental: now what? It still leaves unanswered the question of flourishing (what is it and how do you be it?).
In the tradition of Buddhist texts and STS scholars alike, I am committed to gerunds, to the unfolding of the present. In my personal approach to life and research, I am committed to attending to this gingerly question of flourishing:
What lies beyond the critique of complex, received and often harmful attachments of the good life? How does an anthropology of presence (Buddhists remind us that the past is gone and the future has not yet arrived, hence I refrain from calling it an anthropology of Hope) and effort towards survival, individual well-being and communal flourishing inform social action and technology use?
This is a long winded way of saying: I am excited by authentic articulations and efforts to build a good life and the reflexivity that examines whether that life is good after all. Chasing this question in my academic work, I study hi- and low-tech workers and AI in education and creative work currently.
As an novice seeker of the middle path, I lift weights, sometimes run distances, do Iyengar Yoga, meditate, knit sporadically and foster cats to stay in the present and observe my own attachments to a good life 🙂
To work with me, you don’t have to be committed to questions of The Good Life but I am especially seeking students and mentees interested in this time! You can email me at raval[at]seis[dot]ucla[dot]edu